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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Lessons from dreams
These days, I write very short stories, which are published for the most part in Nisf El-Dunia magazine. I am satisfied with this latest collection, on the whole, although I cannot say the same of other stories I wrote in recent years. This is why I never published them. When I went back and looked at them, I found I no longer liked them. Something in them no longer appealed to me, somehow.
This has much to do with the fact that I felt these stories did not fit properly into the mold I had conceived for them. They did not jibe with the mood I was trying to create. The important thing for me, as far as these stories are concerned -- I call them dreams -- is for them to end with a general idea, perhaps a moral that the reader can relate to. I do not want them to remain at the stage of mere dreams, and end on a specific note.
I must train my right hand to write every day -- as if I were learning the craft anew. The form of exercise I have chosen is the short story; instead of just stringing words together, I rewrite one of my stories several times -- sometimes as many as 20. I do this until an idea for another story forms in my mind; then I write that one, and it becomes my copying exercise until it too, in turn, is replaced by an original idea. Sometimes I will modify a story as I am rewriting it, changing a word here or there; sometimes, I do not change so much as a single letter. At any rate, I keep writing it over and over again. It keeps my hand moving.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
