We haven’t ever worked on the second-person short story, which is what made this writing workshop particularly interesting for me! I love it when I get to work with something new at a guest session! Michelle D’costa conducted a detailed session, introducing the three narrative perspectives and focussing on the second person narrator. From common […]
The Adventures of Mooli and the Blue-Legged Alien
We’ve read the other two Mooli books at my book club (although that was before my current book clubbers were old enough to join), and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed them! The Adventures of Mooli and the Blue-Legged Alien is just as much fun, or perhaps even more fun! A lovely combination of wacky adventures and a […]
The Art of Laughter
Every time I begin a new batch of my writing programme, it feels like the weeks fly by! This edition is nearly at an end, marked by our third and last guest session of the season. This session was conducted by Arundhati Venkatesh, author of a number of humorous books. My book clubbers have read […]
PodLab with Menaka Raman
At the Neev Literature Festival 2023, I watched Menaka Raman conduct a session on character development, and I knew I wanted to invite her to my writing programme. She did a session for us today, and what an engaging session it was! Her lively teaching style made the workshop a treat. This workshop was my […]
How to Rhyme Without Reason
How I love guest sessions! Yesterday’s workshop on nonsense verse with Anushka Ravishankar was a treat. It’s delightful how serious nonsense verse is! Full of contradictions, full of rules (of what nonsense verse is not), and full of surprises, we learned so much and wrote nonsense poems of our own too. Essentially, nonsense writing is […]
Why I Think Online Workshops Are More Effective than Offline Ones
A Little History I started conducting reading and writing workshops for children in 2013 at the British Library, Pune. It was fun, and the library space was exciting. Both as standalone events and as part of the library’s larger Reading Challenges, it seemed to me that libraries were ideal for workshops of the kind I […]
My Year in Workshops: 2023
Writing sessions from the car. Book club sessions from a misal shop on the highway. Guest sessions in my dance class hall. 2023 was a year when I seemed to be juggling rather a lot, especially as my writing programmes were bursting at the seams, plus I started an in-person writers’ club at St. Mary’s […]
The Diary as Story
In just a few weeks, yet another writing programme will come to an end! Yesterday was the third and last guest session of the season–a creative writing workshop with children’s book author Sowmya Rajendran. I love it when guests reinforce something I’ve been talking about for a while. During yesterday’s session, it was ‘write what […]
Stories: Comic-Page Style
What a rewarding session we had with Nandita Basu! At workshops like this one, I think I learn as much as the young writers who sign up. Step by step, Nandita led us through the creation of one page of narrative that brings together text and illustration in the style of a graphic novel. We […]
Green Stuff and Nonsense
What a fun session we had on green writing with Bijal Vachharajani! In a single hour, we spoke of a million creatures from elephants to frogs, ferrets to spiders, lion-tailed macaques to slugs that aren’t slugs. Bijal’s workshop was a guest session at my writing programme. We’ve just reached the end of our poetry module, […]
Writing Poetry
I’ve been conducting writing workshops for a long time, and if there’s one thing I love working with, it’s poetry. Nearly every writing programme I conduct begins with a poetry module. Why? Because it’s accessible. It’s far easier to write a poem in a week than it is to write a story in a week. […]
Art, Music and Movement with Veda Aggarwal
Yes. Each time I invite a guest to speak to my creative writing programme, I realise that the session is as much for me as it is for the children. As a writer, I am often caught in a capitalist circle, writing with a clear goal in sight. What is the purpose of a piece? […]
White Socks Only
White Socks Only is a stunning piece of literature and art, a charming book about a curious child eager to find out whether something she’s heard is true. I revisited this book purely for the purpose of teaching it, and there’s just so much to explore! Of course, the obvious choices would be to visit […]
All About Research with Dr Shayani Bhattacharya
What an enjoyable writing workshop we had yesterday with Dr Shayani Bhattacharya! Every guest session is fun, and I keep realising that when a teacher plans a session, it is meticulous, detailed, excellent! We discussed what we research, how we research and why we research, but then we went on to something that’s important to […]
The Playwriting Module – Reflections and Resources
And just like that, the playwriting module of my creative writing programme is also over! We read two plays, played with props, explored dialogue, imagined the stage, examined the differences between writing scripts for stage and for screen … And I’m exhilarated. As always, the generosity of the community of teachers and writers online is […]
Creative Writing Workshops – Reflections and Resources
I spend hours scouring the internet for creative writing resources. I love those hours, even though sometimes I find myself panicking. There are so many wonderful ideas out there! What can I use? I want to use them all! At those times, I need to step away from my laptop and remind myself that I […]
Workshop Anecdotes
So many little things happen during workshops! That’s what makes them so much fun. For instance, my reading programme began on Tuesday and I started with Asha Nehemiah’s Trouble with Magic. We spoke about all the wonderful things we’d invent because, in some ways, science and magic are pretty much the same thing. One child […]
Creating Memorable Characters
Both batches of my online creative writing programme began in October. Two months out of three have flown by, and I can’t quite believe that I’ve had eight sessions with each batch. We’ve had two wonderful guest sessions too – one with author Nalini Sorensen and one with Dr. Sreeja Nag. It’s time to announce […]
Reflections – Part 2
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the first series of reflections, written by children from my first batch of the creative writing programme. The idea of a reflective statement is something that I came to appreciate when I was teaching the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. While I was teaching, however, many students hated […]
A Few More Writing Activities
A few days ago, I posted five writing activities that I created last month; here are a few more. I find that short activities of this sort are wonderful ways both to get started and to wind down. Finishing a workshop with some sort of activity leaves participants feeling energized, rather than exhausted. Quick ones […]