Creative Writing

I chanced on an ad for a Creative Writing Workshop at Bangalore in DC sometime back and immediately got intrigued by the idea of attending one. The ad gave very little details except for the start date and the name of the company (Still Waters) that is conducting it. Though I was clear about pursuing something related to writing in the long run, I was not sure if creative writing is the field I wanted to get into. And I had never heard of the company either. I toyed with the idea of actually calling up the contact number that was given in the ad for a day or two. For the past month or so, I had been looking at taking the diploma course in writing offered by Indira Gandhi University or Symbiosis but unfortunately, I had missed the term this time. So with a few more months to go before the universities took their next set of students, I was feeling kinda impatient to get started with something related to writing. So when I saw that ad, quiet accidentally at that (I never read DC - my household peruses ToI!), it seemed like serendipity!

I eventually rang them up and after seeing the workshop agenda, quickly decided to enroll for the session. The 8-week long workshop is conducted by Vijay Nair, author of "Master of Life Skills" and will cover "craft of writing short stories, novels, playwriting, poem and screenplay writing." The fees for the workshop was Rs 7000/- for working professionals. Deciding that it's a small amount for learning a life skill (ya, that's what I am hoping it will become, at least partly!), I signed up.

The first session of the workshop happened this weekend and the experience was humbling to say the least. The participants were all from diverse backgrounds - engineer, architect, doctor, housewives, college kid, teachers....you name it, we had it! There were a couple of writing exercises (obviously!) after which we were supposed to read aloud our pieces and the others were invited to comment on them. I had thought I was decent at writing but well the feedback from the others hit right where it mattered. Ouch! Oh ye Ego of mine, quiet now, quiet. Ha! That's like a good girl. Good.... I digress!

The workshop has put the idea of serious writing into my idea and I'm happy for it. Over the next few weeks, I expect we will be doing more of these exercises in different forms of creative writing and also doing some reviews of books. So at the end of eight weeks, if nothing else, I will come out far more wiser on whether I really want to pursue creative writing. Here's to humbling experiences!