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A single story can be represented through various lenses and can be transported through various mediums – I chose poetry. The form seemed natural to the kind of content I wanted to generate – relatable, succinct and transferable. Being a daydreamer, wildly optimistic and an observant it is only natural that I considered Poetry and Prose as a medium to express my views on life.

When I began writing, I didn’t have an audience in mind except for myself but after writing more than a hundred pieces and sharing it within my social circles, I realized that the fact that poetry has a characteristic to let its readers read in between the lines means that everyone would be able to resonate with it at some level. I took the risk and made it available worldwide on 12th September 2017 in the US, UK, and Europe through Amazon and Barnes and Noble (B&N).

One of the reasons to write Walk with Me was that I noticed the teenage community was drastically underrepresented in this genre. When we mention poetry, the most common sentiment is love, heartbreak or betrayal. I wanted to encompass a broader range of emotions, to make the reader feel understood and show that love is only one of the many emotions and this makes the collection relatable in a broader perspective.

When writing the collection, the most difficult aspect was to remain true to the chosen theme – ‘Growing up’. As a writer, a myriad of story trails emerge in between the writing process but you must make a choice, no matter how close a writing may be to your heart. Anyone who has ever written will agree that writing creates self-doubt, sometimes you want to give up because you think it’s not good enough, but I say this to everyone, write that bad piece of writing – tomorrow is another day!

If you want to start writing, start reading. What do I mean by that? Read for the pleasure, but be keen to notice the writer’s style, how he or she incorporates reality because, at the end of the day, it’s all inspired by a writer’s environment. I would encourage everyone to start reading from an early age, because you may not want/end up with a career in writing, but reading will teach you to express yourself – and expression is so important in today’s world (refer to ‘Opinion’ page 180 of Walk With Me).

I first introduced my book to the social media, I began posting excerpts of it – a physical copy of the book was never the goal, but someone asked me for one, so I thought why not? Here in Pakistan, there are almost no writing or publishing resources and when I reached out to foreign publishers, there were considerable logistics involved; so this made it very difficult to get my book out to the world.

I spent almost a year after completing it. Approached various book agents, a few were interested in the story, but a few wanted to change it. I was lucky to receive editing advice from the professionals in the field and when I introduced the book to Liberty Bookstore, they were more than happy to put it on their shelves. My primary audience is teenagers, so I often visit schools and universities to share my experience.

Writing is my safe place. If I wasn’t a writer, I would probably be a teacher. I encourage everyone my age to take a risk for what you believe in, there’s no right age to become a writer – passion is fuel!