Daily Times

In any society, writers have a crucial responsibility on their shoulders. Their vantage point to look at what is happening in the society is different from a layman’s. They tap the fault lines of conventional wisdom and help the society understand existing gaps in mainstream societal ideas. Failure to do so results in the decay of any society. They try to break the corrosive silence surrounding issues like discrimination, marginalisation, and nepotism and many other ills and try to transform that silence into language so that a kind of vocabulary can be developed around those issues and people can connect with one another in order to understand that issue. In simple words, writers give shatter silence to fill prevalent gaps in popular wisdom and thus they make sure that popular wisdom can inclusively cater to every nook and corner of society.

In a society like ours, popular wisdom is mainly informed by a narrow interpretation of religion, customs and cultural norms. Things are made worse by a lack of education. This has given birth to a lot of fault lines such as intolerance and sexism. The silence around these issues, which can be observed in the popular camp over these divisive issues, has been eating away at the social fabric of our society. In the face of about to come implosion because of corrosive silence over social divisions, there is a dire need for a creative set of writers in our society who can eloquently help it develop a more comprehensive and fair social narrative.

Unfortunately, keeping in view the dire need of writers in our society, it is deplorable to see no serious platforms available for people to enhance their writing skills. Even in academic institutes, one hardly comes across teachers who have clear know-how regarding creative writing. Apart from lack of forums and skilled teachers, the professional market for those who write is not lucrative. Most writers are either paid very little — if they are paid at all. Recently, my dream of making a living as a writer — as I aspire to write professionally— was shattered while I had an interaction with a Pakistani-American journalist who writes for international dailies. When I asked her whether writing could be pursued as a professional career, she told me to pursue it for pleasure, since making a living as a writer is not easy.

Unfortunately, keeping in view the dire need for writers in our society, it is deplorable to see no serious platforms available for people to enhance their writing skills

However, the picture is not so bleak. This is what I can say after recently completing a short creative writing course with The Writing Institute in Lahore. The institute is Pakistan’s premier institution for creative writing courses. It is a nationwide program led by Awais Khan who is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and Durham University. He has studied Creative Writing at Oxford University, Writers Bureau UK and Bishopsgate Institute, London. The course helps better equip people of all ages who have a knack for writing with creative writing skills. This is a solo adventure which needs to be appreciated.

Though a short creative writing course by The Writing Institute is a step in the right direction — this will be a very long journey. A serious effort needs to be made across Pakistan so that a creative lot can be prepared that can help society understand the complexities of popular wisdom. In preparing that lot, government and academic institutes in collaboration with skilled writers should introduce more such courses.

The writer is an MPhil scholar studying International Relations at Department of Political Science in University of the Punjab, Lahore. He can be reached at uinam39@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, February 22^nd 2018.