This is what ten people on a Thursday morning came up with in an hour and a half. Exquisite corpse, by the way, is a game where each participant can only see the last sentence (written by the person just before them) of a story in progress . The participant writes their own sentence, covers up the previous one, and passes it on so that only their sentence can be read by the next person. It’s therefore a kind of chain story. At the end, the paper is unfolded and the whole story read out. To know more, go here. And also here. Also, if you want to read a desi version by Samit Basu, Shakti Bhatt, Rana Dasgupta, Ruchir Joshi, Tabish Khair, Meenakshi Reddy, Madhavan, Monica Mody, Vivek Narayanan, Raveena Rawal, Nilanjana Roy, Anand Vivek Taneja, Jeet Thayil, go here.
I've paragraphed the stories and cleaned up spelling and punctuation, but otherwise this is pretty much as written.
THE COLOURS OF SIN
The wind blew through her flaming purple hair. She looked at the train tracks ahead and a tear trickled down her cheek. The train rushed towards her and in that second her life flashed before her. She could see all her favourite colours --- red, blue, violet, pink and brilliant green; she held her breath.
Boom! Boom! Wheee! Fizz! Bang! The inky black sky broke into a fantastic array of colours that took her breath away. The guy standing next to her suddenly held her hand tight. She gave him one tight slap right across his eager face.
‘Aaaah! My mother never hit me as hard!’
‘I am your mother now.’
‘I will look after all of you, even that thing lying in our cellar.’
She was still hugging him, when she felt the barrel of the gun.
The class laughed over this so much they had another round, this time with each participant given one minute to write, timed by my stopwatch (since we had twenty minutes class-time left).
High-speed exquisite corpse:
THE MOUSETRAP
Twelve blind mice ran down the dark, dank alleyway. They could smell the cheese, and they couldn’t stop. It smelt like Rohan’s shirt, the one he was wearing ‘that’ day. That sweaty shirt she hoped she would never have to smell, ever again.
He stood in front of her, dishevelled, perspiring, his hat askew, and stared at her with dull eyes; she wished she could shove him out of the 10th floor window.
‘We can’t help it, you have to go ahead with this now.’
He lifted the heavy bag onto his shoulders and dashed towards the door. But no matter how many times he tried to hit the door with the bag, it just would not give way. He was stuck. Undaunted he searched for an alternate exit … and there it was right behind the cupboard in the cabin.
The door opened … it was pitch black … he walked out and banged into something solid. It was a trap!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Monday, July 17, 2006
Caferati Read Meet
This was a huge success, with Ria Chakraborty, Najnin Islam and Sulipta Jana representing WIP, with support from Inam Hussein Mallick, who also read a poem of his own. All four contributions were of a very high quality. I only have a few points to make about the reading styles. With the exception of Inam, all of you needed to be much louder and clearer. Reading your work well is the courtesy of writers.
Further opportunities to read will come up in future. I'll be posting them here.
Further opportunities to read will come up in future. I'll be posting them here.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Some food for thought
Here are some exercises (or rather exercise patterns) that I'll be using in the course. But they're much more than coursework: I find that doing these exercises or similar is a potent cure for writer's block, and I do feel that even established writers can benefit from doing them once in a while to keep their creative muscles limber. I find they help in germinating plots or sorting out problems with existing ones. Unlike traditional 'questions' they produce fresh recults every time you do them, so I'm not giving anything away by posting them here. They may be of use to people outside the course, hence their appearance here.
Creative Writing Exercises
1. Back story 1: Write down four well-marked characteristics you have (even basic things like age, gender, social status etc.) Now take the opposites of these four and create a character with them. Write the character’s back story. NOTE: back story is a character’s background up to the point where they appear on the ‘stage’ of your actual story. It’s all the stuff that makes them who they are; they way they grew, the experiences they had, the things they like and hate. Not all of a character’s back story need actually appear in the story, but you need to have it in the back of your head so that the character will live and move convincingly.
2. Back story 2: Take the character you just created, and imagine four people around them (you will need to create basic back stories for them). Then describe your primary character from these four people’s points of view. Write at least a paragraph for each person.
3. Dialogue 1: Take two characters, either new or ones you’ve made earlier. Have them introduce themselves in direct speech. Try to get a feel of the way they ought to talk. Then try and construct a dialogue between the two characters. NOTE: you will need to come up with a basic plot.
4. Dialogue 2: Write a story involving two characters which is composed entirely of dialogue (with short factual action statements/descriptions where necessary.)
5. Plot exercise 1: Take one day in the life of a character. Think of a decisive action/crisis this person might face, then enumerate the possible ways in which this might come about. Choose the most attractive or interesting way and construct a plot around it covering twenty four hours culminating in this action/crisis.
6. Plot exercise 2: Write the names of five feelings, objects, people and places (that’s five into four) on twenty slips of paper. Put each category into a hat. Draw one of each. Create a plot/write a story involving this feeling, object, person and place.
7. Reality transforming 1: Think of something that’s happened to you. Write it down. Then go back and look at what you’ve written, change the location, time, names and appearances of characters involved, and shift the point of view from the ‘you’ character, to someone else who was involved (or the authorial voice).
8. Reality transforming 2: take three real people you know and create a composite character out of them, so mingled that the identities of the three originals are unguessable. At least one should be neither family nor friend: maybe someone you read about in the news, or a celebrity, or a fictional character.
9. Description 1: Write a flat factual paragraph describing a location: a bridge, or a village square, or a hotel, or a beach. Now use these facts to write different mood pieces on them. Do one which is primarily optimistic, and one which is gloomy, but do not change the essential facts. You can change the weather and the time of day but not drastically.
10. Description 2: Take a location and set the scene for an action (determine beforehand what the action will be). Setting the scene includes describing the actors and important features of the area that will play a part in the story. Your description ends just as the action starts.
11. Research 1: Talk to your mother or close relative. Have them relate an incident out of the family folklore. Take notes, then change everything you can about the event: time, place, actors, and write a story about it.
12. Research 2: Take a well known incident out of history. Get some basic facts on it, then create characters (they need not be historically attested) and set your story in that period.
13. Genre: This is produced mainly through plot and mood. Take a given outline and write a story on it in any one of six genres: romantic, action, horror, realist, magic realist, stream of consciousness. Avoid pastiche. Sample outline: A girl and a boy who live in the same para are friends. One day the boy leaves without any reason. The girl suspects someone has deliberately engineered this. She sets out to find him and discovers the reason why he left (the reason will vary according to the genre). They are reunited (again, genre will determine in what sense).
14. Skit 1: Go over your dialogue exercise and rewrite it in skit form. You will need to add stage directions and stage business.
15. Skit 2: Write the names of processes on six pieces of paper. Choose two out of a hat. Write a skit where these two things happen simultaneously on stage. (You will need to divide the page into two columns. When one process involves speech, the other will be in dumb show, and vice versa.)
16. Skit 3: Write a skit in which one character is silent throughout. He/she can mime without speaking. You will need to set this in stage directions.
17. Skit 4: Write a skit in which the characters go on a journey across the bare stage. Create the scenery with language and gesture.
Creative Writing Exercises
1. Back story 1: Write down four well-marked characteristics you have (even basic things like age, gender, social status etc.) Now take the opposites of these four and create a character with them. Write the character’s back story. NOTE: back story is a character’s background up to the point where they appear on the ‘stage’ of your actual story. It’s all the stuff that makes them who they are; they way they grew, the experiences they had, the things they like and hate. Not all of a character’s back story need actually appear in the story, but you need to have it in the back of your head so that the character will live and move convincingly.
2. Back story 2: Take the character you just created, and imagine four people around them (you will need to create basic back stories for them). Then describe your primary character from these four people’s points of view. Write at least a paragraph for each person.
3. Dialogue 1: Take two characters, either new or ones you’ve made earlier. Have them introduce themselves in direct speech. Try to get a feel of the way they ought to talk. Then try and construct a dialogue between the two characters. NOTE: you will need to come up with a basic plot.
4. Dialogue 2: Write a story involving two characters which is composed entirely of dialogue (with short factual action statements/descriptions where necessary.)
5. Plot exercise 1: Take one day in the life of a character. Think of a decisive action/crisis this person might face, then enumerate the possible ways in which this might come about. Choose the most attractive or interesting way and construct a plot around it covering twenty four hours culminating in this action/crisis.
6. Plot exercise 2: Write the names of five feelings, objects, people and places (that’s five into four) on twenty slips of paper. Put each category into a hat. Draw one of each. Create a plot/write a story involving this feeling, object, person and place.
7. Reality transforming 1: Think of something that’s happened to you. Write it down. Then go back and look at what you’ve written, change the location, time, names and appearances of characters involved, and shift the point of view from the ‘you’ character, to someone else who was involved (or the authorial voice).
8. Reality transforming 2: take three real people you know and create a composite character out of them, so mingled that the identities of the three originals are unguessable. At least one should be neither family nor friend: maybe someone you read about in the news, or a celebrity, or a fictional character.
9. Description 1: Write a flat factual paragraph describing a location: a bridge, or a village square, or a hotel, or a beach. Now use these facts to write different mood pieces on them. Do one which is primarily optimistic, and one which is gloomy, but do not change the essential facts. You can change the weather and the time of day but not drastically.
10. Description 2: Take a location and set the scene for an action (determine beforehand what the action will be). Setting the scene includes describing the actors and important features of the area that will play a part in the story. Your description ends just as the action starts.
11. Research 1: Talk to your mother or close relative. Have them relate an incident out of the family folklore. Take notes, then change everything you can about the event: time, place, actors, and write a story about it.
12. Research 2: Take a well known incident out of history. Get some basic facts on it, then create characters (they need not be historically attested) and set your story in that period.
13. Genre: This is produced mainly through plot and mood. Take a given outline and write a story on it in any one of six genres: romantic, action, horror, realist, magic realist, stream of consciousness. Avoid pastiche. Sample outline: A girl and a boy who live in the same para are friends. One day the boy leaves without any reason. The girl suspects someone has deliberately engineered this. She sets out to find him and discovers the reason why he left (the reason will vary according to the genre). They are reunited (again, genre will determine in what sense).
14. Skit 1: Go over your dialogue exercise and rewrite it in skit form. You will need to add stage directions and stage business.
15. Skit 2: Write the names of processes on six pieces of paper. Choose two out of a hat. Write a skit where these two things happen simultaneously on stage. (You will need to divide the page into two columns. When one process involves speech, the other will be in dumb show, and vice versa.)
16. Skit 3: Write a skit in which one character is silent throughout. He/she can mime without speaking. You will need to set this in stage directions.
17. Skit 4: Write a skit in which the characters go on a journey across the bare stage. Create the scenery with language and gesture.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
For PG2s especially
PG2s can sign up now if they want. The delay for PG2 sign-up for courses in general is to prevent all seats being filled up before the PG1s come on the scene. Since we have no PG1s in this course, it's not a problem. So post-grads, if you wish, you can sign up now. That's why I've put both categories on the same sheet.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Calling all final years
The Writing in Practice notice is now up on the departmental notice board. The list of courses to be offered next semester is still being finalised, and should be done by Friday. We will then give the signup sheets to Anandada for you to put your names down on. You have to sign up by the 16th of June, so your window is essentially 5th to 16th. There will be separate lists (on the same page) for UG and PG. All signup sheets will be in grid form and sequentially numbered. Do NOT put your name in between slots: this is to stop people squeezing in and jumping the queue. And no, if someone has struck off their name you can't replace them: you add yourself to the bottom of the list (Dada/didi line acchhe!). We will be strict about this rule this time, for all the courses.
Friday, May 26, 2006
WIPlash
A thousand apologies if there are any errors, oversights or infelicities in the book. Treatment prevented me from taking as much care over it as I would have liked, and by the time it was all typeset exams were upon us and I hesitated to ask any of you to help. The important thing, I felt, was to make a fairly respectable start and to get the book out before you all dispersed. Also the whole plan of the book was an afterthought born out of a casual conversation with Supriyadi. One of the oversights (a bad one) is that I forgot to acknowledge CAS's (and Supriyadi's) support for the book, for which omission I am much mortified.
Future plans for the book: I would like to see this become a launching pad for new writers from JUDE, and to that end I would like to make it good enough to be an attractive title to commercial publishers. Since we now have the benefit of starting the next course with the thought of the book in mind, we can plan the contents from an early date. CAS won't be able to support us indefinitely, and we will have to appeal to the market at some point. To this end I'm going to tighten the requirements a little. For the first book I tried to take at least one story from everyone, since that was fair. Also, when you submitted the stories, you had no idea that they would be published (I'm sure you would have polished them up some more if you had). For the next book, there won't be automatic inclusion for everyone. I will choose the best stories regardless of who they're by, so the course-takers will have to compete to get in. I may also return stories for editing/reworking before the page makeup. A number of the stories we included this time had faults, as I'm sure you'll agree. We want to avoid that, as it pulls down the overall saleability of the work. What I would like is that after a few years of producing this book on our own, we should have some rough figures regarding sales and demand, and some high-quality back-issues, to give to a publisher along with a contract. Publishers don't like dipping their toes in untried waters, and we will have to reassure them that no piranhas are patrolling.
Also YOU will have to key in the damn things next time. Later on, when the next course has got under way, I will put up some guidelines for submission.
Future plans for the book: I would like to see this become a launching pad for new writers from JUDE, and to that end I would like to make it good enough to be an attractive title to commercial publishers. Since we now have the benefit of starting the next course with the thought of the book in mind, we can plan the contents from an early date. CAS won't be able to support us indefinitely, and we will have to appeal to the market at some point. To this end I'm going to tighten the requirements a little. For the first book I tried to take at least one story from everyone, since that was fair. Also, when you submitted the stories, you had no idea that they would be published (I'm sure you would have polished them up some more if you had). For the next book, there won't be automatic inclusion for everyone. I will choose the best stories regardless of who they're by, so the course-takers will have to compete to get in. I may also return stories for editing/reworking before the page makeup. A number of the stories we included this time had faults, as I'm sure you'll agree. We want to avoid that, as it pulls down the overall saleability of the work. What I would like is that after a few years of producing this book on our own, we should have some rough figures regarding sales and demand, and some high-quality back-issues, to give to a publisher along with a contract. Publishers don't like dipping their toes in untried waters, and we will have to reassure them that no piranhas are patrolling.
Also YOU will have to key in the damn things next time. Later on, when the next course has got under way, I will put up some guidelines for submission.
What next?
Listen up, people, because soon the date for signing up to new courses will be upon us. It hasn't been decided yet, but today we made the list of courses that will run in the next semester, and Writing in Practice is definitely running. To refresh your memories, this course is for FINAL YEAR STUDENTS, that means UG3 and PG2. There will be separate signup sheets for UG3 and PG2, and I will take the first ten on each sheet UNLESS there is a huge response, in which case I will have to conduct a screening test. Please be alert for notices on the blog and on the dept notice boards, because if I need to screen I will do it as early as possible, as the unlucky ones will have to scramble onto other optional course lists to fill their requirements. I'm afraid that if you have to go on your holidays or attend weddings it's just too bad; try if you possibly can to linger a few days after the exams end on the 6th and sign up before you go. But hopefully we won't have a problem. Watch this space for notifications.
They're here!
The books have been delivered, and you're all going to get five free copies each. Saumava, Azeem, Pradipta and Bodhi have already got theirs. The rest of you drop by some time and pick them up; they're in my room. In addition there will be two copies in the DL. If you want extra copies, you can buy them for 30 bucks each. The books will be on sale only to JUDE.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Books are coming from the binder's
The books are done, but probably I won't get time to haul them to JU before Thursday, as I have a course to conduct at the Geological Survey of India on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Please note: you probably won't see me in dept. on these two days.) Get in touch with me after that to collect your copies. I may need a couple of people to come with me to the printer's and help load up the car.
NOTE: The books are arriving on Friday morning, that is tomorrow. If you can't pick them up that day, I will store them in my room and you can meet me when convenient.
NOTE: The books are arriving on Friday morning, that is tomorrow. If you can't pick them up that day, I will store them in my room and you can meet me when convenient.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Poetry Dot SCAM
Some of you will remember a green and elegant pamphlet from poetry.com that was put up on the notice around this time last year, advertising a free poetry competition with lots of prizes. I have since learned (courtesy Peter Griffin of Caferati) that this is a SCAM. If you have entered a poem for the contest DO NOT PAY THEM ANY MONEY under any circumstances. To know more go here.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Egg Jams
Here's wishing all you WIPers all the best for the social event of the semester (not). Get out there and prod some righteous donkey!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
More Kaavya...poor thing
Samit Basu has gotten ensnarled in this controversy, and has apparently been misquoted as well, to add to the confusion.
And there's this, from Peter Griffin
enjoy!
And there's this, from Peter Griffin
enjoy!
Get your PDF here...
I've saved the pagemaker file of WIPlash as a pdf, which apparently I can't post on the blog, but I can send to you individually. Would you like to receive this file?
Alternatively, I can post the texts of people's stories on the blogs, or send you word versions (in case you haven't got any and I typed your stuff up from handwritten drafts). What would you like, people?
Alternatively, I can post the texts of people's stories on the blogs, or send you word versions (in case you haven't got any and I typed your stuff up from handwritten drafts). What would you like, people?
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Caferati
I've added a link to this organisation in the links section of this page. This used to be the Bombay Writers' Cafe. There was apparently a read-meet a week ago at the Punjab Club, organised by Anurag Mathur (not the author, someone else) and Ravi Bagaria, which we seem to have missed out on. If you want to join their messsage board, you'll also have to join Ryze, hence the other link.
There's also a Google Group for Calcutta. You will need to contact caferatiATgmailDOTcom (Peter Griffin) and/or have a gmail ID to join this.
Oh and please do read TC's novel in progress :)
There's also a Google Group for Calcutta. You will need to contact caferatiATgmailDOTcom (Peter Griffin) and/or have a gmail ID to join this.
Oh and please do read TC's novel in progress :)
Friday, May 05, 2006
A site about agents
Someone asked me (can't remember who: my memory has become very poor since chemo) about the necessity of agents. Thankfully we as yet don't have any here in India. But the US is lousy with them, and if you want to see how much damage they do, check this out. Absolute Write is a forum for published writers. Take a tour, it's quite interesting.
Formatted
Sorted out the list formatting.
Also mucho apologies for harping on the Kaavya theme, but the plot has thickened since I last pronounced on it. It turns out that poor unimaginative Kaavya was the victim of a 'book packager' (not the lowly guys in the sales loading bay) who shipped her to Little Brown neatly tied with a little pink bow. Just goes to show how icky the scene now is in the West, where authors are not fit to sniff the hem of a publisher's trouserbottom. You have to go through an agent who will cream a bit off the top in exchange for your using his or her contacts, and for totally rearranging your book into an origami crocodile wearing a laminated tutu. Interestingly both authors (Megan and Kaavya) fulsomely thanked the same editor (who has since skipped town) for working on their book. Innocent slip up (Oooh, Ms. Managing Editor, I mixed the proof sheets up while cleaning my desk)? I don't think so.
Also mucho apologies for harping on the Kaavya theme, but the plot has thickened since I last pronounced on it. It turns out that poor unimaginative Kaavya was the victim of a 'book packager' (not the lowly guys in the sales loading bay) who shipped her to Little Brown neatly tied with a little pink bow. Just goes to show how icky the scene now is in the West, where authors are not fit to sniff the hem of a publisher's trouserbottom. You have to go through an agent who will cream a bit off the top in exchange for your using his or her contacts, and for totally rearranging your book into an origami crocodile wearing a laminated tutu. Interestingly both authors (Megan and Kaavya) fulsomely thanked the same editor (who has since skipped town) for working on their book. Innocent slip up (Oooh, Ms. Managing Editor, I mixed the proof sheets up while cleaning my desk)? I don't think so.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Book of the course in press
The long wait is almost over. The book of the course, called WIPlash, has been typeset and will be okayed for printing today. I'm hoping to have copies in hand by May 15. It's 116 pages and we have a print run of 100. Here's the table of contents:
Adwaita Das
------There’s Something About Fish
Anurupa Bose
------Here Comes the Sun
Arati Banerjee
------The Birthday Treat
Bodhisatwa Dasgupta
------A Reasonable Negotiation
Hrileena Ghosh
------Quill
Ishani Dasgupta
------H2SO4
Karma Mingyur Yonzone
------I Danced Like a Bear
Lalramdini
------Weak Hearts
------The Death of Pink
Neelini Sarkar
------Illusory
------Night Whispers
Pooja Das Sarkar
------The Relic
Pradipta Sarkar
------Birthday
Rai Ganguly
------The Kaleidoscope
Romila Saha
------Of Dreams and a Twenty-Year-Old Lottery
------Of the Love of Fathers
Sandeep Philipose Mancha
------A Tale of a Towel
Saumava Mitra
------Name Imaginary
------The Seamy Side
Shaikh Azeem Hussein
------Hit
------The Train to Kolkata
Simon Andrew Jennings
------Untitled
Adwaita Das
------There’s Something About Fish
Anurupa Bose
------Here Comes the Sun
Arati Banerjee
------The Birthday Treat
Bodhisatwa Dasgupta
------A Reasonable Negotiation
Hrileena Ghosh
------Quill
Ishani Dasgupta
------H2SO4
Karma Mingyur Yonzone
Lalramdini
Neelini Sarkar
Pooja Das Sarkar
Pradipta Sarkar
Rai Ganguly
Romila Saha
Sandeep Philipose Mancha
Saumava Mitra
Shaikh Azeem Hussein
Simon Andrew Jennings
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