So Much to Do...Well, it feels like it

Okay, I haven't blogged in a while, I admit that, but it's not like I've got a ton of readers waiting on edge for my next post, so I think you'll forgive the delay. Not much going on on this end, except I attended a summer creative writing workshop at Columbia University from June 29 to July 17, and I have just two words to describe the experience: Totally. Awesome. Definitely the highlight of the summer. For the time being, I've crossed Bleeding Heart, that YA vampire novel, off my writing list, in case I haven't mentioned it before. Too many vampires these days - I know because even I got so bored of vampires that I couldn't keep writing. And now in between two Honors and one AP class, college applications, and just living life in general, I'm working on the first installment to a new YA trilogy based on Greek mythology. I still haven't quite gotten a good title down. The working title is currently, My Boyfriend, Son of Poseidon, but I'm not really feeling it. Something short and sweet is what I need. Greek is out of the question.

Heat Wave

No, I'm not talking about Domino's Pizza when I say "heat wave", although a slice or two really does sound appetizing at the moment... Just came back from school after being exhausted all day with a bit of a headache and issues of the nose kind. Unfortunately, it probably doesn't help that I'm the only person in the school wearing pants instead of shorts - religious reasons, let's leave it at that - and I don't have issues with that since I love my dark jeans, but the only thing I wanted to do all day was wear my light cotton salwar kameez that would keep me cool without violating any religious or cultural morales. So now I'm sitting at home, in my favorite green salwar kameez (to get an idea of what salwar kameez looks like, just take a look at the photo. And no, that's not me. The only way I'd ever be that tall is with seven-inch heels on.), trying to do something to beat the heat - currently it's watching clips on YouTube. On the writing front, I've edited True or False? about three times now and have finally got it down to a decent word count, eliminating anything that either made no sense (I believe I've mentioned this before, but when I refer to something that made no sense in my writing, I probably wrote it past midnight when my brain apparently switches off automatically) or just didn't move the plot anywhere. Some scenes I left to add to the humor quotient but cut down on. I've started A Hidden Danger, which is going along well, as well as Bleeding Heart, that vampire novel I've been wanting to work on. I haven't been working on it for long, so I've only got about three chapters, but I posted an excerpt from the first chapter on Yahoo! Answers and got some pretty good responses, most of them asking me to finish it, three asking me to change the vampire's name from Fletcher to something else (not likely; names that start with the letter F appeal to me for sentimental reasons and the fact that his name is Fletcher has to do with his talent for archery which in turn relates to the plot), and a couple telling me to come up with something original. In other words, something that wasn't Twilight. I didn't post details that would have separated my work from Twilight but would also have ruined the story for any potential readers. The response I was personally most impressed though was this one:Holy Hippogriff, you really have some talent! However, I strongly recommend that you don't waste it on a human-vampire love story, as if we need more of those. You have me Rowling (Harry Potter pun completely intended) my eyes, because you have so much talent, and you are wasting it on an overused plot. Your grammar skills far surpass Stephenie Meyer by a mile. So please, for the sake of literature, write something more unique and creative, like you!

My screenname on Y!Answers is UniqueGirl (I know, I know, but I made it up when I was 14. Give me a break.), in case you were wondering about that last part. I completely agree with Luna Loves Lucius (who wrote that post) - I never saw myself writing a vampire novel. But I figure that if I do, I might as well put a unique spin on it to make it genuinely memorable, add a little spice and excitement to the mix.

Writing, Writing, Writing...

    Whoa, those are some huge pics. Not that I'm complaining - the bigger the better, in my opinion! Finally, I've finished the first draft of True or False?  Ahead of time, by the way, which is good. I've already done some edits and just have to finish them, also of course I also have to somehow contact the band and obtain permission before they sue me for copyright violation. Infringement of personal right to live or something like that, probably. I don't blame them.

 I also finished the first draft of Sea of Benevolence, but I feel a need to add onto it because it's significantly shorter than its two prequels. So I intend to do as much as I can with that until the summer, when I'll resume work on the sequel and last of the series, Secret Danger (whose working title I intend to change to Hidden Danger). Besides, I've only written about four and a quarter pages for it so far. Might as well wait a little longer...

 And after that I'll hopefully be able to work on a novel for my senior year research project, probably that vampire novel. I can research different myths and legends, how vampires have changed over the years, look into vampires of different nationalities, and I also intend to analyze four vampire novels, two older and two contemporary and find similarities and differences before I start my own. And just to get this over with, no, I do not believe in vampires, not in the least. I think they'd be interesting to write about (as long as I don't make them perfect, because perfect=boring for me personally). And yes, the vampire in the book is going to be a carnivore, and his name is not Edward Cullen; it's Fletcher Munroe (no, he's not related to President James Munroe - the guy responsible for the Munroe Doctrine). And he's not pale, mostly because I personally am not attracted to pallid people and partially because I've done some research and in the past people used to believe that a corpse had turned into a vampire when it looked healthier than it had in life (meaning, less pale and with healthier color). He's also not a mind-reader or anything special like that - he's just particularly skilled at archery due to centuries of practice, hence the name Fletcher.

 And again after that, I plan to work on another novel I've wanted to work on for quite some time: Heavensent. It's not a religious novel, although it will deal with the ideas of Heaven vs. Hell and Angels vs. Devilfolk. It will require extensive research (like in the Qur'an, Bible, and Torah - just the sections considering angels, devils, heaven, and hell), but it's something I want to do on my own time, as the subject is very special to me. Mostly because it was inspired by a Jal song. I don't think that's a copyright issue - it's just basically one line that happened to inspire an entire plot. If I hadn't mentioned that it was inspired by a song, it's likely no one would know. Although if you know me really well, you might be able to guess.

 Yes, I know, I plan out when I'm going to do each novel. I have to, that way I know what I'm working on now and what I'm working on later, and all my ideas get done. So far I'm set through college. There are other ideas I have, of course, but I feel like those are for more of an adult audience and it would help to grow up a little bit and gain some experience. In terms of YA, well, I am a Young Adult. There's my experience right there. 

Push Contest

Last year I picked up a novel at my local library - Hail Caesar by Thu-Huong Ha - and let me be honest: the only reason I picked it up was because the author wrote it after winning a PUSH contest at the age of fourteen. It's a bit off-putting for me that all the novels published by PUSH- a division of Scholastic - revolve around high school kids with realistic plots. That means: nothing I've written fits into that. I tried thinking of something good to submit for their 2009 contest - might as well try it, the only thing I can lose is some postage on sending it - and came up with a stand-alone vampire novel. I guess that means I always have to spice something up in my writing. Not to suggest that high school stories are boring, but how many times can the boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl thing be done? And the vampire thing might be a strange side-effect of getting annoyed by hearing girls talk about how perfect Edward Cullen is for too long. Otherwise, I know I never would have tried anything with vampires in it - I think the literary world is far too full of them already. But I did write a synopsis - a requirement of the contest - and I think I've got something decent on my hands. Not that anyone will get overly obsessed with male vampire Fletcher Munroe, but that was never my plan. As long as he gets to have expressive dark brown eyes, I'm happy. Huh. I got so caught up with Fletcher's appearance that I never even thought about what the girl - Sakina Evergreen - should look like, even though she's the protagonist. 

Be Careful What You Write...

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult. Page 243. Lacy Houghton - whose son Peter has been arrested for a shootout at his high school - is talking to Peter's lawyer, asking what he'd do if his own baby grew up to: 1. announce he was gay, 2. convert to Islam, 3. become a suicide bomber. First one not such a big deal, getting to be typical in books and movies these days. Suicide bomber, definite bad right there. Number two...oh. So converting to Islam is...just as bad as being gay or a suicide bomber? Uh-huh. Hmm. 

Did I ever mention that I'm a Muslim? Okay, I am, and I believe in my faith. What I don't believe is that all these terrible things people are doing in the name of Islam is Islamic. Really, it's contradictory, since Islam means "Peace", and religion is not supposed to be contradictory. I can quote a verse from the Qur'an right off the top of my head right now, one that always stuck in my mind: "If a person kills another person, then it will be as if he has killed all of mankind; if a person saves another person, then it will be as if he has saved all of mankind". How does anyone misinterpret that? Note that it says "person", not "Muslim" - it applies to anyone and everyone. So why blame one entire religious group for what a few psychos did? Anyone can blame that a deed has been done in the name of religion. It doesn't mean that it really has been. 

My point: authors have to be careful with what they write. That one line from that one page might have (and still could) cost Ms. Piccoult hundreds to millions of readers - Islam is the second-largest religion (in terms of worshippers) in the entire world, after all - and an author wants to attract readers, not repel them. 

Personally, even though religion and faith are constantly in my life, I try to avoid them in my writing (depending on my intended audience) to express neutrality, not favoring one religion over another. So my characters (except for the ones in my two works set in Pakistan) aren't Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or Atheist. And you know what? I can write a full-length novel without bringing religion into it, aside from a few "oh my God"s, maybe, and I think most of those have been changed to "oh my gosh". And, well, most people in Pakistan are Muslim, so the characters in my novels set in Pakistan (currently there are only two) are too, but my intended audience is both Muslims of all nationalities and Non-Muslims. What's the purpose of that? I try to put my faith in Islam into a more positive perspective, which it should be seen in but more often than not isn't. By the way, Shazi, the bass guitarist from Jal the band is Christian, unlike Farhan and Goher who are both Muslim - I'm not going to try to change anything about that in True or False? I respect each of their faiths and individual beliefs, and I respect Shazi as a person. Plus, he's just a really great bass guitarist. I wish I could play like that, but hey, everyone's got his (or her) own talents.

Which brings me to my second and last point before this post gets way too long: everyone's personal views should be given an equal chance and each view should be respected, even if it cannot be agreed with. Granted, the world isn't perfect, but if an author doesn't want to lose readers, she has to respect them before they can respect her, taking into consideration that some could be deeply offended by a single sentence. Yes, Ms. Piccoult is a controversial author, I understand that, but controversial doesn't mean disrespecting someone else's views. I'm not saying that my own writing is perfect and will never offend anybody - it's impossible not to, what with all the different ranges of personalities that people have - what I'm saying is that I put as much effort as possible into maintaining respect. So if Ms. Piccoult ever meets me, I'm saying that, if she really believes that being a Muslim is such a bad thing, she's going to be pretty surprised. And I bet I'd be surprised too because she'd somehow turn out differently than I had thought as well. Humans, after all, often surprise even themselves, like I just did by writing this very long post.

New Year...

New Year, New Resolutions. Let's see what's on my list for 2009...

1. (at the very least) Begin publishing process on (again at least) one of my works

2. Meet Jal the Band (well, what's wrong with hope?) and get True or False? published - of course with their permission

3. Get accepted to Brown University (this is later in the year so it comes third) for fall 2010 - majoring in Creative Writing with a co-major in Journalism

Hmm. Pretty short list. No doubt I'll come up with more as the year progresses. Happy new year, everyone! Enjoy 2009!

Happy Holidays!

I just want to wish a happy holiday to everyone out there! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Eid (like me - it's a bit late for that, I know), it's no fun unless you celebrate with your friends and family, so keep that in mind! 

So far I'm still working on that project involving JAL (its working title is True or False) and I'm about 74,395 words in - or 142 single-spaced pages. Apparently first-time novelists' works are easier to sell around 60,000 words - something I've heard just recently - but if you think about it, this is my sixth work and the only thing new about it is that I haven't gotten published yet. Plus, with such a complicated story-line (trust me, it gets pretty complicated but I don't think any readers will get confused - none of mine have yet) there's no way I can get it all done in 60,000 words (maybe I can cut it shorter by eliminating a bit of Shazi's dialogue in the first part - I'm concerned I'm getting his personality all wrong anyway since he's the one band member no one ever hears much from or about, but it still won't make 60,000 since there's not too much that needs cutting). Plus, since the chapters rotate from Saamiya's POV to Farhan's and there is a subplot involving Goher and Saamiya's best friend Arisha, I'm planning to go back and add some chapters in Goher's POV as well. So what you get is what you get, I guess, 60,000 words or not, as long as I can get the band's approval and a good literary agent. Hopefully I'll get both really soon.

Hey out there!

    I know, I know, all my music is in Urdu, which is obviously not English, but I'm of Pakistani origin and Pakistani music is easier to find around my house, so you do the math. But I write all in English, so please don't get scared by that if you're an agent or publisher. Trust me, you'll be able to understand what I write without needing to go get a dictionary. 

   I don't stick to one genre - I write whenever I get a good idea. My first novel, written when I was 14, is a children's novel, while my second was a big step away from that - a crime fiction novel meant for a young adult/adult audience. My third novel, again, is very different from my first two, more of a chick lit than those are and multi-cultural as well. And my fourth and fifth are both installments of a planned five-part series of YA fantasy novels. Descriptions and sample chapters of all of these works (with the exception of my second novel, which I am going to be adding soon as well) and a short story I have recently written can all be found on my AQ Connect profile (clicking the card should help) but I will try to add a little something here as well. 

    If you feel like you have some advice, might be interested in something I've written, or just want to say hi feel free to leave a comment!