In the summer of 2017, with the rush of incoming Stories Untold entries in the air and Daastan’s social media teeming with writers, poets, thinkers and dreamers, the team decided to dish out a series of writing prompts to encourage the flow of ideas. What started as an all too simple social media post to get conversations going, caught the eye of Daastan’s Founder, and he decided to turn it into a competition and put a reward at the end to motivate the writers even further. Thus, began the campaign of Mukhtasir Daastan, which lasted months and earned almost all those who participated goodies and discounts from various sponsors.
Magic:
A total of seven such prompt based competitions were initiated, each with a unique theme, requirements and prizes. What ensued was a flurry of creativity crushed into six-word stories. The first sponsored prompt was put up in collaboration with Jadugar and Co., a freelance graphic design company, and the theme was aptly titled “Magic”. The winners were given prizes which included discounts and a personalized typographic design.
Smiles:
The second in the series that followed was sponsored by Smiles.pk. They asked the audience to help them write their tagline, in return of a gift prize of 2500 PKR. Smiles.pk ended up choosing not one, but two winners. They liked two of the entries so much that they just couldn’t narrow it down to one.
Travel:
The third in the series of Mukhtasir Daastan was sponsored by Aurochs, a premium leather products manufacturing company which designed highly functional pieces with ease of use in mind. The theme of the six-word story competition was “Travel”. The top five finalists received a 50% off coupon on their products, while all those who participated also received a small discount as well.
Youth:
The fourth, and final one which was sponsored by another company, was held in collaboration with Forever21 magazine, a bi-monthly magazine seeking to empower youth. The magazine requested the authors to let their creativity flow, and no word limit was imposed. The winner received a gift bag in reward for her eloquently written piece on the theme “I want to be 17 again because…”
By Qissa Authors:
The last three prompts of the series were
sponsored by the authors published with Qissa. They fished out one lettered
theme of their books, such as “Adapt” for Unveiling the Unknown by Tooba
Arshad, and asked the writers to come up with a heart touching six-word-story
on it. The winners and participants were awarded multiple levels of discounts on
the books from which the themes were taken.
The final gift though, came from Daastan. It was promised from the very start of the series of Mukhtasir Daastan, that the team would hand pick the best ones out of all those who participated, compile, and publish it into a book, eternalizing the bird-like thoughts of each of the writers featured in it. If you are a writer and want to see your work published, drop us a message on Daastan!
After having read the entries of The Stories Untold Season 2 on the theme of “A War Within”, the team of Daastan found themselves incredibly moved because of each of the stories. They wanted to help further market these snippets of reality, to bring bits and pieces of it served as hors d’oeuvres to the readers so as to build their appetite for the main course of the meal – the book – that was to follow. The idea was to make the story penned down more relatable, to humanize the words, and build the audience’s relationship with their writers, helping the readers sense the emotions that ran through the authors as the phrases were put to paper.
Nashist:
The resulting movement that ensued, an innovative and ahead of its time podcast series, was named Nashist. Nashist, an Urdu word, literally translates to a ‘gathering’ or a ‘seated assembly’, and that is the exact effect we wanted to produce. We wanted our readers to come together as one and listen with their hearts while one of their own quoted the books, heavily focusing on the sentiments each word entailed. Each week, one of the top five finalists of The Stories Untold from each language was chosen, and a selection made from among its pages that would draw the listener’s breath away. One of our literary fellows of the debut batch would then narrate the appointed lines, over heavenly music produced by Moonlight Studios. The storytelling was done in such a brilliant manner that it shook the listener’s mind, helping them associate with the writer and empowering the writers by helping them communicate in a much more personal manner with their readers.
A few of the books chosen for the podcast included Across the Line by Abhirun Das, A War Within by Aaina Batool, as well Urdu books like Jahan Ara by Saba Ahmad and Ye Bande Tere Albele Se by Fatima Ambereen. The series was powered by PeaceTech Lab, PeaceTech Pakistan, and Technology for People Initiative, in partnership with The Ancient Souls and Young Women Writers’ Forum.
As the winter of 2016 rolled in, with the Qissa self-publishing up and running and Daastan’s founder Syed Ommer Ammer enrolled in Telenor’s Velocity Program looking to scale the company and redefine the industry as per Daastan’s vision, the team decided to kickstart a fellowship program. The program, dubbed the Literary Fellowship, would enlist and take on fresh minds who were seeking to disrupt and change the game in the literary industry, but were lacking the opportunity or the proper guidance to do so. The team, having many such obstacles while trying to reach out to the public themselves, wanted to pave the way and make it easier for those who wanted to follow in their suit, and equip them with cheers and support rather than rejections and sneers.
The Launch and Subsequent Response:
The call for submissions for the debut batch went out in the September of 2016, and to our surprise more than 50 people applied for the program. Each submission was carefully pored over, to make sure the group that would be a part of the team in the upcoming three months were doers and believers who could push past their comfort zones. They were initially shortlisted to a group of almost 25 people, and after an interview session, the number was reduced down to the final 15, and that is when the magic began.
Literary Fellows of the Debut Batch
The Course of the Fellowship:
Over the next three months, the mentors from Daastan laboured day in and day out with their assigned mentees. Each fellow was given tailor made tasks to enhance their specific skill set, along with targeted guidance to help them do their work efficiently. The fellows were encouraged to come up with projects of their own, which Daastan would help them develop, launch, market and scale so at the end of the three-month period they would have a sustainable venture of their own to build on. After a few months it became clear, the fellowship program had become a huge hit.
Success Stories:
The success stories of the debut batch included Ms. Mahnoor Naseer, who co-founded a global digital publishing platform by the name of The Ancient Souls, and also helped us set up operations in India. She went on to become an Editor in Chief at Daastan, and train the next batch of fellows. Another graduate, Ms. Aroosa Mushtaq Malik, was video interviewed live on PTV World. Ms. Armin Bilquis, the youngest fellow of the batch, brought her poetry book to Qissa, and Daastan helped raise funds to bring “Melted Kaleidoscopes” to print. Order a copy here to support the author.
Over the course of 2016, along with developing its businesses and improving by leaps and bounds, Daastan also had the opportunity to launch “Daastan Freelance Writers”. It was a closed beta version wing of the company providing content solutions to clients who required professionally written content that spoke for itself. This was among Daastan’s various innovative initiatives targeted to revolutionize and therefore make easier the process of writers earning a livelihood for themselves through paid writing gigs, and thus gaining financial independence through their writings. At its peak, this wing had over 70 writers working on a daily basis, who had a combined skill set of 20 plus genres. On average, Daastan Freelance Writing Wing generated almost 5,000 words daily, for more than 5 clients.
Eventually, Daastan had the privilege of signing a contract with Startup.pk. A firm which aims to empower entrepreneurs much like ourselves and provide them with a platform to build their skills, knowledge, exchange opportunities, resourceful connections, and mentoring and training services which eventually helps them scale and build strong entrepreneurial thinking as well as linkages in the industry.
Daastan’s Partnership with Startup.pk:
Daastan’s involvement with Startup.pk ensured its own advancement, as its writers started gaining exposure and became a direct part of Pakistan’s start-up culture, which not only encouraged their entrepreneurial thinking and innovation but also groomed them and their writing skills into becoming more professional, refined, and diverse. Daastan encourages all of its writers into joining its professional team, and makes certain that all those with fine-tuned capabilities are revealed to the world and their talents exhibited in relevant areas. The directors have over time realized that not everyone wants to write stories; many writers simply require an avenue which will provide them with paid work.
How can you become a part of the team?
To cater to this, the executives decided to strengthen their freelance platform to provide more of such opportunities to local writers. To join, you can simply sign up on Qissa – all you only need to have the strong will to showcase your abilities, followed by the capacity to work and make sure you are seen for all your potential. Daastan’s partnership with Startup.pk is neither the first, nor will it be the last of its kind, as we are constantly striving to bring bigger and better opportunities to our team. If you own a business, and require quality content solutions, talk to us of your needs by emailing us at merasawal@daastan.com, or contacting us through our website and we will be sure to whip up writings customized to your requirements.
