Assalaamu alaikum Reader, This wasn't the email I was planning to send you this week. But a writer I was working with passed away some days ago and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her. May Allah envelop her in His mercy and elevate her. I had been working with Rasha since early 2022. She was writing a memoir about how getting cancer transformed her faith. We finished the final edits on her book this summer. I was trying to help her with the submissions process at various publishing...

Assalaamu alaikum Reader, First drafts always get such a bad rep — A vomit draft. Bad. Crappy. Terrible. Just google “first draft quotes” and you’ll see so many writers and authors talking about first drafts in this way. I get that a first draft will never be perfect. But is a final draft ever perfect? And more to the point: Does not being perfect mean they have to be so terrible that we need to describe first drafts in this way? But I do get it. So many writers I know have that feeling of...

Assalaamu alaikum Reader, I’ve had two writers recently leave my Grounded Writers program because they found it difficult to make time for their writing. Both of the writers were apologetic when they told me they couldn't continue. And they expressed interest in returning when things looked better. I could have tried to convince them that they should make writing a priority. I could have advised them that life will always be busy and that there will likely never be a ‘good’ time to write. I...