A Reflection on the Writer's Retreat
Scroll down for more snapshots of the retreat!
Retreat at a Glance
The retreat was the first of its kind in Chennai, run by young writers, for young writers.
The idea behind the retreat was to provide a solid foundation for writing and take-home inspiration over two days. We accomplished this goal with a range of mini-workshops on different aspects of writing, sessions led by guest speakers, and exclusive time for “unplugging” in the countryside.
We had an overwhelming response in the time leading up to the retreat and well after it had ended, prompting us to consider that once wasn’t enough. So good news: we’re organizing another retreat this May (23-24) with brand-new sessions on poetry, spoken word performances, short story writing, building comic-strips and more!
Although retreat 2.0 will be very different, do check out what we did in April. Here’s a detailed account of the different sessions, accompanied by participant stories.
If not for anything else, scroll down to see snapshots of Chennai's first residential writing retreat for teens!
Participant Stories
Here are some excerpts from what participants shared with us.
I never wanted to write books, I just journal regularly. But during the retreat, I started writing a story — all of a sudden. That spark was my personal highlight.
When I heard about the writer’s retreat, the first thing I thought to myself was, “Oh my god. I can’t go there, I’m not a writer.” But when I came here, I realized that not everyone’s a professional writer. Most people were trying to explore writing and see what it entailed.
Through both the in-house and guest-led sessions, I came to know that there’s so much more to writing than what I originally had in mind and personally, I’m happy that writing has been made more accessible.
The Team
Lead Facilitators
Abinaya Damodaran is a self-directed learning proponent and published writer.
She ventured into freelance writing as the founding editor of Highbrow, a local health magazine and currently runs Francophile, a community blog that documents stories from French-learners around the world.
Abinaya is a communication and English instructor at a college during the week. On week-ends, she shares her love for reading & writing through Interactive Fiction meet-ups and writing retreats!
Niyutsa Rajesh is an all-round creative person. A writer, artist, and theatre performer, she throws herself willingly into any creative process.
She became a published author at the age of thirteen, releasing a short story in the book 'Homegrown Tales'. But her journey with writing began much before, at the exciting age of ten. She has loved descriptive writing for as long as she can remember and combines her descriptions with illustrations in lovingly hand-crafted travel journals.
In her spare time, she talks to animals, does pottery and dreams of travelling with her dog Imli. Known for her warm personality and inherent 'hippie-ness', she'll get you writing in no time!
Guest Speakers
Ashwani Mohanlal : Theater Artiste & Scriptwriter
Samatha Sharma : Storyteller
Volunteers
Sudeshna Adhikary : Retreat Operations & Activity Head
Nivedita Lakshu : Photography Head
List of Sessions
Note: Press the links to read more about each of the sessions.
Day 1 - Morning Session
Day 1 - Afternoon Session
Day 2 - Morning Session
Day 2 - Afternoon Session
A Detailed Rundown
Interactive Fiction
Right after having a lovely breakfast and getting around with introductions, we started the day reading a story as a group to ease writers into the world of words. We read an excerpt from Winter Wonderland by Laura Knauth and discussed world-building with the use of descriptions, characterization, and non-linear storytelling.
Are You a Writer: Seed Journals And Idea Generation
Having pulled everyone into the thinking zone, the group reflected upon the brief but complex question: Are you a writer? A few people believed that they were indeed writers and others hesitated to apply the term to themselves. As we discussed what a writer means, various characteristics came up (consistent, good with words, published, etc).
Everyone finally agreed that writing is based on one’s unique perception and not the physical act of writing itself. As ideas are at the core of writing, we discussed the importance of seed journals and idea generation. All the writers happily took their seed journals and some went on to decorate them.
Decluttering Your Mind
Before any creative endeavor, it’s best to declutter the mind on paper. The participants took time to do this simple exercise. At the end of the session, when we went around the circle sharing what had resulted, we saw to-do checklists, list of personal goals, mind maps with vacation plans, and unwritten story ideas. It was at this stage that Aastha started outlining the plot for her paranormal action story.
Wackiest idea that came up in this session: Why don’t we invent a double-decker oonjal (swing)?
Creating Your Own Dictionary of Words
Since words are the most fundamental building blocks to any piece of writing, we explored the concept of words and the meaning they convey. We looked at John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a project to create words capturing the most intangible human feelings. Lyrically beautiful examples that stood out to us included the words sonder (the realization that everyone has a story) and morii (the desire to capture a fleeting experience).
Result: Everytime we took a group picture, Chetna whispered into my ear: “Morii…”
Show, Don't Tell
After a heated discussion on how meta words are, we moved to a presentation-cum-activity on an essential tool in a writer’s toolbox: Show. Along with a few exercises, we recognized the value of writing what you know, avoiding redundant/overused descriptions and making observations at a distance.
After sharing our pieces, we sat in a circle to briefly discuss our personal goals during this retreat. Some recurrent goals were: exploring the art of writing, unplugging, trying to complete a work-in-progress and/or having fun.
Free-Writing/Reading Time
We presented the books we had brought along and had an interesting discussion on TBR (to-be-read) lists. After various participants shared their ultimate faves and book recommendations, each person drifted away to find a cosy corner to read their book or continue writing.
Scriptwriting 101: Guest Session by Ashwani Mohanlal
Sharing a laugh with Ashwani
Ashwani Mohanlal, a theater artist and playwright gave us an in-depth look at scriptwriting. With her animated presentation, she kept people on their toes despite the post-lunch haze! As she brought us through the various steps in conceptualizing a script, Mr Snake decided to give an unexpected appearance. After the snake disappeared, we went back to discussing ‘convenient writing’, maintaining the axis of a play and symbolism. In a manner typical of a financial analyst, Ashwani summed her entire session in a satisfying graph.
Body Movement and Tableaux
Any guesses as to the scene enacted here?
Continuing our exploration of theatre, we did a few body movement games and finished in time for light snacks and juice!
#Unplug-Time
We fed the chicks and headed off on a walk through the village. Some highlights: realizing that the “cement” house was actually a mud house, seeing the bluish red-scales on an aggressive turkey and chatting/writing/sketching by the village temple tank. On returning, we had a sumptuous dinner, prepared a campfire and realized the irony of having a campfire on a warm, summer night!
Lateral Thinking Stories
With roasted (a euphemism for mildly burned!) potatoes from the campfire, we sat to work through lateral thinking stories. It was a magical session aplenty with discussion and laughs. When we could no longer keep our eyes open, we quickly spread our sleeping bags on the moonlit terrace, checked our phones for the first (and last) time and fell asleep.
Yoga and Journaling
When the warmth of the morning sun woke us up, we slowly rolled up our blankets and rolled out yoga mats! With a simple guided session facilitated by Anitha Parthasarathy (yoga teacher and our host at Farm 124), we started the morning on the right note. Right after the yoga session, we took some time to journal and went around sharing the ways we journaled and how we could make it a long-term habit. Everyone was inspired by Niyutsa’s journal where she combined simple sketches, color and writing to document her memories.
Storytelling: Guest Session by Samatha Sharma
Right after breakfast, Samatha Sharma, a professional storyteller, joined us to introduce the oral tradition of katha-kalakshepam which literally translates into "story for timepass or to while away time"! After sharing the basic structure to stories, she narrated a short story and invited participants to share their own.
Non-Linear Storytelling
Laundromat, our story that is heavily inspired by Sam Barlow’s experimental piece.
After taking a look at Aisle, a non-linear story by Sam Barlow, we created a parser-based, non-linear story as a group. As soon as we got a cool setting (a laundromat, in case you’re curious!), we quickly built our mysterious character, fleshed out backstories, plotted the possible branches of our non-linear narrative, wrote the opening of the story and continued adding text for possible user-responses until lunch was announced. It was an interesting group-writing exercise where our story-building skills were put to the test!
Meanwhile, Chetna and Aastha continued to “play-read” Winter Wonderland (which we started on our very first session) as they couldn’t wait to solve the complex puzzles presented in the story.
Group Free-Write
After an engaging post-lunch session on body movement activities, we came down with markers in hand. The idea was simple: Four words. Ten minutes. One marker. Go!
People were scrambling around to free-write on four posters hung up at different places, letting all inhibitions go. Ten minutes down, and we spent the next few minutes “commenting” on people’s free-writes with written responses and finally, stood back to admire our collective idea-generation. A simple but effective exercise.
Structuring Your Short Story
With the high of brainstorming, we sat down to a mini-workshop on short story structuring. With the plot-line skeleton in hand, people came up with the structure to their newly-conceived short story, memoir or novel. Fun fact: A few chose to translate their own lives into a plot-line and a few others broke down their favorite story’s structure.
Armed with two days’ worth of ideas and a potential WIP (work-in-progress), participants shared their experience of the retreat and headed to the peepul tree for an old-fashioned group picture — because, why not?
And so, the retreat came to an end.
Until next time.
~ Abinaya Damodaran
Photo Gallery
