Aparna Sachar at her book launch

Worded simply, Aparna’s poems are an easy read which take you on a soul touching ride. These poems can be relished by every poetry lover and they also aim to arouse a love for poems in people who get deterred from poetry because of its incomprehensibility.

Aparna is an English teacher by profession. She teaches in Hong Kong and is educated in India. She is passionate about poetry and her favourite poet is Robert Frost. According to her, poetry bridges the gap between the known and unknown, the seen and unseen.

A visibly enthralled audience!

· Write in “plain” English: reduce jargon, clichés, and regional elements to those essential to the text or story.

· Write dialogue like a person might sound: few people speak “proper” English and even fewer think it sounds correct.

· Write only what is necessary: more is not always better. If something can be stated with fewer words, do so. If a text runs short, cover more material — avoid “filler” words.

· Edit, don’t mangle meaning: over-editing annoys readers as much as wordiness. Assuming readers know background facts loses part of the audience.

· Use humor: especially in technical writing, humor helps hold an audience.

Analyzing Blocks

When you write a chapter or section of any work, you should ask yourself why that section exists. What is the point of the section? Some example purposes for a section include:

·   Background information: the facts needed to make sense of the work, the “context” of the words.

·   Foreshadow: let readers know what is ahead, or at least what might be ahead.

·   Color: adding details, depth, and richness to the work.

·   Rhetoric: content meant to convince readers to follow along, persuading readers to support the author or narrator.

There are other ways to consider sections of a work; the key is that you have a reason for every word, sentence, and section within a larger work.

Show, Tell, or Omit?

Writers consider each element of a narrative, even in nonfiction. Do you show, tell, or omit details? Writing teachers often repeat “Show, Don’t Tell,” but the reality is more complex. Some information is best told so you can deal with more important and compelling content. The toughest choices involve what to omit. Remember, you want to include the essential elements, omit the extras, all while creating a compelling work.

Hook the Reader

You have fifty words, roughly, to hook a reader. Not only should the first page of a work hook readers — the start of every section needs to hook readers. Audience expectations vary by form and genre; you need to know your audience.

The themes were ‘Anarchy’ and ‘Phobias’.

Prose -
Abhilasha Kumar,
Neetha Rajasena Kurup,
Nikhil and Abhinav,
Srinivas Vijayaraghavan,
Satwik Pradhan,
Neeti Nayak

Poetry - Satyaam Takhellambam

Consolation prizes

Prose -
Kailashan
Ashish Kumar

Poetry -
RV Apurva
Shruti Bhat

Congratulations to those who’ve won. A big thanks to the organising team at BITS, especially Abhishek Iyer.

Have you ever glimpsed a bird that disappeared too fast?

Have you ever struggled to find words to describe what you have seen?

Then please join us for The Sky in My Hands - three days of nature writers’ workshop organised by WWF. Serene Woods is the publishing partner for the event.

Open for classes – VI, VII and VIII

Dates – 27, 28 & 29 April 2011

Timing – 9.30 am – 5.00 pm

Venue – WWF India Auditorium

Rs.1800/- (Inclusive of food & course material)

Participants -30 (First come first serve basis)

For further details please contact -Archita Baruah Bhattacharyya, WWF-India, Secretariat, 172-B, Lodi Estate, New Delhi - 110 003,Email:-abaruah@wwfindia.net, Ph: +91 11 4150 4790/92, Fax: +91 11 24691226

The winners are:

1. Snigdha Jain (for story on Lust)
2. Sapna Singh (for story on Gluttony and Wrath)
3. Sania Iqbal Hashmi(for story on Wrath)
4. Sristy (for story on Lust)

Many congratulations to you all; the selection was really tough as many entries were excellent. Everyone who participated deserves a word of appreciation!

We will be getting in touch with the winners soon. Some of you will also be rewarded by HT Edge also and stand a chance to qualify to their Young Editors’ Programme directly. Watch out your inboxes for more details!

We would love to have you at these events and participate in this cause to save the tiger and the environment. Look forward to seeing you there!

Read more.

A workshop was conducted by Mithun Mukherjee, Author, Cold Feet and Features Writer, HT Media Ltd. He started off with short warm-up exercises that set the stage for invigorating discussions. From stories based on the alphabets of their names to writing without lifting the pen off the paper, writers experienced the sheer joy of putting thoughts into words. The best read out pieces were appreciated by awarding discount coupons of Nine75, a popular food joint in Kamla Nagar. Siddharth Upasani, a student of BA Hons (Economics), who won a coupon for the best alphabet story, explains, “The exercises provided an outlet for free writing and made the workshop more fun. I was also intrigued by how Mithun described the various forms and structures of a short story and how in his book, he challenges the reader to grasp the stories.”

For most participants, the highlight of the day was the lively discussion about various facets of writing as they shot questions at the author and the Founders of Serene Woods, Swapnil Chugh and Unnati Narang. How does your audience affect your style of writing? Is content more important than the structure? These and many more questions gave the youngsters plenty of food for thought. Kaustav B Kashyap, a student of BA (Hons.) English at Ramjas College feels, “I enjoyed the interactive session with the author especially the discussion about how we should focus on the content as well as on getting the point across to the reader without leaving gaps. It also provided me an exposure to the publishing industry.”

The event was also attended by media dignitaries from Teenage Digest and Sycorian magazine. Ritu Bhagat, Creative Director, Teenage Digest feels, “Such events are very important for budding writers, who do not know whom to contact for their writings. Publishers like Serene Woods provide them the right platform and start, so that they are encouraged to write more.” The event concluded with a writing contest organised by HT Edge in which students wrote short prose pieces on any of the ‘seven deadly sins’. The chosen few will directly qualify for HT’s Young Editor Programme.

The process of selection has been challenging, and we have gone through several rounds of eliminations and shortlists, to finally arrive at the winning pieces. Dark fiction writer Mithun Mukherjee, author of Cold Feet, has been an extraordinary help at assisting us, lending his expertise in every possible way. The purpose of this contest was to bring out creativity and give it a voice. Though it has been successfully achieved, the process does not end with our judgement call. We go beyond ‘judging’ in the conventional sense and help you become a better writer. We will be doing this by sending out personalized feedback to the top entries over email.

We thank everyone for participating and now, without further ado, we bring you the list of winners (names are in no particular order). Congratulations to you all.

1. Abhilasha AK
2. Ashish Kumar
3. Sampoorna Biswas
4. Shruti Bhat
5. Akriti Jayant
6. Satyoki Koundinya
7. Srinivas Belur Vijayaraghavan
8. Aneesh Dubey
9. Kriti Sharma
10. Shradha Sahapurka
11. Vivek Katarya
12. Anubhav Pradhan
13. Riddhi Dayal
14. Nidhi Jain
15. Apurba Kundu

We will be getting in touch with you all in the coming week. So long, time to rejoice!

For any queries, write to unnati@serenewoods.com

After the successful first phase of our short story writing contest at IIT-Delhi, Serene Woods extends the contest to other student writers. The theme for the stories is ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’. You can write stories on Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy or Pride. Be as innovative as possible.

Five best stories on each sin will be compiled together in the form of a book! Criteria for selection will be plot, character development, coherence, clarity, grammar and overall expression.

Deadline: October 25, 2010 midnight
Email your entries to contact@serenewoods.com