Shape Shifter

You’re a shape shifter leaving me confused        
Showing me your pretend wounds
Trying to figure out which version I’ll meet next         
I hate to say this but for you there’s nothing left, not even respect      
Every time I meet you you’re a different man
This wasn’t supposed to happen, it wasn’t a part of the plan       
One moment  you’re a lion shielding, protecting me                                                   
The next you’re ready to destroy everything you see         
One day you’re a wounded deer asking for help with love in your eyes,
and suddenly you are a porcupine with piercing arrows of your own in the form of lies         
I refuse to be that girl this sick game I refuse to play          
After tonight I won’t ever ask you to stay
All the bridges we built are burnt their gone                      
I’m a shape shifter now changing my very form             
I was a hopeless flower shaking in your arms                       
But tonight im gonna grow wings, fly away, so you can cause me no harm

Public Speaking for writers? Eeek!

Okay. Confession time: I hate public speaking.

But that’s okay because most of the misunderstood classic authors hated public speaking.

All writers  believe that they are antisocial. All we ever want in life is a cabin in the middle of no where so we are free to create.

However when it comes to marketing, we  are experts in procrastinating. I find myself saying yes to any kind of social activity to get away from convincing someone to buy my product. It’s just not for me.

Also, unfortunately unlike most classic authors I am not an alcoholic.

So there’s nothing to keep my mind away from the fact that authors are not only marketing their work but also themselves.

We all want to be the next John Green or Stephanie Meyer but let’s face it..
It’s easier to get followers on Twitter than to get someone to open their wallet and buy your book.

Anyway I’m 3 blogs in now and if you have been keeping up with me I’d like to say thank you you’re awesome! Virtual hug for you! And you have most probably noticed that I have secret powers where I can magically find  any situation and figure out a way to make it negative.

So to be more constructive and find new ways to broaden my horizons; I have decided to enroll myself in a public speaking club. The club is called Toastmasters and there are meetings every week. There are clubs all over the world to help you with public speaking.

I’m hoping it’ll help me gain confidence to speak in front of an audience with grace and to be precise. I’m also hoping it’ll help me find a way to not turn tomato red when a group pf people look at me. And if I can learn to stop shaking when I speak in front of an audience I’ll be able to say I’ve made immense progress.

Yay for self improvement!

How to plan before you plan to write.. Huh?

Accepting you have a problem is the first step to finding the solution right?

Okay, that’s good.

My name is Fatima and I am a planner.

How much research is too much research? How much planning is too much planning? How do you know when your idea’s are formed enough for you to start writing? Does too much planning over-complicate the process?

After researching what other authors went through (yes I see the irony of researching what it means to research too much) I realize it’s a trap lots of writers get caught in.

The reason behind this is simple. We really really want to succeed. Writing is a profession. However, unlike most professions, there are no ladders for writers to climb. One doesn’t start off as an assistant to the assistant and strive to make it as the CEO. There are no set rules. And that can be terrifying. Your first book can bring you great success and land you on the New York Times Best Seller List, or it can come and go without making a sound. The trap most of us beginner authors fall in is to take this profession angle too seriously and forget why they decided to sit and pick up a pen in the first place.

Writing is art. To write is to be free.

(hold for dramatic effect)

Step back and let it be art. Let yourself dive into the book. Write, and write some more.

Or, you know, in my case, actually start writing.

 

 

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed”

 -Ernest Hemingway

Blogs give me anxiety

I know what you’re thinking, I might be in the wrong business –  but hear me out.

The hardest part of writing for me is to write. I always have ideas swimming around in my head but when I finally sit down to do it it’s like the blank page is challenging me to a duel. With my honor and intelligence at stake I pour out whatever words come to mind and the blank paper fights back. It throws those same words right back at me.

So I start over. I want my first page to be perfect. The words should be thought provoking, heartfelt, attention grabbing. It should make the reader wonder how they ever got through life without reading these magnificent words. It should be something simple yet moving. Instead I write my name and play with the different fonts and colors. I start to question why I thought I could ever be a writer.

At this point I’m sitting at my table like

 

Now is the time I need to tell myself to take a step back and give myself a break. I need to stop putting so much pressure on myself. This is the first time I’ve sat down to actually write a novel. So relax girl.

The truth is the first page is the scariest part of writing a novel.

Even if you know your characters inside and out, even if you’ve made bulletin boards of the outline with pictures, post-its and everything… it’s terrifying.

My dad always says that the hardest part of any journey you take is the first step. It’s completely cheesy but writing a book is like going on a journey: You travel to different places and times, you jump from one character to the next, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel.

Anyway, the best advice on how to tackle this is to push through it. Just write and keep writing. Oh and thank God for the backspace button.

So here it goes:

Once upon a time…….

🙂

About Me

It took me about an hour to think of a username that hopefully captures what I want to accomplish.

          Wait, stop, calm down. Let me first introduce myself. My name is Fatima Khan, I’m 25 years old. I was born and raised in New York… which makes me really cool. I have a double bachelor’s in English and education. I moved to Atlanta 8 months ago when I got married. It’s been amazing so far mainly because my husband is an awesome guy. It’s amazing because I only want to kick him sometimes.

         Okay finally onto this blog. The reason I started this blog is because I want to write a book. Scary right? And even scarier is that I want to get the book I write published. So I did what everyone else in the world does I googled ‘how to publish a book’ and like everything else on google a lot of information came up. Everything from how to books to erotica.. um? Then I ended up watching funny videos… So anyway I decided to stop getting sucked into the internet and do some serious research.

         This blog is for newbie writers like myself looking for clear answers. Answers to help you write the book as well as get it published.

          I know what you’re thinking… both are really hard to accomplish. Writing a book isn’t a joke and can get really stressful. I’m thinking about making a schedule so I can accomplish something everyday.

          Best case scenario is a few years from now you will realize you read the first blog post ever of a successful author! ^_^