What a thrilling, chilling session we had with Shabnam Minwalla! It was interactive and fun, full of creepy examples and wonderful ideas.Shabnam began by telling us what inspired her book Saira Zariwala Is Afraid--mysterious messages on her daughter's phone. From there, we explored all kinds of things, from settings, to concepts for horror stories. I loved how many participants shared examples of regular places that become sinister! Playgrounds, people who are a little too sweet, mysterious lights ... Even ordinary places like schools and malls have so much potential for horror!One big takeaway for me was the idea that what we imagine is far more frightening than what is written. As a result, an unreliable narrator who makes us feel uncertain works perfectly for horror!Beginning with a setting that has potential, moving to a "what-if" sentence, and then creating a sense of … [Read more...]
Delightfully True – A Workshop on Writing Creative Nonfiction
What is creative nonfiction? What makes it different from regular nonfiction?Award-winning author Mallika Ravikumar led us through the second guest session of the season, teaching students what makes creative nonfiction engaging. From techniques of writing--like showing instead of telling--to research methodology, Mallika helped students understand how to go about writing credible creative nonfiction.An important aspect of writing about true events is perspective. The same incidents can be viewed from multiple points of view. How do we choose a point of view? And what is our responsibility as writers once we've chosen a viewpoint?At the end of the session, lots of participants who had read Mallika's books had questions for her, which was heartwarming! She left them with an exercise that explores perspective and technique, which I hope will give them firsthand experience of … [Read more...]
Draw It In Style with Lavanya Karthik
We had nearly twenty participants during the first guest session of the season, an illustration workshop with Lavanya Karthik!Focusing particularly on her Dreamers series, Lavanya talked about her creative process, and how she chose various art styles for different books. The idea of the session was to get participants to work towards creating a self-portrait. To do this, she introduced three styles that she researched and used in her books--miniature Mughal art, which she brought into The Boy Who Loved Birds, Bhil art, which features in The Girl Who Loved to Sing, and mosaic art, which you can find in The Boy Who Built a Secret Garden.Step by step, she led the participants towards the final activity, asking them to list personality traits, choose a symbol or motif that represents them, and work on an elaborate frame, drawing from miniature paintings. We didn't have much time to … [Read more...]
The Second Person Short Story
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 misconceptions about the second-person narrator to hands-on writing exercises, Michelle covered a lot of ground in the course of one short hour.We read a mentor text, explored how we can write in second-person, and discussed a few things to keep in mind when we write a short story. I especially like it when guests I invite reinforce ideas I'm teaching! Here are a few things Michelle mentioned, for instance!We worked on paying attention to detail with an oral exercise for which Michelle showed us a picture of a man. Michelle … [Read more...]
Lights, Camera, Action!
Lights, Camera, Action! was a whirlwind introduction to filmmaking, one which I thoroughly enjoyed. I know next to nothing about filmmaking, making this guest session all the more exciting for me. What an informative, detailed session it was!We began by watching a short film in French, Detour by Michel Gondry. Samina Mishra, our guest for the evening, asked us what we thought of the film and then we revisited a few details from a filmmaker's eye.What goes into mise en scène, or the frame of a film? What about cinematography? What does one pay attention to? Sound? Editing? What else?After looking at a range of elements from setting to costumes, effect sounds to editing, Samina left us with a writing exercise in which she asked us to write a single shot. With clear examples, she asked us to pay attention to the following things as we wrote:It was unfair to ask Samina to … [Read more...]
Cartooning with Vineet Nair
What makes a cartoon different from a regular drawing? What is easier to draw? What do you think is important when you are drawing a cartoon?We had such an enjoyable workshop on cartooning with Vineet Nair, comic book illustrator and Art Director of Tinkle! The first rule, which I loved, but which the participants struggled with was Don't mute yourself! Speak! The entire session was interactive, with everyone eager to show what they were drawing.For me, what made the session stand out was the focus on how simple cartooning can be! Identify the major shape and then modify it. Exaggerate the details to bring in the emotion and the humour!We began with humans, went on to animals and finally looked at cartoonifying objects. I enjoyed the whole session! The image above is just a collage of all the cartoons Vineet drew during the session. The children drew so many more!A few … [Read more...]
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 several – Bookasura (which we’re reading again in December 2024), Koobandhee, Petu Pumpkin: Freedom Fighter, Petu Pumpkin: Tiffin Thief and Petu Pumpkin: Cheater Peter. Step by step, Arundhati led us through the writing of a humorous story. To begin with, if you want to write humour, you must enjoy reading funny stuff. This is something I say often---if you don't read, you cannot write. I don't restrict my definition of reading to fiction, though. We consume content in all kinds of ways, including memes and blog posts!Secondly, the core of humour is truth, something that I completely … [Read more...]
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 twenty-sixth guest session, and my very first one on podcasting. Menaka took us through the basics---from what a podcast is to what equipment we need to record a podcast.In some ways, a podcast is like Netflix for audio - it has episodes that are recorded and that you can listen to in your own time. That’s what makes it different from radio, which you have to catch only when it is broadcast!Through a series of writing exercises, Menaka helped us experience firsthand the process of podcast creation. Asking the right questions, choosing a theme, taking our time editing---all … [Read more...]
Illustrating Picture Books with Ashok Rajagopalan
What an enriching session we had on illustrating picture books with Ashok Rajagopalan!"I didn't know this, but I make an angry face when I’m drawing an angry face!" Ashok said. "If I want to draw a sad face, I make a sad face myself." I remember seeing something about Disney doing the same thing. Is it something all artists do?Today's focus was creating emotions in picture books. Among the most interesting things for me was the fact that the reader’s emotion can be quite different from what the character is feeling. Sometimes, a character is angry, or confused, but the reader laughs. This laughter is deliberate, and the illustrator must portray the character's emotion in such a way that the reader feels compelled to laugh.Using a series of drawing exercises, we worked on drawing emotion and then heightening these emotions, first through the face itself and then through body … [Read more...]
Character Design with Priyankar Gupta
Practice. What a difference practice makes! Right through yesterday's guest session on character design, I marvelled at how swiftly Priyankar Gupta created his characters. Talking all the time, explaining what he was doing, he was able to draw not one, but six full forms in fifteen minutes!Characters, both human and non-human, are led by three parts of the body – the chest, the nose and the pelvis.An inquisitive person tends to hunch. The whole body structure is led by the nose. A confident person is led by the chest. This is why people in the army, or even dancers, tend to have accentuated chests. All of us also have an aspect of us that is lazy, one that likes to sit and watch the world go by. This sort of character is led by the pelvis.Once Priyankar had shared a few sample drawings, he asked us to draw characters of our own. Soon, the children shared sketches … [Read more...]