1. Can you tell me about yourself?
I’m 19 (older than a lot of people I meet here) and I’m a Muslim. Don’t have much else to say.
2. What inspired you to write?
Once, when I was around 10 I think, our teacher told us to write a story about Greek mythology. I wrote one and found it really fun! I’ve been writing ever since.
3. Is writing a hobby or career to you?
It has always been a hobby but I have a dream of turning it into a career. Especially since I read The Outsiders which was a book written by a 16 year old!
4. Do you want your stories to be published one day?
I told myself I’d publish a book by the time I was 19, like Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein. I think Wattpad counts as publishing… But I might publish it in real… I’ll see. Not too sure.
5. What do you do when you aren't writing?
When you say ‘aren’t writing’ do you mean, not writing a story? Because if I’m not writing a story, I may be writing an essay. Other than that, I’m at uni or I’m babysitting. Or eating. Or sleeping.
6. If you could spend the day with one of your characters who would it be and what would you do?
I’d spend a day with Aunt Jerry (Yusuf’s mum) and knock some sense into her. The characters can’t do that because it’s disrespectful and will have long lasting consequences.
7. How much of the book is realistic?
I’m trying to keep it all realistic as possible. What I’ve found as I grow up is that huge coincidences do happen. I believe that’s because of destiny.
8. Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
The beginning of the story is based on something that my uncle said. There was a boy like Abubakar in my school and my uncle asked me what I thought about him. Then he said he’ll ‘talk to him.’ I’ve gone over half way through my book and my uncle still hasn’t ‘talked to him.’ So my uncle in real life is sort of like Uncle Yahya. Anyway, that’s how it all started and the rest is just made up.
9. What is your main goal with writing books?
I like to entertain people while possibly teaching them at the same time.
10. What job did you want to be as a kid?
I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be an artist for a little while. Then I grew out of that and began thinking of becoming an author. So for a long time, I’ve wanted to be a teacher and an author.
11.Do you ever experience writer’s block?
I don’t actually experience writer’s block often. What happens though is that I get bored and I don’t feel like writing because I have a genius idea in the story which I want to skip to. But then I have to write chapters to get to that interesting idea to keep the flow going. Those days I get distracted a lot and find it hard to concentrate.
12. Do you work with an outline, or just write?
I have an outline in my head and then I just write. Sometimes, things just come to me while I’m writing.
13. Imagine your main character dies on page one. Everything else remains the same. Describe the new plot to your book.
Which main character? Safia or Yusuf? I pick Safia. Safia’s gone but Yusuf doesn’t really care because he doesn’t know her. Instead, Yusuf asks for Hafsa’s hand in marriage. Hafsa doesn’t like him and rejects him. Yusuf gets very sad. Then he… Oh my gosh, he marries Amy! Yes! He marries Amy and Hamza hates him but he doesn’t care. He moves to Germany and has a fresh new start with his new life with Amy.
14. Where do the your ideas come from?
Everything. If someone’s talking, I’ll listen intently and think, can that go into my story? I get ideas from everywhere. My uncle helps me sometimes. I also daydream a lot and create my own ideas. I daydream so much that I rarely get bored. If you told me to sit in a seat doing nothing all day, I’ll happily oblige!
15. What is the hardest thing about writing?
The hardest thing about writing is having the patience to go through those scenes/chapters just before something big is about to happen.
16. Will you have a new story coming out soon? If so can you tell us about it?
I do hope to write a new story soon. It’s about a mother and son. It’s not like the one I’m currently writing. It’s going to be more cultural and will probably be for an older audience. The focus of it is going to be racism.
17. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The hardest part is writing a chapter that will be long enough to publish. My chapters are usually very short.
18.Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I taught myself some lessons from my book and I think the more I write, the more I improve my writing skills.
19.Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
THANK YOU! And, please don’t ask me to update more than twice a week. Oh and, please don’t ask me to read your stories. I’m sure they’re great but so many people ask me to read their stories and I can’t read them all! It makes me feel guilty to not read them. Save me this guilt
20. Do you have any advice for other writers?
Read lots of books!! And write a lot too.