Creative writing workshop on 3rd and 4th October

(The next workshop will be conducted probably on 31st Oct and 1st Nov, a weekend, at Protospace, Sanjay Nagar, Bangalore. We shall also be open to online teaching, for anyone around the world. )

Soulpen: Writing for happiness

How do I define creative writing? All our lives, we write for others, because writing is a means of communication. However, writing can also be used to communicate with ourselves, to find out who we are. Before it becomes an art, writing is intrinsically a therapeutic process. It can heal our uncertainties.

Creative writing, therefore, is that writing in which the writer is more important than the reader. It is a beautiful process of turning within.

The next Creative writing workshop in Bangalore is scheduled for this weekend, 3rd and 4th October' 09.

Timing: Saturday 3rd October : 10 am to 6 pm.

Sunday 4th October : 9 am to 3 pm.

Fees: Rs. 1,500/
(Lunch and Tea included)

Venue: 1st floor, Times of India Building, MG road, Bangalore.

Eligibility: Preferably over 18yrs old and a love for writing or reading or both.

Focus: The aim of the workshop is to fuel the love of writing towards an intense and natural discipline. It will help the beginner as well as the writer who is stuck in the middle of a book.

Call : 9945192862

Here is the feedback of the last batch at TOI.

Flow chart:

Why do we write? Because we need to tell the story.
As toddlers, we were all creative with the use of words. The neighbor who had a dog was bowwow. The little boy who played cricket was katakata. The kite which flew in the sky was whoosh.
When we started pre-school, our talents grew to huge proportions. We came back home and told granny, 'Today I climbed a duck. Tomorrow our teacher is going to die. So school will be closed.'
And then the devil struck. We were given a pencil and a rubber and asked to memorize spellings and all the love for words and thoughts was lost with the wind.

This workshop will erase whatever scars our education inflicted on our imagination.
We will write and read out and no one will laugh.

We shall begin with an exercise, a ritual for overcoming the writers block, or to get started. Participants will be given blank papers, with a manageable word limit. Lap tops will not be needed.

We shall do more exercises to stretch the mind and work the writing muscle.

The class will read out a couple of their favorite short stories and we will analyze the story-line and compare it to the structure. Then we will work on a short story structure. To begin with, we will write a short story with a straight narrative, and then we will play with the structure.

Those who have a story in mind will write their on their own. Others can follow a guideline.

Everyone has a novel inside. Lets write ours. How does one write a novel? The masala formula. Or, the nine rasas.

The kind of education we have had, the information overload, the media inputs, have made intellectual zombies out of us. We think with our brains, not with our minds.

Which is why, the first step is to become aware of what 'rasa' one goes through when writing something. Writing is a lonely job. Words have to become alive, they have to gain the power, a power more intense than a human ear, a sense of fulfillment more satisfying than an orgasm.

Where do novels come from? What is the essence of the novel?

Characterization: The back bone of story telling. Class will read out the characters and discuss their difficulties in creating an imaginary human being from words.

Exercises: Three different approaches to creating your character.

The purpose of all these exercises will be for all the participants to complete a short story.

And to fuel the love of writing towards a natural and intense discipline of sitting with a pen and paper.

Call me at 9945192862 for further questions. To enroll, write a comment on this post that mentions your email address. Do not expect an answer. We will answer only if and when the class is full and we have to ask you to attend the next workshop.


Author's profile :

I am a recently published novelist of A Grasshopper's Pilgrimage. This book should be available in most of the Crosswords and Landmarks. You can read reviews of this book on this blog. Just type the title in the search box.

I am also a film maker. I was trained at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune in Film Editing. I have made several documentary films, and taught the various aspects of film making at NID (National Institute of Design), Ahemedabad and also at the FTII. I have conducted a creative writing workshop at the Srishti School of Art and Design last year.

I write for the creative outlet, deep fulfillment and clarity of mind that sometimes comes as a gift with a good session of writing.