Salaam friends,

I have been thinking about the structure and value of this newsletter since the day I started it. It has been 9 months since I sent the first one. I was never satisfied with it, and I was struggling to find the formate that will be of most value to readers. I felt it was focus on what worked for me, the things I enjoyed, and what I was doing. But I knew I wanted it to be the other way around. But how? I took inventory of the newsletters I’m subscribed to, but non of them gave me insight to what I was looking for. Then three days wasn’t thinking, the idea presented itself to me. What you about to read came to me like a childhood memory. I think this will bring the most value for aspiring writers and people who nerds about stories, sentences, and words. My people!

Insha’Allah you find value in this. Enjoy!

📖 Writing Prompt

The Reluctant I:Write a first person story, or opening of a story, in which you use the first person pronoun (I or me or my) only two times— but keep the I somehow important to the narrative you’re constructing. The point of this exercise is to imagine a narrator who is less interested in himself than in what he/she is observing. You can make your narrator someone who sees an interesting event in which he is not necessarily a participant (maybe he’s on vacation and observing a cultural event unfamiliar to him). It’s very important in this exercise to make sure your reader is not surprised, forty or fifty words into the piece, to realize that this is a first person narration. Show the reader quickly who is observing the scene so they can be grounded in the point of view. 500 words.

Source: The 3 A.M. Epiphany* by Brian Kiteley 

🔎 Word of the week

Actuate (vb): to put into action; to put into mechanical action or motion
In a sentence: The pump is actuated by the windmill.

Source: The Merriam-Webster Dictionary

📨 Where to submit

Granta Magazine is open for fiction and nonfiction.
Open Period: 1 June – 30 June
Submission Fee: £3.50
Word limit: there is no word limit, but most submissions are between 3,000-6,000 words.

Good luck!

🔖 Quote to ponder

“The world is crazy. Creative work is hard. Life is short and art is long.”
— Austin Kleon

Source: Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

📸 Through My Lens

Please give me feedback on the newsletter by replying to this email. What do you want more or less of? Or other suggestions?

Thank you for reading. Stay Creative!

Mohamed