How to Write a Monologue

Words by Karan Maitra

This week Manchester Writing School’s Sherry Ashworth and Anjum Malik are in Dubai to take part in the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature, in association with this summer’s Manchester Children’s Book Festival. As part of the trip Anjum held a writing workshop attended by local students at GEMS Wellington Academy, aged 15 to 17.

Anjum felt that the workshop was a fantastic experience, not just for the students but for herself as well, “I had an amazing day with them, I was made very welcome and started with the performance of my monologue, Nahid, based on my own story of arriving in England as a young girl from Pakistan to join my Dad in London with my family. This was followed by a Q&A where the students were firing away some amazing questions. I then ran a workshop where they all began their own monologues.” One of the students, Karan Maitra, wrote this blog. 

Anjum Malik joined us to give a talk on monologues and scriptwriting. Anjum was born in Saudi Arabia and has spent most of her life in Pakistan.

Ms Malik began with a monologue titled Nahid. It was from the point of view of a girl talking about moving to the UK from her home country of Pakistan. Many important sociological issues were brought up in the first few minutes. This included racism, as well as the Indo-Pakistan war. 

In the monologue, the ratio of boys to girls in the education system was noted; it was interesting to see that the genders mix more freely in Pakistan than in the UK. 

The protagonist of the monologue was sad. She did not like the new atmosphere and longed for her home country. After moving twice, her family had faced nothing but racism. Her dad had been sacked. He fought with the bus driver because the driver threw expletives at him. He was not happy with himself as he said it’s a bad thing to fight back. 

The education system was shown to be very discriminative. The teachers picked on the students from Asia saying, “Go back where you came from,” despite the students being apt at studies. The Indo-Pakistan war is highlighted again when the lead falls in love with Jaswant, a Sikh from India. To get married he changes his name to Jameel to fit in with the Muslim community as this union enraged them.

Her dad is in hospital, dying. She spends her last moments with him by his bed talking about times that have passed, taking joy in the reminiscence. After he passes away, he is buried there, in Bradford. He did not wish his body to be sent back to Pakistan as that would be Un-Islamic. 

After the monologue had ended, we had a question-answer session with Ms Malik. The audience asked a number of questions. One student asked, “Is it more enjoyable to write a story or perform it?” Ms Malik responded by saying that she started acting only a year ago. She was previously only a writer, with other actors performing her work. She was initially petrified by the prospect of acting, but has since overcome her fears.

Mrs Malik told us more about her roots. She was born in Saudi, but her father went back to Pakistan after receiving a letter from her Grandfather. They later went on to move to the UK as her father preferred a more social environment and he did not feel that Pakistan was conducive to his mind set.

Ms Malik held a writing workshop after theQ&A. We started with a synopsis of the Nahid monologue that we had seen earlier. Many ideas were brought up. Some people believed the monologue was more about family and family ties, while others thought the main aspect was highlighting racism, and even others believed it was mainly about cultural diversity.

All of us in the workshop then tried writing a monologue in a specified time frame. This helped us experience a bit of the real world by putting us under pressure to ignite a creative spark within us.

We all attempted writing a monologue about ourselves. We followed this by discussing how our ideas change as they go along and don’t conform to what we originally thought. Ms Malik told us about overcoming writers block by trying ‘free writing’.

We were all mustering the courage to speak up and present our monologues. Individuals took it in turn to read their monologues and received feedback from the rest of the class. A lot of feedback was shared. It seemed as though we were beginning to understand the concept of saying a lot in very few words. We all thoroughly enjoyed the seminar. 

Here are a few excerpts from the students’ monologues: 

1. “Ages. It took ages to convince my dad. Then the decision was made. We are leaving.”

2. “It makes me think now. This very moment, is something happening while I write this that I will think about in a few years.”

3. “I don’t want to be spending time with Year 7’s and 8’s when I don’t have to.”

4. “A tall man with glasses appears in front of me blocking my view of a better morning.”

5. “Subconsciously I noted different faces waiting around me, counting who had been there before I had arrived and how many had been there before me.”

6. “He watched me extricate my purse from the bundle and use my credit card to pay the 63 pound fine.”

7. “Getting directions in New York City, I keep walking and turn right at Starbucks. It’s not like there is one on every corner.”

8. “The other kids weren’t as impressed as I was. They were indifferent while I was in love.”

9. “Whether I changed or not for the better or the worse, I will never know.”

10. “I am sitting here trying to think of something to write.”

11. “I feel like I am the only normal person in this Alien and messed up world.”

12. “It was difficult because I had to live with my mother alone for three years in Greece.”

13. “But then sometimes reality comes knocking and tells me that I am just being egocentric and that I have no idea what I’m talking about.”

14. “My dad used to talk to me in English but I was stubborn and would just answer back in Dutch. But now I have to work harder. School was harder.”

15. “We were firstly friends. Best friends. Then secondly cousins. “

16. “I am also afraid now. I hold my nerves steady but my hand is shaking slightly. If my parents get to know I’ve skipped a class it will be hell for me at home.”

17. “I felt like I was a Jigsaw piece. The completing piece in this portrait was finally complete. I am home.”

18. “No one is a small blip of existence. If anyone is, I am.”

GEMS Wellington Academy - Silicon Oasis offers a uniquely crafted progression from the Early Years Foundation Stage, through an enriched and developed National Curriculum for England into personalised qualification pathways. The Academy offers world class facilities set in a modern campus in one of Dubai’s most prestigious new developments.

Anjum Malik is a poet and scriptwriter who also exhibits and performs her work. She is a fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University and lectures to the new writers at the Manchester Writing School. Find out more about Anjum at www.anjummalik.com.

Passionate Writing and Bollywood Dance Lessons in Dubai

Written by Sherry Ashworth

This morning I visited the Dubai Gem school for a talk and writing workshop - I will not boast about the gloriously sunny, warm weather here, nor the stunning Dubai skyline, nor the endless, evocative, big sky. But I will say that the Dubai Gem school was a delight. The whole English department were there to welcome me with biscuits and pastries (the way to my heart.) We all swapped teaching stories, and then I was taken to a mixed group of teenagers - all bright, enthusiastic and very talented. There was some passionate writing from the boys and a fantastic blood-curdling thriller opening from one of the girls. A lively question and answer session ensued. 

Afterwards I was the recipient of yet more first class Dubai hospitality (with food), and the Head took me to watch a Bollywood-style dance lesson in which boys and girls showed us all their best moves - how I wanted to join in! On the way back the Head filled me in on life on Dubai, especially how the Literary Festival is such a valuable conduit of ideas, and is gathering audiences from all over the Gulf. Dubai is a fascinating mix of Arabian tradition, hospitality and modern innovation.

Next stop - the desert - and I did say desert, not dessert, though probably that too.

Sherry Ashworth has written fiction for children, teenagers and adults. She is a visiting teach fellow at the Manchester Writing School and runs a publishing company Hidden Gems Press. Find out more about Sherry at www.sherryashworth.com.

Manchester Writing School Visiting Teaching Fellows to Attend Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature – Interview with Sherry Ashworth & Anjum Malik

Interviewed by Justine Chamberlain

Manchester Writing School Visiting Teaching Fellows Sherry Ashworth and Anjum Malik are heading out to Dubai to visit the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature, in association with MMU's Manchester Children’s Book Festival. I caught up with them in between prepping their work and packing their cases.

Dubai isn’t a place I’d normally connect with Manchester Metropolitan University. Why are MMU sending you out there?

Sherry: We have an exciting opportunity to partner up with the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (EAFL). MMU is always seeking to widen its reach and an international audience is very exciting to us, particularly because we teach so many of our Masters courses online. This means that we have students regularly from all over the world, so any opportunity of showcasing what we do in other locations is very exciting. Also, it’s because we enjoy literature festivals!

Anjum: It’s great that EAFL and MMU have come together in such a good cause, like giving people the opportunity to learn about literature and be a part of it too.

Are you also going to be blogging out there?

Anjum: The groups I’m working with have students who are interested in blogging, and are going to be doing this for me. I’ve asked if anyone would like to do it and knew that younger people will be much better at it than me! I will also be running some writing workshops, and I’m going to be performing one of my monologues in a school, where I will be getting the kids to write their own monologues. One of my guises is as a scriptwriter and I’ve been performing my monologues for some years now, and encouraging others to do the same. Sherry and I will be sending updates back to the Manchester Children’s Book Festival’s blog.

Who are you meeting out there?

Anjum: The literature festival have organised a two-day workshop where people want to do some screenwriting. The school I’m working with is GEMS Wellington Academy and I’m really looking forward to that.

Sherry: I’m going to be visiting Dubai Gem Private School to do creative writing workshops with teenagers, which is something I love doing because most of my novels are for teenagers. For these two days, I’ll be doing an intensive creative writing workshop with some keen and talented writers who live and work in Dubai. It’s going to be very intensive and exciting.

Growing up as a child, what was your favourite book?

Sherry: Oh, there are so many I can’t say! I’d probably plump for The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnet, which was the first children’s book I read that featured children I could identify with. Being a working class kid from North London all this Swallows and Amazons, and being able to go on boats and take picnics and ginger beer in the countryside left me cold. I’ve always been a reader that’s looked to find myself inside a book. The Family from One End Street was about slum dwellers and even though I wasn’t a slum dweller, it resonated more. It was written in the 1920's and I have no idea how it found its way into our house!

Anjum: I did my growing up in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and England, so my books will be very different to any books people will be used to in the UK. My favourite books were actually comics in Pakistan, which were about djinns, which are like giants in fairy books and how their life would be as some tiny bird in a cage on top of a mountain. So I grew up on those. I also did a lot of reading of Urdu literature as a child in Pakistan and loved the big poets of Pakistan.

Children are notoriously picky about what they read. What do you think the special ingredient is, in a children’s book?

Sherry Ashworth

Sherry: Drama and immediacy. Children get bored if you spend ages setting a scene. Children get resentful if you preach at them. They need to be in the book, they need to identify strongly with what’s going on. You need character and story and immediacy.

Anjum: I don’t think children are picky. I think children are very honest and they don’t waste time. I’ve performed to young people of all ages and the younger they are, the more honest they are – they just fall asleep or walk away if they’re not interested. You’ve got to get them interested in your characters, and I think as a child I loved being taken away into the world of who I was reading at the time.

Does MMU have a way to support people who want to specialise in writing for children?

Anjum: MMU runs children’s writing courses at the Manchester Writing School – one of the branches of the MA they run in Creative Writing is a specialist Writing for Children route. It’s run by brilliant tutors!

Sherry: Would-be writers who are particularly interested in writing for seven-year-olds upwards to about 15, will get special support from qualified tutors in teaching writing for that audience age group. It’s available on campus in Manchester or online to anyone, anywhere.

Manchester hosts the Manchester Children’s Book Festival, the Manchester Writing Competitions, and the Manchester Literary Festival. It has its own world class Writing School at MMU, which offers online master’s degrees in Creative Writing to people anywhere in the world. Do you think Manchester can challenge for literary hotspot of the UK and maybe even the world?

Anjum Malik

Anjum: Absolutely. It just shows in all those things we’re doing in Manchester; we are leading the way. Especially MMU; they have so many different things going on in the literary world – they were the first to do a children’s book festival – no one else in the North West does that – so definitely. I think we’re doing marvellously. Why not take over the literary world?

Sherry: There is something very, very special about Manchester and literature. This city is of just the right size to foster writers and it means they’re very much part of a community. With MMU, its traditions are rooted in real Manchester – it used to be Manchester Polytechnic and we’ve always looked out for non-standard students, whether they are international or they’ve come to us through an indirect pathway. I like to think that we have our finger on the pulse of Manchester’s creativity. The synergy between the university, its traditions and the students and city is really unbeatable.

When does the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature start and where can I find out more information?

Anjum: The EAFL in Dubai runs from the 4th to the 8th of March and has a massive programme of events. It’s the first time MMU are working with EALF and I think it’s great that MMU are going out into the world and forming international partnerships.

Sherry: Our workshops are a prequel to the main festival, which commences on the 2nd March. There’s a website with all the information: www.emirateslitfest.com. 

And the Manchester Children’s Book Festival?

Sherry: That starts on 26th June and runs for a week and a half, hopefully with the same weather the Dubai festival will have!

Anjum: It has some great authors booked already who are being kept under wraps! Anyone can be first to know who is attending by signing up to the MCBF newsletter or by keeping an eye on the website: www.mcbf.org.uk. If people are quick, there’s also the Manchester Writing for Children Prize for anyone who’s a children’s poetry writer.

Manchester Children’s Book Festival will run from 26th June – 6th July 2014 and the full programme of free and ticketed events for the public will be announced at the end of March. 

Sherry Ashworth has written fiction for children, teenagers and adults. She is a visiting teach fellow at the Manchester Writing School and runs a publishing company Hidden Gems Press. Find out more about Sherry at www.sherryashworth.com.

Anjum Malik is a poet and scriptwriter who also exhibits and performs her work. She is a fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University and lectures to the new writers at the Manchester Writing School. Find out more about Anjum at www.anjummalik.com.

Justine Chamberlain is a Masters student in the MMU Writing School, specialising in poetry. Her blog can be found here and you can follow her on Twitter @justineswriting.