Of Superheroes and Greek Gods

Of myths, fables and modern dystopian folklore!

It’s always refreshing to teach a fresh batch of kids who are as enthusiastic as their favourite fantasy characters. This might be my 10th fantasy workshop this year but I learn so much from every new class. This time we introduced Magic Realismo, Dystopian Fiction, Young Adult Fantasy and World Mythology focussing primarily on Greek, Norse and Celtic fables. Besides the usual topics like World Creation, Character roundup and Superhero Tops we engaged the students with fun trivia games that talked about modern and classical fantasy. Students also got to watch fantasy short films to fully comprehend ‘The Heros Journey’. Moving to the next level for sure.

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Fantasy Furore

Fantasy Furore yet again!

A weekend workshop on Fantasy and Speculative fiction where children came up with intergalactic encounters, space zombies and porcelain kingdoms. All in all, another fun and imaginative workshop at the creatively charged Atta Galata.

Winter Zone in Delhi

Our Winter Story Creators workshop created a mini stir at the American Embassy School where children aged 7-10 participated in 7 different sessions of story creation ranging from ‘Prop Master’, ‘Diving Board’ and ‘Superhero Corner’. All in all, the participants enjoyed using props and objects to make their stories more colourful.

Mount Carmel Special

A memorable day at Mount Carmel College Bangalore, where the students participated in an engaging Fantasy and Creative Writing Workshop. Students displayed great response while participating in the ‘Fantasy Locket’ , ‘Imagination Lab ‘ and ‘The Hero’s Journey’. The session ended with a book reading of ‘Bitchweed’ followed by an interesting Q and A revolving around young Adult Literature.

Fantasy Furore @Atta Galatta

In this particular Fantasy Writing workshop we got incredible response from the participants who undoubted displayed and shared their most outrageous and fantastical ideas with us.  After talking in length about “World creation” and “creature creation’ the participants discussed “Dystopian Speculative Fiction” and discussed movies like “Divergent” and “Hunger Games”. In the end they came up with brilliant opening paragraphs for their very own fantasy novel.

Fantasy Writing Workshop in Chennai!

In this particular edition Chennai residents were introduced to old stalwarts of Fantasy Fiction like Tolkeins  Lord of The Rings and Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time Series. The participants were then given a variety of writing exercises that showcased their extraordinary imagination and mind space. Some of the participants were as old as 65 and that was a great sight to behold! Later the author discussed the growing breed of “Fan Fiction ” writers  and how that itself is almost a new genre.  The session ended splendidly with a reading of the authors new book. On the whole, Chennai was a welcome experience and we look forwards to more such collaborations in the future.

Screen Writers and Story Creators!

Our Screen writing and Story Creators class was a huge with the kids this October! Besides story boarding, scene construction, character moulding, dialogue attribution the kids were exposed to some world class cinema and stories as well. All in all we had a blast with these truly brilliant and talented kids at the American Embassy School in Delhi.

Exciting two day workshop at Kamala Nehru College

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The two day workshop at Kamala Nehru college had students writing and discoursing on Screenwriting, Travel Writing, Blog Creation and of course ‘finding your voice as a writer’ and articulating each topic with that own peculiar voice. Some of the students are well on their way creating their own travel blogs and elucidating their fantastical solo journeys.

Creative Writing Workshop – Gargi College. Day 2

WORKSHOP – DAY 2

The second day of the workshop by ‘Of Heroes and Villians’ focused on Dialogue and Humor Writing.

Ms. Deepali Junjappa gave beneficial tips for avoiding involuntary mistakes while writing dialogues. According to her, by not using adverbs to emphasize the emotion and using some foreign language in our writing can account for a better and authentic piece. Her take on humor writing is inspired by writers from the late 80’s. By presenting our shortcomings in a funny way is the new trend which will soon plague the Indian writing.

The workshop was accompanied by interesting activities such as the dialogue building, on the cue “I told you to get the red lipstick” and humor writing on ‘My topmost memorable split up’/ ‘A hidden flaw’. The girls took the topics to a whole new level by unleashing the reins of their imagination. The creative atmosphere breached new ideas, breaking the stereotypes. It was, indeed, an amazing learning experience!

Details and photography : Mamta Dagar.

Creative Writing Workshop Gargi College—Day 1

Day 1

A workshop on ‘Mystery Writing’ was organized for Quilluminati by ‘Of Heroes and Villians’ today. It focused on incorporating effective and prudent ways to highlight one’s perspective and come up with a piece which would pique the reader’s interest.

Ms. Deepali Junjappa gave a vivid picture of the mistakes young writer’s involuntarily incorporate in their write-ups and tips to rectify them. An interactive session on short stories brought up points which should be avoided while writing one, like – not going overboard with the characters’ description and restricting one’s story in a defined time zone in terms of location and time.

The girls also engaged themselves in interesting activities like writing a story from a mother’s point of view who has recently lost her son WITHOUT revealing the situation, and building on a short story from famous first lines of renowned books. While some opted the sadist tone for the former, some came up with the paranormal. The plethora of creative ideas and writings was altogether an amazing learning experience!