The Creative Process: A Journey of Self-Discovery through Creative Writing

This PhD submission constitutes a novel and accompanying critical commentary. My novel Nobody Killed Her provides an alternative history of the assassination of Pakistan's only female Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto. The thesis questions the choices I made in order to develop the writing of this novel and the decisions I took in order for it to reach its readers. I discuss the issues of creative integrity and the role of the publisher as an enabler, and as a modern day censor. I examine the role of literary influences and publishing pressures on the multi-layered and shifting strains of the creative process and explore fiction as a powerful tool for communicating the paradoxical state of modern Pakistani women, which my novel draws upon. Accordingly, my research narrative is interspersed with personal vignettes that helped shape my writing. Reflecting upon the role of memory, history and politics, and literary influences that shape our writing, I try to interrogate the ‘flash-bulb’ moments of inspiration and argue that creative writing is actually a series of complex thought processes that shape our consciousness. I have also, during the compilation of this essay, looked critically at the role of the publisher in shaping an author’s creativity and the author’s desire for publication in influencing his or her creative choices. I have examined the role of the audience, by asking who the writer is writing for, concluding that the creative journey is more important than the destination i.e., the culmination of the writing into a published form. I conclude by contending that creative writing is above all communication, not just with the reader but also with one’s self. It is about self- expression and therefore must remain true to the self.