What you'll learn
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Learn the art of self-expression through writing
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Learn different writing forms, structures, and techniques from essays, poems, short stories to more hybrid models like the lyrical essay
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Build a toolkit to better observe, analyze, and understand the world and the self through reading and writing
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Practice learnings from the workshop through exercises and in-class discussions
Course Description
Life is an adventure meant to be experienced. Most of the art forms that beautify our world are borne out of documenting those adventures that punctuate our life. How do we learn how to tell our life story well? Why must we learn to write about our transformations, our growth, pain and joys? What happens when we learn better ways to tell our story? How do we create fictional characters inspired from real life?
Creative writing – in all its forms: poems, short stories, narrative essays, novels, memoirs brings immense joy to its readers. But do we want to experience this joy as a writer? No matter which stage of writing we are at, we can learn to find our unique voice and practice the toolkit to become writers – for our own joy and for the greater joy of a reader.
Most writers are self-taught. If you were to learn writing from someone, every writer will teach you different ways in which they write. This course will offer its participants an experience of how to delve into the world of writing as a curious beginner. It will offer tools to imagine, construct and write pieces the readers would enjoy to read. Most of all, it will ensure writing is regularly taken up as a means of embellishing our creative spirits.
Course Content
Why we write:
- Class discussion to explore why we write guided by essays from renowned authors on why they wrote
- Understanding writing to remember, heal, be understood, to re-write the world, and more with selected passages from literature across countries and time.
How we write:
- Structures and Forms of writing
- Literary tools and their functions
- Discussion on selected extracts for clarification and understanding
Workshop
Participants give and receive feedback on their writing
- Challenging the form
Exploring hybrid and emerging forms of writing with exemplary texts
- The limitations of structure
How to read well to write well
Comparative Readings
Trainers
Nihal Farid
Nihal has studied English Literature in college and formally studied Mass Communication in bachelors. She’s been writing poetry and short stories since she was in school. Her early reading practices made her a self-taught creative writer and she refined her writing practice later through workshops where she was mentored by published Pakistani authors. She writes to make sense of the world around her and to fulfil her perennial need for self-expression. Throughout her university years, she blogged her diary entries on her Blogspot and WordPress blogs. Her poetry got published in many online blogs and her writing voice has taken over many forms over the years. The hunger for attempting to become a better writer never stops for her.
Laiba Ahmad
Laiba developed a love for storytelling at a very early age, inspired by her nani-ami who would call her with a “ao mein kahani sunati hun.” She used stories as gateways into different cultures, perspectives, and worlds. Thus, allowing her to expand her imagination and empathy from the comfort of her cosy reading corner. Academically, she has studied English Literature and Language from her O levels to her undergrad years at LUMS. She writes to make sense of those tricky conflicting emotions and thoughts that whirl around in all our minds. And in true humanity student behaviour, she reads to stir-up that very whirlwind of challenged notions and distorted beliefs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Students, with an undergraduate degree; entry-to-mid level program managers, researchers and development professionals.