Writing Memoir: Sex Bomb

Sex Bomb

It’s May 2020, I’m stuck at home – like the rest of the country. 

I’m a comedian and my industry that relies entirely on live audiences and venues, has ground to a halt.  

I’m single, I live on my own and don’t own any pets. I’m on Twitter, a lot, as it’s my only connection to the world. I see a retweet by a friend:

Flamin nora @katierpacker

To publishing hopefuls from underrepresented backgrounds – if there is anything I can do to help, then please send me a DM/email me. I would love to answer any questions you have. I’m aware that there is so much more the industry can do to support diverse voices. 

The tweet has proved popular with nearly 600 retweets and counting. 

I’d tried reaching out for help in creative industries before. Whether it was to find out about writer’s rooms for people from underrepresented backgrounds, script editing workshops or sitcom writing, I’d tried again and again  to find the support or guidance to help me write professionally as writing was something I’d always wanted to do. It hadn’t ever amounted to anything. Most of my applications were declined due to lack of experience or high demand, often both. But I’d not become jaded, I’d always wanted to write a book and let’s face it, I have the time now. I have a good feeling and so I follow Katie on Twitter. I’m not really sure what her job title, Senior Commissioning Editor, means, but I pluck up the courage to send her an email. 

A few weeks pass by and whilst I’m hopeful she might reply, I’m not sure what may come of this if anything. In my industry you often chase things you don’t fully understand. 

I think about what a book I write would look like. I wrote an article for Metro in 2019, ‘Horny Muslim women like me aren’t supposed to exist during Ramadan’. It went viral. It was my first article, and I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be covered by Sputnik Russia! Most of my comedy leans into the realities and disappointments I have with dating, it’s also a major theme of the BBC Sounds podcast that I co-host, No Country For Young Women, and it feels like this is a natural subject for me to explore. I think my book could be on this, about my world and my experiences. I stay hoping.

A few weeks later, I get an unexpected email. It’s from the editor Katie, and it isn’t an ‘unfortunately on this occasion’ response. It’s positive. She replies saying that we can work on a treatment and asks if I could put together one or two sample chapters that reflect the tone of the book for her to review. This is so much more than I could ever have hoped for! Katie is really lovely, warm and supportive. Given the popularity of her tweet, I’m super humbled to have her attention. She’s easy to work with and so perceptive that I feel I’m talking to someone I’ve known for ages. She’s really caring and her online presence is only a preview of her charisma.

I decide if I’m going to talk about love I’m really going to cover my journey into stand up and my views and experience of sex. It may sound cliché, but this is a book that really wrote itself.

A few months later, in November, Katie has pitched the book to the wider team at Headline. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high but, up till this point, all the signs have been good. 

I’ll never forget the moment my agent Chris calls me and says, ‘Congratulations! Headline have commissioned your book!’

I’m delighted. This is such a huge deal. I LOVE writing. In fact, I’ve gotten ahead of myself and already written half of the first draft. 

I spend the rest of December writing. 

Come January, I feel like I’ve made great head way. I send it to a friend, an excellent writer, to read. He comes back with notes. So many notes. The general feedback from him is that in your first draft you put everything in, often too much. Now you need to iron out the themes and drill down what it is you want to hone in on. I’m very familiar with the old adage ‘writing is rewriting’. I get back to it, and do my second draft.

Katie assures me the next draft is better. But I am faced with the dreaded ‘s’ word. That’s right, structure. The text is desperately crying out for some. It doesn’t need to be chronological, but it does need to be there and much clearer for the readers to follow the journey. I’m back to the writing board as it were. I rewrite the book again. I’m now on my three and a half draft. It’s three and a half because one chunk was pretty much ready and just needed minor changes compared to the rest. I’ve lost so much material but written so much more to replace it. 

I’m back on Twitter and very luckily stumble across another tweet, this time by former editor of my Metro article, Rosy Edwards. She is offering six free mentor sessions. I’m conscious I’ve bugged my friends enough in reading the earlier drafts, and if I want to keep them, it may be that an idea to take Rosy up on her offer. She agrees and I am elated! Rosy’s edits are always fantastic. I have developed the shape more but Rosy helps me to see that the parts of the book that are stronger are where there are action or events taking place. She provides countless other notes to support, for want of another term, a redraft. 

It’s surprising even by this stage how many more anecdotes seem to spring to mind. 

By draft four and a half, I’m feeling really happy. I submit it to Katie for structural edits. With Katie’s keen eye and natural instincts, we have nailed the structure and themes of the book. 

It’s draft five and a half and I feel like it’s probably best to stop counting now. 

There are several more steps to the process. Katie sources a developmental editor and then a copyeditor. Plus, she provides countless more notes herself. Always on hand if I have any questions. I feel very fortunate. Katie is really the easiest person I have ever had the privilege to work with. She really understands things, usually quite intuitively, without much explanation on my part. She is kind, personable and funny. She sends me an updated version which include her edits. 

In January 2022, I re-read the book and add my updates. We are there. 

Writing is not a seamless journey or an easy flourish until the job is done. There is a lot of hard work involved in creating art, a lot of frustrations, stopping, starting, reworking, pausing, reflecting, retrying. I reflect that this is one of the most rewarding endeavours I have ever embarked upon. Katie and I have really made a book! It has become something I am very proud of. 

People say writing a book can be one of the hardest things you ever do. In my case, it comes in second to finding true love!

—

Sadia Azmat is a stand-up comedian and writer from East London. In 2018 Sadia launched her critically acclaimed BBC podcast ‘No Country For Young Women’ which was named as one of the ‘Best Audio 2018’ by the Observer and Apple’s Top picks 2018.

She currently works as a Producer for BBC Studios. Sex Bomb is her first book.

https://www.headline.co.uk/titles/sadia-azmat/sex-bomb/9781472285782/

Find out more about Sadia on her website  http://www.sadiaazmat.com/

Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/sadia_azmats_

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