Write State of Mind - Takeaways from a Creative Writing Workshop

There are so many facets to knowledge sharing and one of them is giving back to your educational institution. So, when I recently got the opportunity to organise a workshop on creative writing, I was more than happy to take it.

It's a different experience to be in a professional environment, learning and managing tasks and another to teach a skill to a group of Mass Media students. On the 7th of September 2019, I conducted a workshop on creative writing at the Alma Mater School of Broadcasting and Communication, Mumbai. The college is known to provide optimum exposure to media students and caters to an array of courses like Broadcast Journalism, Mass Communication, Advertising & PR, and much more. The entire experience of standing up to 30+ students and sharing tips to hone creative writing skills was surreal to me. It made me feel nervous and confident at the same time.

Interacting with the students and conducting activities with them made me realize that there are three kinds of students whom I was addressing.

1. One lot is just there for the attendance - quite passive and reluctant about the workshop itself.
2. The second lot comprises of the people who are slightly interested in learning about creative writing and are still unsure how to go about it.
3. The third kind are the ones who are writers on their journey to become a pro at the craft.

My objective with this workshop was to be able to give a writing trick that would benefit anyone from any of these three groups. So as I cruised along the workshop talking about the creative tips and techniques I realized that it requires an immense amount of patience and innovation. Patience to carry on such a long talk and innovation to keep the audience hooked. So my takeaways from this entire experience were - site relevant examples, have a clear objective behind conducting the workshop, and be yourself.