A little glimpse into Fareeda's World...

I promised I'd share something of my unpublished work with you guys, so here it is.

This is an excerpt of a novel that has lived with me for over four years now. The novel first began as a short story which got shortlisted for the Asian Writer Short Story Prize back in 2020. Then it turned into the beginning of a novel, which got chosen for Penguin Write Now Live.

Most of the first chapter is still in the book, and is currently being read by agents. However, the first version of the story changed after I began working on it with The Novelry. I cut two young children out of the narrative to simplify the story which meant a few domestic scenes were cut.

Stephen King has the advice ‘kill your darlings’ . It means you will have to edit bits of your novel that you might love, for the sake of pushing forward with the story thread.

I will put the paywall up here because that way, I can pretend I’m having an intimate conversation with a few of you and not simply bearing my soul to the general public! (Which is, frankly, quite terrifying!) The other day, someone referred to allowing others to read your fiction as akin to reading your diary. NOT because it’s autobiographical– mine certainly isn’t!! It’s more of an issue-led story– but because you can’t help but put parts of you in it. The way you see the world, the way you see others, how you handle a situation, it’s all there in your stories.

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 5 (Now cut from the story. Scroll to the bottom for an unedited 2020 version!)