by Ayesha Ali | Jun 24, 2025 | Character, The Writing Life
Every writer has defaults when it comes to storytelling. Mine include writing in third person, outlining my novel ahead of time, and setting my story in a fantasy world. However, when I came up with the idea for my current work-in-progress, it demanded that I forego...
by Ayesha Ali | Feb 18, 2025 | Character, Writing Craft
Hey friends. We have come to the last part of the series on writing immigrant characters. In part 1, we explored research as a decision-making tool and honed in on some vital details about our immigrant characters. In part 2, we explored the “heavier”...
by Ayesha Ali | Jan 21, 2025 | Character, Writing Craft
In last month’s post, we began our exploration of writing immigrant characters. We talked about how research can be used as a decision-making tool, and some of the choices to make for your characters. Today, we’re going to get into some of the heavier, yet...
by Ayesha Ali | Dec 10, 2024 | Character, Writing Craft
In Western countries, December is the month of holidays. When I think about winter holidays, I think about movement—people driving across county lines to visit family, religious historical figures migrating to make change, new holidays moving into public...
by Ayesha Ali | Jul 9, 2024 | Character, First Chapters, Uncategorized, Writing Craft
As a new writer, much of the advice I came across from experts didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t see the point in detailing the items on my character’s bedside table, or planning the entire schedule of my teenage characters’ school day, and I...
