Writing in the time of ChatGPT: Dubai-based journalist and author on the importance of human storytelling in the age of AI

We are often told attention is the highest form of respect. And yet, it is a truth universally acknowledged that our attention spans are on a free fall, thanks in part to doomscrolling on social media and other technologies that have sought to make our life easier. But what does it even mean to be human when your ability to absorb has dwindled considerably? What does it mean to be an author when ChatGPT promises to turn everyone into a writer? A professional writer may write in order to pay bills. But a career writer writes in order to be read, understood, challenged and deconstructed. Which is why, it is heartening to hear stories of those resilient professionals who moved mountains to have their stories being told. Dubai-based journalist-turned-author Sara Hamdan is one of them.

Last week, a piece of news that turned our gaze (and attention) to writing centred on a Dubai-based writer bagging a two-book deal with the American publisher, Holt, that has published the likes of Hilary Mantel and Toni Morrison. If this was a reason for celebration, it was because the writer in the middle of this media frenzy had waited almost a decade for the story to be told. And finally, when it did, she had three publishing houses bidding for the rights, who’d all “come in six figures”. All those years of yearning to be a writer, the half-an-hour break in the mornings to write the novel, to let the characters flesh out as she thought of them while picking her two children up from their school, the pain of rejection and the resilience of not giving up had paid off. That moment when Sara was informed of this feat also answered the title of her book at the centre of the media frenzy — What Will People Think? People were proud.

The novel, which will be published in early 2025, revolves around Mia, a Palestinian-American girl whose day job sees her working as a fact-checker in a publishing house. By evening, however, she begins to don the hat of a stand-up comedian, but in secret. Add to it, the crush she has on her boss and chancing upon a diary detailing an illicit love affair in Palestine of 1947, and you already have a novel with many layers of inquiry and ambiguity. The main themes of the book, says Sara, are self-discovery and reserving the right to love whoever you want. But as is evident from her protagonist, What Will People Think? deep dives into the idea of dissecting third culture identity. For Sara, who was born in Kuwait, raised in Greece and has an American passport, this question is important. “I grew up without stories where there were strong Arab female leads,” says Sara. “And while I watched every single J Lo and Jennifer Aniston film, I never saw myself being reflected in these stories. It means so much to be able to see yourself in stories to realise that the problems you have are not singular, that others share them.”

Putting a Palestinian-American protagonist at the heart of her story is an attempt to open that dialogue on the importance of representation, even though as an avid traveller, she hopes to write various kinds of stories centred on various kinds of people. “Representation is becoming very important. Publishers will tell you that there even is a push for diversity. I also think it’s moved from being a niche or regional focus to something that’s bigger. My novel isn’t coming out from the Middle East and other people around the world are now reading it. It’s going straight into the biggest market in the biggest way. I was, in fact, worried about being pigeonholed, but one thing that my editor told me when we met that also meant a lot to me was — ‘You’re an excellent writer and we want any story you can tell. And that’s why I got a two-book deal, not one.’”

The stand-up comedy part in the novel, however, comes from a personal anecdote where Sara’s husband, while helping her address the fear of public speaking, enrolled her for stand-up comedy classes. “I used to be absolutely terrified of public speaking and as a journalist, you get opportunities to moderate conferences, and it helps take your career to the next level. I would always turn them down because the idea of getting up and have all these people stare at me would set my heart racing. So, my husband suggested I enroll myself in a standup comedy course and every Saturday for six weeks, three hours each, I would get up and practise these jokes and how to stand,” recalls Sara, adding that tackling her fear helped her in that she consciously seeks public speaking opportunities now. “I have given a creative writing workshop at Harvard university and also moderated women in leadership forum in Dubai.”

Nine years ago, before she was pregnant with her first child, Sara came up with the idea that has taken the shape of What Will People Think? The novel was written in phases — 30 minutes put aside every morning to continue writing it, two pregnancies that led her to halt the project for a while, and hustling in a fulltime job to have the safety net that allows one to fulfill their passion. “I see why many people quit this,” she says. “It takes a lot of work — to reach out to other editors to make sure there is an objective eye glancing through your work and to keep coming back to the same work again and again to edit and give it a shape.”

anamika@khaleejtimes.com

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