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Varsha Seshan

The Art of Laughter

December 10, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: Arundhati Venkatesh, creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, guest session, online workshops for children

PodLab with Menaka Raman

November 12, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, guest session, Menaka Raman, podcasting

Art, Music and Movement with Veda Aggarwal

December 19, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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? […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: Art Music and Movement, creative writing, creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children, Veda Aggarwal

All About Research with Dr Shayani Bhattacharya

October 24, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, guest session, Nonfiction, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children, research, Shayani Bhattacharya

Pirates, Legends, and Historical Fiction

May 30, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Yesterday’s guest session was full of stories! While we are familiar with Long John Silver and Davy Jones’s locker, how many of us are equally familiar with Kanhoji Angre and the pirates of the Malabar? We began with a discussion of myths, legends, and historical fiction, and this, I think, is an important idea that […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing workshop, guest session, historical fiction, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children, Radhika Seshan

The Playwriting Module – Reflections and Resources

May 29, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Resources, Workshops Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing resources, creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, drama, playwriting, teaching playwriting

Creative Writing Workshops – Reflections and Resources

May 20, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Resources, Workshops Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children, poetry

Writing about Cyber Crime

April 25, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What a fun session we had with digital forensic investigator Shweta A. Chawla yesterday! The children had all kinds of questions, and all kinds of stories. Nearly every child had a story of a parent or relative receiving a call and asking for an OTP or bank details. It just shows you how close cyber […]

Filed Under: Children, Workshops Tagged With: creative writing workshop, guest session, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children, Shweta A. Chawla, Writing about Cyber Crime

Writing about Cyber Crime

April 17, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

During my writing programme last year, I met many children who wanted to write detective stories. What would a detective story involve? How did investigations really happen? This got me thinking. What could I do that would be new and unusual? I’ve never solved a crime. I have no inside knowledge. And if children (and I!) don’t […]

Filed Under: Children, Workshops Tagged With: creative writing workshop, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children, Shweta A. Chawla, Writing about Cyber Crime

Workshops Launching in April 2021

February 9, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR ALL THESE PROGRAMMES. The next reading programmes begin in the first week of June, and the next writing programmes will be held in October. I will also organise three short guest sessions as part of my writing programme. These will be free for those who are part of the programme, […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing workshop, online creative writing programme, online reading programme, reading workshop, workshops for children

Creating Memorable Characters with Sophie

December 21, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

And just like that, the third and last guest session for the current batches of my online writing programme is over. It doesn’t feel like very long ago that I announced the programme, wondering whether there would be enough participants. I did not promise guest sessions because I knew it would depend on the response […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: character, creative writing workshop, guest session, online creative writing programme, Sophie Gaden, workshops for children

Workshop Anecdotes

December 11, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, online creative writing programme, online reading programme, reading workshop, workshops for children

Creating Memorable Characters

December 7, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, guest session, online creative writing programme, Sophie Gaden

Science Stories with Sreeja

December 6, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What a whirlwind weekend I’ve had! With the Scholastic Writing Awards ceremony, a guest session at my online creative writing programme, and a weekend workshop for the ten winners of the Scholastic Writing Awards, the weekend has flown by in the best possible way! As with every guest session, yesterday was special. I’ve invited Sreeja […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing workshop, guest session, online creative writing programme, Sreeja Nag, workshops for children

Reflections – Part 2

November 26, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Workshops, Writing Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, poetry, Poetry Workshop

Stories of Space Robots and Rockets

November 21, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself thinking – an online writing programme is not a lit fest. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to invite people who would be able to do something entirely new? What could I do to bring in a new kind of story? And here was my answer: How can I […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing with children, creative writing workshop, online creative writing programme, rockets, science fiction, space robots, Sreeja Nag

Online Creative Writing Programme (ages 9 to 11)

October 5, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Please note that registrations are now closed for this batch. To find out about the next batch for this age-group, please fill this form, or follow me on my social media handles – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Outline​ Different kinds of poetry Making a story engaging Creating believable characters Working with plot and setting Genre […]

Filed Under: Children, Workshops Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing workshop, online creative writing programme, workshops for children

Online Creative Writing Programme (ages 12 to 14)

September 22, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Please note that registrations are now closed for this batch. To find out about the next batch for this age-group, please fill this form, or follow me on my social media handles – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “I’ve written five poems. Will you read them?” “I’ve written three stories. How can I get them published?” […]

Filed Under: Children, Workshops Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing workshop, online creative writing programme, workshops for children

Working with Poetry

July 8, 2019 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

Many children write poetry. Rhyme is fun, having your poem published in the school magazine is even more fun. Teachers and parents encourage children to write poetry, which is good. Of course there’s a ‘but’. People have been writing poetry forever. Forget the ancient languages, in English alone, even those who don’t opt to study […]

Filed Under: Resources, Workshops Tagged With: Books Meridian, creative writing workshop, poetry, Poetry Workshop, Shel Silverstein, workshops for children

Pen to Paper Creative Writing Workshop

April 15, 2019 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The Pen to Paper competition was a nationwide search for young writers, organised by Edupeer and ICICI Lombard. It received about 10,000 entries! These were narrowed down to 2,000 and 1,000 and then, finally, the top 150 writers from all over the country were selected to receive training from an author. When FunOKPlease contacted me […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing workshop, Edupeer, FunOKPlease, Pen to Paper

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