Mastering the Art of Writing Fiction

The sixth workshop of “Imagine Write Creatively”, a joint initiative by The Daily Star (TDS) and United International University (UIU), was held on August 20 at the premises of Academia in Lalmatia, Dhaka. The intention of the programme was to encourage the students to think and write creatively by making them familiar with the different aspects of creative writing.

The workshop kicked off at 10 am with a speech by Professor Dr. Chowdhury Mofizur Rahman, Pro-VC of UIU, in the presence of students from Class 8 to 12. He mentioned in his speech how the curriculum restricts students from being creative and imaginative since most of the coursework involves memorising texts. He reflected on this situation and said, “This leads to severe deficits in a student's problem solving abilities and many a times students find it rather difficult to work out a solution to a real life problem as opposed to one they have been given from their textbooks.” He went on to add how the whole purpose of these workshops was to help students be imaginative and thanked Academia and TDS for their co-operation in this mission.

Professor Rahman's speech was followed by a short note by Sarwat Zeb, Chairperson and Vice Principal, Academia who expressed her gratitude towards TDS and UIU for the initiative. She said, “We always encourage our students to not confine their learning to memorising texts but to rather have a concrete idea about the topic on the whole in order to allow their thought process and imagination to develop. There are a lot of students out there who have trouble writing essays. I think that this workshop will be useful for all of us and will contribute to enhancing our creative writing skills.”

The workshop was conducted by Shiwa Forkan, freelance trainer and Sharmin Sultana, assistant professor and co-ordinator, English Language Institute, UIU. Their enthusiasm seemed to be contagious as the students responded with equal zeal and excitement. Through a number of interactive activities and games, students were made accustomed to the tricks and techniques of fiction writing and were taught how to develop their stories, starting from character construction to coming up with a setting and finally settling for a plot.

Shiwa Forkan later reflected on the success of the workshop and said, “This batch of students were a lot more mature and creative than those we've worked with before. They were a lively bunch.” Sharmin Sultana agreed to what Forkan had to say and added, “We wanted to initiate imagination and creativity among the students through this workshop. In an era of memorising and competition, we were awed when we found that those qualities did exist within them. It is so important to be imaginative. Imagination can make the impossible possible.”

An interesting fact was brought to light when Nuhash Ahmed from Class 8 was asked for his opinion on the workshop. He said, “I wasn't too enthusiastic about this workshop beforehand since the timing clashed with our break time and I thought it would be boring, but once this started, I did not regret coming here even for one second. The games were interesting and very enjoyable and I learned a lot about fiction writing from this event.” His friend, Md. Aftab Alom had a similar opinion and mentioned what he enjoyed the most was how interactive the activities were.

Nawal Naz Tareque, also from Class 8, admitted to being a writer herself. When asked about the ways in which the workshop helped her, she said, “After doing this workshop, I think I'll be able to improve my fiction writing since I now know how to develop better ideas and use stronger descriptions.”

Raunaque Alamgir, Vice Principal of Academia, concluded that it had been a wonderful workshop. She said, “What I really liked was that the students were simultaneously learning something very important and enjoying the process as well, which is not a very common scenario in classrooms. I think more workshops like this should be held in order to help them become experts in the field of creative writing.”

Shreyosi Endow is a tea addict 
who likes to read poetry 
and is obsessed with plants. 
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