Clearing My Throat

Day 1 Monday 16/11/09


Like I mentioned in the previous entry that I will start reading the book ‘the Creative writing course book’ and set a challenge to finish reading the book and do all the exercises or the suggestions mentioned in it in 6 weeks. The book is written by 40 famous and respectable writers and journalists and each one writes an article or an entry to help the readers of the book master the art of writing. As I started reading the first chapter I’ll share with you what I’ve done so far.

Chapter 01- Getting Started

Clearing your throat by Julia Bell

Bell explained how good writing depends on practice and highlighted how the encounter with blank page in the beginning and finding a voice that will carry your thoughts and feelings is often terrifying. Therefore, she suggested the best way to encounter this problem is…to write.

Exercise 01

Start off with notes, fragments, half sentences, until the stuttering stops and you find yourself writing full sentences, paragraphs, pages.

Start off with what you had for tea, the last phone call you made, the colour of your lover’s eyes, your favourite CD. Give yourself a subject and write about it, without stopping or correcting yourself, for five minutes, just generate some pages, a body of work. Then read it yourself.

Looks pretty easy ha?? Hmm…. So I need to come up with a topic now to write about for 5 minutes without stopping or correcting myself…. Ok let me see…what I had for tea…naaa… the last phone call….mmm I’m expecting a phone call from hubby any minute now but I don’t want to write about that… I got an idea there is a program on channel four in 5 minutes I’ll watch it and then I might write about it or think of something interesting to write about and I’ll post it in a separate entry… alright?

I’m back :)

The documentary was really good but I’ll tell you about it later InshaaAllah. I put the pen on the paper for 5 minutes non stop and here is what I wrote.

Feeling my head is pulled down by an immense heavy weight caused by the headache I have. I called my husband at work, while I was dialling the number I felt my eyes are going to pop out my head and sharp pain ran through my forehead.

I wish I can see what happens inside the head when you have a headache. When I was young when people used to say that they suffer from headache, I couldn’t understand the concept of headaches. So I used to act as if I have a headache, narrow my eyes, hold my forehead with my hands, and play ‘I have a headache’ game, I even used to pretend that my sweets, which looked like pills, that they are the pills I take to cure me from my headache.

I think that this make believe or this ‘I have a headache’ game was just a way to feel grown up, to act like grown ups, and behave like them.

I didn’t know back then that I would wish when I’m a grown up to go back and be a headache-less child again.

The Creative Writing Project

Last week I watched a movie called ‘Julie and Julia’ that is about a frustrated with a soul-killing job, Julie Powell, who embarks on a daring project and calls it the Julie/ Julia project where she vows to master all 524 recipes in Julia Childs' landmark cookbook `Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ in a year and shares the recipes and her thoughts about the book and its author with her Blog readers.


There was nothing special about the movie but the fact that Julie was approaching her thirties and she found herself doing a job she hates and realized that her days are passing by and there is nothing in her life makes her happy. After watching the film I started to think that’s me, I’m doing a job I don’t like, I feel that nothing brings me joy anymore and maybe the hundred articles, stories and poems I wanted to write and didn’t write so far because I didn’t really commit my self to it and/or maybe because I yet need to master the writing skill.

Suddenly I was filled with enthusiasm and kept looking for ways to help me master the art of writing and then yesterday I went to the library and borrowed a book called ‘The Creative Writing Course Book’. Today I started reading the book on my way to Taiyybun course and I realised that this going to be my 6 weeks project and I called it The Creative Writing Project.

I’ll read every chapter of this book and I’ll do the exercises or the techniques that are suggested in the book and share what I do or write with you guys. However, I need to put a realistic dead date so I can commit and feel that I achieved something once I’m done, the best time limit I can give to my self would be 6 weeks, why? Because this is the longest period I can borrow the book from the library ;)

So I’ll finish Chapter 1 and I’ll do the exercises and share it with you as I go along, if you want to awaken your writing giant, then come on let’s do the exercises together and share your thoughts with me.

- Silly Ellie