8 - 14 February 2001
Issue No.520
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 8 - 14 February 2001 Issue No.520 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
A variable plunge
I have used all known methods of writing. Sometimes my stories were wholly or partly conceived when I started, and sometimes they had no shape in my mind at all.
Some stories I would enter into with prior awareness of all the dimensions that can be brought to bear on the telling of the tale in question: the events, the characters, down to the ending itself. In such cases, except for slight modifications inspired by the pen, the story does not alter during the process of writing.
But in other cases, I may well start without the slightest idea of what I was about to create. I would pick up the pen and write down a single sentence: Whatshisname walked into the alleyway. And I would not know what Whatshisname would be doing in that alleyway he had just entered; maybe I would not even know where that alleyway was. But a pertinent detail can bring forth all the details of the story before me. An evocative combination of letters is sometimes enough to summon an entire plot.
It is not necessary to be inspired or moved to write, in the usual sense. An experienced writer has a deep reserve of emotions, events, characters on which he can always draw. Maybe, then, it is up to him to start anything at any time.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page