Starting to write “Pleasure Torment” .. and my novels are in-depth research

Jordanian novelist Ayman Al-Atoum denied the existence of a person who “writes alone from the world, or independently with a special imagination, or as a departure from a path that began before him,” because there are extensions.

Al-Atoum, who was a guest on the “New Literary Experiences” theme on the sidelines of the 18th edition of the “Thoiza” Cultural Festival, added that “the personal imprint” is an essential issue for every writer (…) He also revealed that he has been writing for more than 42 years, that is, since 1982; however, he did not enter the world of publishing what he writes until 2012, meaning that 12 full years separate him from today and the first draft.

The novelist himself stressed that he “does not have a single ritual in writing.” He added: “I am always moody. What distinguishes my ritual is the discipline of its chaos; creative chaos, as they say. And there are many types of torments that I suffer until the fruit of writing falls ripe; torments at hierarchical levels.”

The author of “The Word of God” described choosing the idea for the novel as “torment,” noting that “the psychological preparation for writing is torture, starting it is torture, choosing the title of the work is torture, and getting out of it, by finishing it in any way, is torture,” adding: “This torture has another side of pleasure. If I didn’t enjoy what I write, I wouldn’t have endured this torture for these four decades. I walk back and forth from the house if the idea strikes me.”

The novelist continued, while addressing a group of Moroccan writers who had recently joined the writing club, saying: “I write in silence; and what I write in silence comes out poetically, smoothly and sweetly,” noting that “if he is forced to write in a noisy atmosphere, his writing will come out in the style of this noise. Often, one of the characters ends up dying or committing suicide in this atmosphere.”

He added: “I have a notebook for each novel; 20 novels with 20 notebooks so far; the initial planning of the course of events is very important to me.”

The guest of “Thoiza” also spoke about choosing the place, saying: “I often visit it or stay there for a period of time that allows its details to penetrate my soul. If the place is impossible, like Gilboa Prison, about which I wrote one of my novels, I do not venture to describe it before I meet someone who lived within its walls for at least five years,” stressing that for him, the scenes “are a prerequisite for style; and language is a living tool of description,” adding: “The initial plan is sacred to me, but some of its details may change for the slightest reason.”

He continued, explaining: “The course of events changes; I have control over events to direct them as I wish, but sometimes, without my noticing, I see that these events are the ones that control me; at that moment, they direct me in the wrong direction, but paths do not last long, and vigilance soon awakens.”

He said: “I am a descriptive writer in my novels; I practice description daily; every day I take a scene from people’s lives and describe it; people leaving the metro station, for example (…) or a traffic light where dozens of cars stop with faces that don’t agree on anything.”

The novelist, who edited “Soldiers’ Talk,” admitted that “the biggest challenge I face is turning the letter into a lens, which is to make the reader of those letters recall that scene as if it were right in front of him, as if he were seeing it with his own eyes and not reading it with his tongue. If I succeed in bringing the reader into the cinematography of the letter, then that is a goal I am constantly striving for.”

“Most of my novels are in-depth research. I put in a lot of effort in research in order to respect my work. I realize that when the work is in the hands of the reader, my ownership of it ends and it becomes the property of the reader and the critic together. Therefore, I do not start writing until I have fully covered the aspects of the subject I am writing about,” he explained, noting that in the novel God’s Land (…) he had to, in addition to obtaining the hero’s memoirs, read about the history of slavery from the Romans to the present day, and about the history of the emergence of America, and about sugarcane, tobacco and corn farms and the working conditions there.

He stressed that “this effort takes him continuous months of research and more than ten hours of reading per day,” adding: “This is what I take as an approach for most of my novels; historical ones in particular. You cannot be a successful writer without certain qualifications, the first of which is deep and continuous reading. If I did not read at least a hundred pages per day, my continued writing would not have been possible.”

The author of “Hell’s Road” spoke about “reproducing what you read; this is done by studying what you read and discussing it with others, whoever they may be, then summarizing it and memorizing what you like from it,” moving on to the necessity of “clarity of purpose and the means to reach it, in addition to the ability to be creative, which is an inner voice that guides the letter, as well as internal discipline.” Therefore, Al-Atoum said in Tangier: “Nothing is made in vain, and if there were no plan, there would be no text. The matter requires meticulous patience, as everything needs time, and there is no deprivation except in haste, which calls for stubbornness, as a lofty goal cannot be reached without stubbornness, and you will break a thousand times on the way before you reach it.”