Uzma Jalaluddin: On the Importance of Resilience
Internationally bestselling author Uzma Jalaluddin shares what’s more important to writing success than talent or luck, what never gets any easier, and how she drafts novels.
Uzma Jalaluddin is the internationally bestselling author of Ayesha at Last and Hana Khan Carries On. A high school teacher, she has also written a regular column for the Toronto Star and contributed to The Atlantic.
Her first novel was optioned for film by Pascal Pictures and her second novel was optioned for film by Kaling International and Amazon Studios. She lives in Toronto with her family. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
In this post, Uzma shares what’s more important to writing success than talent or luck, what never gets any easier, and how she drafts novels.
Name: Uzma Jalaluddin
Literary agent: Laura Gross, LGA Literary
Book title: Much Ado About Nada
Publisher: Berkley Publishing
Release date: June 13, 2023
Genre/category: Romance, comedy, diverse fiction
Previous titles: Ayesha at Last; Hana Khan Carries On
Elevator pitch for the book: Much Ado About Nada is a second-chance romance inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, set in a massive Muslim convention in Toronto.
What prompted you to write this book?
I wanted to explore what ambition looks like in the life of a young Muslim, South Asian woman, and how her identity impacts her professional and romantic goals. I also really love Persuasion and have been meaning to write an homage for a while. The idea of mature love, a second chance at love, a chance to make things right, really appeals to me.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
This was the second book of a two-book deal, so I was on a deadline. I started in the summer of 2021, and the book went out for printing in early 2023. My ideas always evolve over the writing process, as I discover while I draft, despite always outlining first!
While the spark of an idea revolved around second chance romance and what female ambition looks like within a specific community, it grew so the romance took up more space. My initial idea was actually quite ambitious: I wanted to write a mash-up of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
After the third draft, I realized it wasn’t really working, and the book just wanted to be loosely inspired by Persuasion, so I had to kick the Bard to the curb.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I’m fortunate to work with a great publishing team at HarperCollins in Canada, where I live, with Berkley Publishing in the United States, and Atlantic/Corvus Books in the UK. The notes and suggestions I receive are always way kinder than I am to myself—not sure what that says about my inner critic!
I’ve learned to approach story in a more wholistic way, and ask myself: What does this book want to be? What is it trying to say? And then stick closely to that message throughout the process.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
This is my third book, and it’s true what writers say—it never gets easier. I always start writing brimming with confidence, and then I get about 100 pages in, and I start to panic. I threw out the first 30K of this book and started again when I realized I had the wrong love interest. Then when it was done and the second draft handed in to my editor, I came back to it with fresh eyes and realized that the second half of the book didn’t work at all.
So I went back, reworked the plot, and the result is a much stronger narrative, and a more powerful romance that hits the main theme of love, longing, redemption, and second chances. I hope that I will one day figure out what I’m writing BEFORE I type 30 or 100K words, but I suspect my writing process will remain iterative.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I always hope my readers come away from reading my books with a happy smile on their face. Primarily, I write books to entertain and delight, and maybe even make my readers laugh. If they find some insight into a community they might not be familiar with, or perhaps feel seen because they’ve never read a book that reflects their reality as a South Asian, or as a Muslim, or as a second generation immigrant, well, that’s a bonus!
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Everyone has to find their own path, but resilience is the one ingredient that every writer needs. More than talent, maybe even more than luck.
During those dark days when you’re writing through the saggy middle, or when you’ve written an entire book that doesn’t work, the quality that will help you through the wilderness is that burning resilience. An obsessive personality helps too, according to my husband!
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
