The art of fiction: Making the familiar new

• Pages: 28-30

What inspired you to write?

My father was a writer and, as a child, writing was

my only dream. My father told me that it would

be impossible to make a living in Egypt as a writer

of fiction and that I needed another pro-

fession. Even the Nobel laureate, Naguib

Mahfouz had to work for the govern-

ment until he retired. That’s why I

became a dentist, to have another

source of income.

How has being a dentist influenced

your writing?

There is a very strong link be-

tween medicine and literature.

They both deal with human

beings. Medicine tries to cure

them, while literature seeks

to understand and explain human be -

havior through fiction. So when I work as a dentist

or when I write, I don’t really feel that I am moving

from one world to another. It’s the same circuit.

It is very useful being a dentist. First, it enables

me to be an independent writer, and this is very

important in Egypt. As I earned my money from

dentistry, I have always been free to say and write

what I wanted. Secondly, as a dentist I am close

to ordinary people. I’m a different kind of dentist;

I give my patients all the time they need. They

become friends, we drink coffee together. If when

they come to the clinic they don’t feel like having

treatment, we just talk. Human contact is very im-

portant and also very useful for me as a novelist.

While I don’t use the stories of my patients for my

novels – that would be unprofessional – I learn

from people. A novelist should always be open to

people; you cannot be a novelist without loving

people. Through literature, writers try to explain

people’s feelings, their lives and even their mis-

takes without being judgmental. People, patients,

even my participation in the Egyptian revolution;

all these things belong to literature.

What makes a novel successful?

There is no single formula for writing fiction.

Every writer has to find their own way. I keep a

file with details of every character – if she is a

lady, how she looks or is dressed; if she smokes,

the brand of cigarettes she buys, etc. This helps

me breathe life into the characters of my imagina-

tion. At some point they begin to take on a life of

their own. This is when I begin writing. It’s a bit

like taking good friends by the hand on a trip. It

real- ly is a very mysterious thing, but my char-

acters become independent and, instead of me

directing them on the screen of my imagination,

they decide what to do and I write what I see

them doing. This gives me unbelievable pleasure.

It’s an unbelievable feeling to no longer be in

control of your characters.

It usually takes me two to three years to write a

novel, but the files of characters for three or four

other novels are open at the same time. Why?

Because I wait for the “click”. When the file “clicks”

into place, I begin writing.

Dentistry is much easier than writing. At least

in dentistry you know the rules. In writing you

discover the rules as you write. You really need

to love writing to be a writer, because you spend

hours alone improving your technique and devel-

oping your own style. Then there is the challenge

of getting your material published.

THE ART OF FICTION

MAKING THE FAMILIAR

NEW

OCTOBER 2011

28

Internationally acclaimed Egyptian novelist Alaa Al Aswany, author of

The Yacoubian Building

, an ironic depic-

tion of modern Egyptian society, sat down with WIPO Magazine ahead of the WIPO High Level Copyright

Dialogue on the Book and Publishing Industry in June 2011, at which he was a panelist, and shared his insights

about the life of a fiction writer in Egypt. Dr. Al Aswany is a practicing dentist and novelist. His literary work

has attracted widespread attention and has been translated into 34 languages and published in 100 countries.

“Writing is like wooing a princess in

a castle. You really have to prove your

love, and in the end she opens the door.”