Creative Writing Proposal - Assignment Example

?RUNNING HEAD: CREATIVE WRITING PROPOSAL Muharrem Can EMA Project Proposal 4 April Proposal I have decided to write a fictional piece of work. I have based my work on the life journey of a girl; Tamara, who faces challenges in the modern western society because of her ethnicity and religion and how these challenges act to motivate her to make a difference. She is the central character and protagonist of my plot. Her grandfather is related to the Maasai tribe of people but had left the community along with his family when his wife, Tamara’s grandmother, dies of an infection she had caught back when she was subjected to the ritual of Emorata (female circumcision). Tamara’s grandfather had tried to raise his voice against such fatally dangerous customs and, as a result of it, had been banished from the tribe. I will give background on how he makes it to England and raises Tamara’s father in accordance with the culture of his forefathers but omitting all harmful practices of that culture. Tamara is a typical western teenager with average looks and a few beautiful features, but she is a victim of an identity crises inflicted by the strong pull of two opposite forces; Tamara’s mother and Tamara’s grandfather whose character I shall explain later. I will trace Tamara’s development from a meek girl into a strong woman who decides to build her own identity in face of heavy opposition by her best friend, Agatha, and her mother. Mrs. Odua Brown and the eventual transition she inspires in their respective views. She travels along with Rajab, her lover, and Agatha to Kenya to work on a thesis she decides to write for her university degree. This is an intentional choice by her as she wants to fulfill her grandfather’s desire of saving the unique culture of their ancestors from the damage some of the customs are inflicting upon it. I will write in some detail the interesting travel stories through Africa that these friends will experience and how they change some of their views and strengthen others. Then she travels back to Birmingham and highlights the plight of her people through a book she writes based on her thesis. Agatha initially tries her best to make Agatha believe that she should try and blend into her environment instead of looking for and showing her ancestor’s, according to her, obsolete way of life. Maasai shave their head in order to show a transition in their lives, and Tamara does the same to show her friends and family that this is who she is and wants to stay. This signifies the start of the transition in her life. Agatha’s character is a soft and understanding one, so she accompanies Tamara to Kenya where her views are changed. She is also a loyal friend who does not leave Tamara even when she falls into some serious trouble with the Maasai chief. Mrs. Brown is another such character who opposes Tamara’s choice of Maasai traditional religion and culture but comes around with time, although she is still not strongly satisfied even till the end. Rajab and Youssef are two Muslim brothers who fight a lot amongst themselves but their fights are not of a serious nature. They fight because Youssef keeps motivating Rajab to be a little closer to their religion Islam while Rajab is a free soul who came on earth merely to enjoy and marvel life. The brothers provide comic relief and their conversations provide different perspectives on the perception of religious identity in the west after 9/11. But there is another interesting twist to the story, both secretly love Tamara and have their own unique styles of showing their feelings. Rajab finds an interesting opportunity to be with Tamara in accompanying her to Kenya but is not motivated by her cause, which is until he experiences the Maasai life firsthand. He helps Tamara significantly in giving awareness to the tribal people. Rajab’s character flourishes into the second strongest character after Tamara. The prejudices people still hold based on ethnicity are highlighted through the lack of help Tamara experiences in her school and college life. But it’s not the view of the majority as Tamara learns when she is motivated to go for her choice of the thesis topic by her professor, Mr. Langston. He helps her chalk out a plan to go explore her beginnings as well as give awareness to her people of issues like Female Genital Circumcision. His plan also included the idea of writing the book that Tamara eventually writes and publishes to great acclaim. The group that travels to Africa is made up of a devout Catholic, a Muslim and a Maasai girl, who unite for one cause. In portraying this I have tried to showcase my aim of presenting the readers with a plot that has some message in it, the message of inter-communal harmony and building tolerance for everyone, the message that one person can make a difference and the message that gender is not a problem in bringing that difference as long as you have the motivation. I hope to make the piece interesting by adding narrations of the beauty of the landscape of Africa, the cuisine, the rich culture of different parts of the continent especially Kenya. This is an important idea for me but I do realize that it can become too serious, hence the addition of comic relief and romance and the use of characterization that a common man can relate to. My work is also aimed at highlighting the negative effects of the outside world on the Maasai tribe as well as the positive. A brief history of the semi-nomadic tribe is also given through the conversations of Tamara with her grandfather. (Lincoln, 2007) My inspiration for creating a female protagonist is the novels that I have read of Mr. Sydney Sheldon. My work will not be attributed to any of his works but I still want to mention that his strong female leads in novels like ‘Stars Shine Down’ and ‘If Tomorrow Comes’ inspired me into giving birth to the character of Tamara. I will scope African writers like Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Chinua Achebe to gather background on the Maasai. (Isaacs, 2009) (Collins, 2006) Commentary I have chosen to write on the theme of prejudice based on ethnicity and religion and how we can bring a change to such concepts. Religion and ethnicity very often becomes a base for people to judge other people on, along with gender. There was a period when such things became a thing of the past. But these concepts have bloomed again in the post 9/11 world. Besides this, the unique culture of the Maasai people has always inspired me and my fascination with them is also an inspiration to write this piece. My protagonist is a female as I deemed it more important to highlight the fact that gender is not as big a hurdle in making a difference only if you have the determination to do so. Some of my characters like Rajab and Agatha portray the positive people who exist in our society but are in a need of a small push in the right direction. My work will be an exciting yet thought-provoking narration of a young woman’s journey from England to Kenya and back again. In light of the recommendations and criticism on my last work, I have tried to give a clear picture of what I want to portray and how I want to portray it, avoiding vague and unrelated citations. The fact that I chose to write on a serious topic is the reason that I especially mentioned adding comic relief and a bit if romance last time. But in no way does this choice discourage me from going on with it. On the other hand I totally agree that TMA 04 did not present a clear choice of a religion and was at times a little vague. Therefore I have tried to be to the point this time. I gave full consideration to the criticism that I did not choose a particular religion so I decided to go for my inspiration, the Maasai. I have also delved into a greater in depth analysis of the characterization and mentioned their main characteristics. I decided to go for this theme as it struck as a meaningful theme to me and dropped the idea of exploring a previously unexamined aspect of religion. My work will mention Kenya, not Ethiopia as was rightly suggested in TMA 04. I have also mentioned a couple of books of Sydney Sheldon that I have been inspired by. I have included a theme that gives useful meaning to my plot so that my work can also be an inspiration for other people. I hope to put all my efforts into it. References Collins, R. O. (2006). the Maasai in Historical Perspective. Transaction Publishers. Isaacs, M. (2009). African Tradition Religion. London: Penguin. Lincoln, R. (2007). The Road Home. 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