Creative writing proposal

RUNNING HEAD: CREATIVE WRITING PROPOSAL Creative Writing Proposal Proposal My work shall be one of fiction. The main theme will bereligion and the perks that come with being associated or affiliated to a certain religion especially when you are female. I would like to base my novel on a Young lady, Tamara, who is determined to practice African traditional religion even in the 21st century. Tamara lives with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Abush in Birmingham, Britain. They are both Christians and are always confused by Tamara’s choice of religion seeing as they had never exposed her to any traditional religion even as a baby. I will portray Tamara as a sensible girl with average looks, with maybe one or two outstanding features besides the fact that is a traditionalist. Her unusual knack to be cool, calm and relaxed makes her the voice of reason to her parents and even her friends. Aside from her family Tamara has a social life which she builds up gradually from her high school and university life. Most significantly there is Agatha, whose previous life was ‘ dark’ until the day she became a Christian, she is very religious but does not judge Tamara because of her religious believes. On the other hand there is Rajab. He is a young Muslim man living with his Brother Yusuf. They fight a lot because Rajab does not pay much attention to his religion unlike his brother. And they are both secretly attracted to Tamara. I think I will want to portray Rajab as a comic for two reasons. One is to break the whole intensity and monotony of having religion as a theme and secondly to widen contrast between him and his brother. Though based in Birmingham, I will do a number of researches on Ethiopia, to know their culture in terms of religious practices, their social life and cuisine. This is important because the main characters family is originally from Ethiopia. Some of Tamara’s and even her parents flash backs (which I will use to explain their previous lives) will be about their past life in Ethiopia. Also to get a few Ethiopian phrases to add to their conversations I will also do a few readings done by Ethiopian writers, for instance Kabede Bekere. I will also scope African writers, such as Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Chinua Achebe, to see the styles they use to represent and talk about African traditional religion. I will use the normal narrative techniques such as parallelism, rhetorical questions, and similes, repetition and point of view. I intend to achieve a cohesive interaction between the traditional perspective and the modern perspective of not only religion but also in writing. I will use minimal stylistic devices for instance metaphors, hyperbole, to avoid the book sounding plastic or unreal. Whether or not the book will be a short or long, is dependent, at this point, on flow of thought. The main issue I am bound to encounter is a problem with the theme on religion. There is a risk of me being cliche seeing as Muslim and Christian conflicts are not something new. In this case, I intend to find a different aspect of religion that is unexamined or relatively new. I hope that the use of sarcasm and comic relieves in regard to Rajab as a character will make the book interesting. Another challenge will probably be getting relevant information on African Traditional Religion; aside from internet sources I will try interview someone who might have knowledge on the matter to get first hand information. My work is influenced by the lives of the Maasai, who are a community in Kenya, a country in Africa. The Maasai are among the very few communities in Kenya that have maintained most if not all their traditional practices, something to reckon with seeing as the wave of Christianity, Islam and other perceivably civilized religions has swept over ? of the countries population. What I admired most was the oblivious state they live in, like their practices were the right ones, they did not question their traditions though considered primitive even by fellow Kenyans, they were faithful to their practices. As to why the main character is a lady is based on my admiration for Sidney Sheldon. Though my work will not be attributed to any of his works, I particularly admire his great skill in making not only a fortune but making history by focusing all his writings on women. What attracted me was that he did not change them to make the women have masculine characteristics, but instead maintained their femininity. References Isaacs, M. (2009) African Tradition Religion, London: Penguin. Lincoln, R. (2007) The Road Home, London: Chatto & Windus. Robert O. Collins (2006), The maasai in historical perspective, Transaction Publishers, p. 9-10.