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Welcome to the Tuesday Telegrams, a semimonthly newsletter from award-winning author Naseem Jamnia. You're currently reading a writing-related Telegram, where I update you on projects, offer behind-the-scenes looks, delve into craft, and other publishing and writing topics.

Hi, everyone. I wrote the below Telegram about a week ago. Since then, the US and Israeli governments have attacked Iran and killed current and former top-ranking officials (including the head of state, Khanenei). Of course, Iranians in Iran and in the diaspora have been fighting for regime change, and indeed, there are diaspora members who have asked for external intervention "on behalf of human rights." This idea was always misguided at best and outright harmful at worst, and now, we know definitively that it's deadly.

This is not to say that there aren't Iranians who are celebrating the deaths of the dictator, who has been the head of the death machine since Khomeini's death in 1989. The Iranian public has been oppressed for decades.

But let's also acknowledge that intervention by the US and Israel, two countries that are enacting genocide in their own borders, is only going to lead to further harm. The first strike hit a girl's school in Minab in southern Iran. Iranian state media reports over 175 dead; while the state media isn't the most reliable resource, we can at least agree that dozens of children were killed.

I am devastated and heartbroken and scared and so, so angry. So are the other Iranians in my life.

Iran is not a country that it is easy to have on-the-ground contact for mutual aid. I don't have options on this regard, no matter how much I look. I hope there will be something in the coming days.

I'm leaving the below Telegram, since it's writing related. But I wanted to make sure I addressed this up top.

Last year, my debut middle-grade novel The Glade was released by Simon & Schuster (paperback comes out in May!). But unlike The Bruising of Qilwa, my adult debut, The Glade was a work-for-hire project.

​I've previously written about IP/WFH projects. TL;DR: A company called a packager, usually run by former or current agent, authors, and/or editors, comes up with project ideas and hires writers to write them, and then sells the resulting manuscript to a publisher.

This doesn't mean that the author had no input on the story with their name on it; I substantially rewrote the plot of The Glade and scrapped most of the character arcs that the packager had come up with. I'm proud to have my name on the cover of that book. Even if the original idea wasn't mine, the end result absolutely is.

To my pleasure, my packager, formerly known as Upswell Media and now as Bittersweet Books (with author Julie Murphy), hired me to write a new project with them! While I'm not allowed to share the specifics of the project, what I can say is that this process has been significantly different from working on The Glade for multiple reasons.

For The Glade, the packager had a detailed plot outline and character sheet, and I was working within that framework. For this project, the packager pitched one, and I got back to them with notes, and we've gone back and forth. In other words, I've had much, much more creative input on the story from the get-go.

The other difference is that I auditioned for The Glade, and then wrote half of the novel. We did revisions, then we went on submission. For this new project, I'm writing the whole book, and I've been sending chapters to the team in chunks for feedback.

This means that I've been forced to juggle revision and drafting at the same time, and let me tell you: I don't like it. And I feel now, more than ever, that this method is ineffectual at best and outright harmful to the creative process at worst. (Caveat: I'm talking about full-length prose projects here!)

While I am a proponent of prewriting and giving yourself a roadmap, your drafting brain and revision brain are not the same. The purposes of those steps are completely different. For drafting, you're iterating on your story; you're trying ideas, playing things out, and seeing where they go. For revision, you're taking a step back to examine how your story is working as a whole. Drafting is where the magic happens; revision is where the art happens.

When I'm drafting, I'm not trying to dissect things I know I need to change. Usually, I leave little notes for myself to keep in mind when I come back if something comes to mind (and often, it does!). It can be pretty obvious when you write a scene and it doesn't work, but unless it's pivotal to how the rest goes forward (and often, even then), trying to fix it is likely a waste of time. It's going to be changed anyway later.

In revision, I am deep in critical mode. This means I can better understand why that scene doesn't work, because I can see my overall story and what that moment is supposed to do. Maybe it's a small fix, or maybe it's a major plot point, but because I have the whole draft, I can take a look at its entire shape and really think about how all the parts of the story is coming together for the whole.

Revision while drafting, for me, takes two steps back and one step forward. Being constantly critical means you can't just explore or experiment or simply write without wondering how you're going to have to change the scene, stopping you from actually writing that scene. You're already changing the beginning before you know the end, when knowing the end will necessarily make you change the beginning. Because yes—even when you're revising as you draft, you still have to revise afterward.

Some writers have to really "get down" the first 30,000 words or so of their novels. They revise and revise that beginning portion to have a foundation for the rest of the story. But the reality is, even when you sit back 60,000 words later, you still have to revise that first 30k! (These are arbitrary numbers, by the way.) You have to see how what you thought was "solid" fits in or sets up for the rest, and inevitably have to tweak. Maybe those writers tweak that first 30,000 words a lot less than they otherwise would have, but I have to wonder: How many times have they also had to do significant revisions on what they thought was "done"?

I've met writers who revise as they draft, and many of them have struggled to finish a long fiction project. Their process is, I think, directly related to that. As long as you try to get every word perfect in an early draft, you're going to hamstring yourself from writing any words at all, because you're going to keep wondering about how to change them.

I can't help but feel strongly about this. So many people say they want to write a novel, but they have no idea how to do so. While any author will tell you that the process for every book is at least somewhat different, let me be one to tell you that your first draft of any project just needs to be complete. It doesn't need to be anything else. Because after you have that first draft, you can figure out how to make it into something worth reading. But until you cross that ending finish line, you will never know whether you have it in you to write a whole novel.

Spoiler alert: You absolutely do. But don't try to make it a finished book when it's still just a draft. That's what revision is for: turning it into something another person wants to read.

Upcoming Bookish Auctions

I've donated to two upcoming auctions that I wanted to put on your radar.

The first is for the Queer Liberation Network. You can get a signed, personalized edition of The Bruising of Qilwa and/or The Glade. The auction will be live next week; it's moved to 32Auctions due to technical difficulties.

​KidLit4Ceasefire has its third annual auction coming up as well. I've donated the same items there. That will run March 17-31.

​Solidarity Corner​

Linktree is linked above. If you have organizations, causes, or mutual aid requests you'd like me to spotlight here, please send those links my way. We get through these things when we do so together.

The latest:

• The World Central Kitchen and Anera are both providing iftar meals during Ramadan in Gaza.
• The Queer & Trans Muslim Solidarity Network has a call for mutual aid for someone looking for affordable housing in order to pay for groceries and medical bills.
• There is still a few days left for bidding on items at The Ramadan Market!
• The No ICE in Minnesota Itch bundle is still live! My friend-sibling Misha Grifka Wander has three TTRPGs in it!

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