Life of Muslimah

Becoming a writer

What becoming a writer has brought into my awareness. 

Since the beginning of this year, I have started to view writing as something that I would like to do more often. While I have always seen myself as a creative person AND an avid reader, I have never considered myself a writer. My supportive husband always tried to encourage me to write online, hence why this blog exist. It is mainly because of him. Over the last 6 years I wrote something here and there but have never considered this anything seriously to pursue, because I never saw a writer in myself.

Soooo what has changed?

The stars are aligning. Looking back now I see how God had created a path for me to step on and honestly, I am just following along and taking it step by step.
It started with the book “How to take smart notes” by Soenke Ahrens, which is all about non-fiction writing. It introduced a way of collecting the notes and highlights of my readings. It inspired me to write about my thoughts.
Then I stumbled upon the book Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks, that book is all about storytelling (which in my opinion is fiction writing). 
After these two introductory books I came to sign up for a course on creative writing, which has officially ended this week. Though I don’t see myself writing anything in fiction for now, it has helped me to develop the habit of writing.

This is just a small snippet on how I came onto this path of a blogger.  

 

I think the fact I came across these books one after another and reading them at the same time, at this exact point in my life, where my little ones are not babies anymore but toddlers and I can actually carve out the time to write in the morning and evening.

Now here are the few things that I have learned about myself and my life while writing for the past 3 months, building myself up to become a writer

I can make time for the things I want to do, if I take it seriously.

1. I have been calling myself a minimalist for a few years now. 5 to be exact. Writing takes time, getting into writing takes even more time, because you are trying to create a new habit here. Once I started carving time out to write I realized how much time I actually have available. Over the course of the past 5 years, I have minimized and simplified my life and routines so much, that I actually CAN take time out for the things that matter to me, even while I have small children to take care of, cook 2-3 times a day and I still have a clean house to go to bed most nights.
   If I plan my day efficiently, I can do all the things I want.
2. I have been calling myself a minimalist for a few years now. 5 to be exact. Writing takes time, getting into writing takes even more time, because you are trying to create a new habit here. Once I started carving time out to write I realized how much time I actually have available. Over the course of the past 5 years, I have minimized and simplified my life and routines so much, that I actually CAN take time out for the things that matter to me, even while I have small children to take care of, cook 2-3 times a day and I still have a clean house to go to bed most nights.
   If I plan my day efficiently, I can do all the things I want.
3. I am an addicted to Dopamine. Due to the fact that running a household means having to do the same mundane chores over and over again like folding laundry, washing dishes, brooming, mopping. All these tasks allow me to have something running in the background, which I often do in the form of audiobooks, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc…Writing though, is something that requires silence. I can have classical or instrumental music running in the background, but nothing with words. Otherwise, I get too distracted from writing. What I notice is, that I get very fidgety, or I should say, I used to get fidgety. Which is a big indicator that my brain is too used to the dopamine rush and THAT needs to be addressed. I might write in an upcoming blogpost how I am actively trying to lessen my phone usage.
4. I have cut down on my TV time a lot. Usually, my husband and I used to watch TV every night after putting the kids down, but because of my writing we have cut that down to only a 2-3 times a week and sometimes we just hang out in the same room being on our computers, which does not lead to much productivity, but to fun conversations.