Muslim Comics

A Young Muslim Author’s Take on Writing Well Developed Muslim Characters

I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do have two published graphic novels, so I’m not a complete newbie. I’m not arrogantly telling you how to write your story, but rather sharing what I’ve learned from my years of trial and error. I’m also writing this for myself so that I can evaluate my process. Feel free to share your ideas with me in the comments below.

What’s Your Message or Theme?

So the first thing I typically start off with is, what’s the message or theme I want to convey. When developing “Hani and Huda,” I first decided what Islamic message I wanted the kids to learn. Then I brainstormed how this lesson can be taught.

These story ideas are not forced. They usually pop in my head from things I might see on the internet, in the mesjid, at home, and things I’ve heard from friends or family. Anytime I have an idea I write it down as quickly as possible in my phone or a notepad, to be further developed later. They can be as short as a sentence or two. For “Hani and Huda” I actually have written over 70 pages of ideas, most of which haven’t been further developed. And on my phone I have a list of 100 story ideas unrelated to “Hani and Huda.” When I’m ready to write a new story, I can just look at my past ideas and just expand them further.

Once I have my main idea, I quickly write down the events that should take place in a story. When writing Hani and Huda, the events aren’t very major or many as the stories are mainly 20-30 pages in length. It’s mostly an introduction of the characters and the problem, the character’s reaction to the problem, and the resolution.

Who’s Your Main Character and What is Their Goal?

For longer form stories first you should think of your character and what their problem is. They should have a need and a want. For example they might want to become a pro athlete, but what they need is to develop patience or mental toughness. In pursuit of their goal, there should be many roadblocks that they overcome, otherwise we don’t have a story. Without the roadblocks the story would simply be, “John wants to become a pro athlete, and so he did. The end.”

When considering your character and their goal try to make the character far from reaching their goal. If your character is already one of the best players in country, then reaching their goal wouldn’t seem that difficult versus if they’ve never played the sport. Or if they are already a very good player, then there should be other roadblocks not directly related to their goal which slows them down in accomplishing their goal. Maybe they have a sick parent that forces them to work long hours, maybe they get a serious injury and they must recover from it, maybe they have financial issues, maybe they’re forced to move to a backwater village where they can no longer practice or get the media coverage they need.

In developing the character he should have problems. He shouldn’t be perfect, because nobody is. We all have weaknesses. Maybe our protagonist is great at athletics but horrible at academics. Or maybe they’re bad at working with their teammates. He has a short temper. For example our protagonist wants to become a pro player, but he needs to reconnect with his father so that he’s in the right mental space to achieve his goals.

When brainstorming your character try to have a clear image of someone in your head. You can base it on a real person you know (change the name though!). Think of their home life, their school life, their work life, and so on. Who is this person in these different settings. What’s their image of their self. Are they a glass half full or half empty type of person. Who are their parents and friends? How do these people positively or negatively impact their lives? Do the same thing for the supporting characters, although it doesn’t demand as much detail.

One particular thing I’m learning is that you should be clear with your characters. Yes, we as human beings are very layered, but when writing a story for people to understand I think it’s useful to be clear in who your characters are. If our character is meant to be a wannabe pro athlete, then we shouldn’t show images that conflict with this view of him. That was one problem I made in a story I wrote. I tried making the main character a bully, but also someone who didn’t actually want to be a bully. Rather he should have simply been a straightforward bully, who through the different events in the story realizes he should stop. That would have been more effective and easier to accomplish. In short do not make an overly conflicting character.

Don’t Forget Your Antagonist!

A good story also has an antagonist. For our wannabe pro athlete it could be a rival that he seemingly can’t beat. It could be a journalist that writes scathing remarks about him. It could be his teacher which expects him to do well, as opposed to the other teachers which all give him passing grades. Or it could be a family member which is against his ambition.

Show, Don’t Tell

Show, don’t tell is another lesson. When writing Muslim books we have the tendency to tell the audience what a person is thinking or feeling, rather than showing. We should be clear in our story telling, but we should also allow the reader to draw his own conclusions. We don’t need to tell that a character is sad. We can show he’s sad by saying his shoulders are slumped, his head is down, he’s averting his eyes and his cheeks are red.

Don’t Preach

Don’t preach is another lesson we tend to forget. Usually at the end of the “Hani and Huda” chapters the dad would give the final lesson of the story. But really it would have been more effective if the character came to that realization on their own. For example in the chapter on not stealing, rather than the Mom quoting a hadith on why you shouldn’t steal, it may have been better to show Huda, feeling horrible and self conscious about what she did. She could have then been siting in an Islamic class where she hears the quote, or she could have read it herself. To be fair though most of the readers didn’t have an issue with the small bit of preachiness at the end of the stories. They didn’t last long, and it’s a good way to convey the Islamic lesson with a quote from the Quran or sunnah.

Who’s the Role Model of the Story?

Another thing to keep in mind when writing your Muslim story, is that there should be a role model in the story. Preferably the role model should be the protagonist, since it’s the character we’re spending the most time with. Why we need this is because we don’t want to give bad lessons to the readers. If our character is super naughty and he never learns from his bad behavior then we’re giving a negative lesson. The other characters in the book can have bad qualities that don’t necessarily get resolved, but the main character shouldn’t have those same issues. For example in “Hani and Huda,” Hani made many mistakes. He pushed a friend of his, he yelled, he failed a test and many more things. But he apologized or was corrected on his mistakes. And his general attitude is one of wanting to be good. None of us are perfect but we should all be striving to be as best as we can.

Islam Isn’t an Accessory

Islam shouldn’t just be thrown in as an after thought, rather it should be interwoven into the story. The characters shouldn’t just happen to be Muslim. Islam should be a central part of their identity. Not just culturally with certain foods they’re eating, or certain words they say. But rather holistically. They should be shown praying, fasting, giving salaams, praising Allah, reading Quran and so on. The theme of the story should be based on Islam, and the resolution should also be based on Islam. At the very least it shouldn’t go against Islam. The author shouldn’t confuse the reader as to what Islam is. I’ve read many books where the family isn’t wearing proper hijab, or one character is but the other character isn’t. It’s not necessarily a problem if the one who isn’t following Islam correctly is clearly shown as a heedless person, or a weak person. But if they’re supposed to be the role model and they’re failing in an aspect of Islam while not being corrected in the story, then that’s a problem. That’s a mixed message, now the young reader isn’t sure what is correct.

Generally our readers are not old enough to know or research what is correct or incorrect according to Islam, so we as the author must be clear in our messaging. For example as a youth growing up in Saudi Arabia, it was very clear that music was haraam. I didn’t hear music in school, on TV, or from friends. It was understood and taught that music was haraam. Now when I came to America it was the opposite. Music was everywhere and most Muslims listened to music, so obviously I was confused what was correct. Yes, Muslims are not perfect, but these stories that we write are lessons for our young readers. We shouldn’t confuse them and instead should be guiding them back to the Quran and Sunnah. That should be our goal in writing Muslim literature.

When writing the resolution of the story, this is the author’s chance to give his final message to the readers. He can be a little preachy here. This is where the protagonist tells the reader what he learned from his journey and what the reader should take away from the story.

Edit, Edit, and Edit Some More

After you’ve written your story, take a break from it so you can come back to it with fresh eyes. It’s hard judging your own work, or finding the faults in it. It’s best to let someone else who can give good feedback to look it over. This is probably the hardest part of the writing process. It’s hard to get good feedback for free. It’s also hard to filter out what you don’t need and what you need from the feedback you receive. Don’t be afraid to re-write whole sections of your story if it will better aide in telling your main story or theme.

What did you think of this post? Do you agree with what I’ve written? Share in the comments below.

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