Talespeople Spiels
Why so serious?
Sehri Tales is an annual month-long flash writing challenge that takes place every Ramadan. It is hosted by the online community Talespeople in their Facebook group. This is the fourth instalment of a series on creative writing with tips, tricks and lessons learnt from the challenge
By the 15th of Ramadan, I invariably reach that low phase that I've been experiencing ever since Sehri Tales became a public event. The well runs dry, the stress levels go up, and I start cursing the guy who came up with these ridiculous prompts (i.e. me). It certainly doesn't help to read some of the truly stellar works created by our Talers, each more creative than the one before it. I'm up during sehri, tearing my hair out, having my usual meltdown over my blank mind when my endlessly patient husband looks up and says, "Have you done a limerick this season? Do a limerick."
Falling into the comfortable rhythm of a familiar form, it took scant minutes to bang out a silly poem that made me laugh and melted away all the tension, and it took me back to why I created Sehri Tales in the first place–to break me out of a creative rut by having some fun with writing.
In this age of social media, we're always under so much pressure to be perfect, to be profound, to beat the algorithm and get that engagement, it's easy to forget to just let loose and have some fun. There is a joy in the craft, something thrilling about working with an unaccustomed form or style, that can be so healing. It's why I chose to stay in this line of work when so many of my contemporaries at the Rising Stars (The Daily Star's beloved former teen magazine) branched off into other pastures.
With a little over a week left in the challenge, we're seeing a lot of the earlier participants burn out and drop off. A great many are resorting to shock value content that requires heavy trigger warnings, in the hope that it would get more "reacts" on social media. To them, and to those daunted by the prospect of completing a month of flash writing, I want to say, I understand where you're coming from. But it doesn't have to be so hard. Give yourself permission to play, to go back to your childhood rhymes, to let loose with silly jokes. Forget the audience and make writing fun again. And to everyone diligently hammering away at their keyboards producing these stunning confections of writing, I tip my hat. May we all finish the season on a high.
Sabrina Fatma Ahmad is a writer, journalist, and the founder of Sehri Tales.