Events And Gallery

On 8^th September 2022, a webinar for students and teachers was organised and hosted by CBSE ACADEMIC UNIT. It was a part of the CBSE Budding Authors Program and two students from our school – Aarya Saraf, and Anvi Tuteja from Grade X were selected for the same.

The webinar lasted a little more than an hour, and was incredibly insightful. The main speaker for the same was the brilliant artist – author Menaka Raman.

She began off by averring the main elements (ingredients, if you will) for a story which include Characters (represented by their physical features and emotional characteristics), Setting (the place the story takes place), Elements of Drama (conflicts or challenges faced by the characters, such as a fight between the protagonist and antagonist, representing good vs evil), and finally, the Ending, also known as the Resolution.

 She explained each of these elements in detail, along with examples from several famous books and movies, which made the content not only easy-to-understand but also relatable. For instance, she used the example of Harry Potter (from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling) often, talking about how the books showcased some of his constant personality traits, along with dynamic ones, which progressed along with the books. Similarly, she used examples from the Lord of the Rings (from the LOTR trilogy by JRR Tolkien), the Star Wars movies, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and specifically the 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, and lastly, she even used the example of rival cricket teams and their fans to teach about Resolutions!

In the last quarter of the session, an interactive Q&A round was held, wherein questions were to be sent on a Google form and further to be answered by Ms. Raman. A question from Aarya Saraf, and four questions from Anvi Tuteja were chosen and answered. They included:

AS: How can I capture so many different story elements such as characters, setting, conflict, resolution and have a meaningful climax in a short story with limited words?

AT: 1. Does anything change if I want to write in another language? For example, I write poetry on my blogsite, and am learning the German language. I have attempted to rewrite my poems written in English to German, but it's always hard to find rhyming words in German that work for me.

2. I really like something I have written but it doesn’t really fit in with the overall story. How do I go about working through that? For example, while working on my second book, I wrote scenes I had visualised in my mind, and I felt they came out really well. However, it did not add much to the plot, and I was conflicted on whether or not to delete it, to really streamline the story.

3. Is it okay to get sidetracked from the story I was originally planning to write and change it into something completely different? For example, while working on my second book, I wrote scenes I had visualised in my mind. However, they did not add much to the original plot, and the story constantly changes from a linear format to a flashback format to a completely different genre.

Following this, the virtual participants were allowed to raise our hands and ask questions. Anvi took this opportunity to ask two questions further:

AT: 1. Do all stories have to have conflict and resolutions? If so, does all conflict need to resolve itself in a story?

2. What are the common mistakes that I, as a young writer should avoid while developing my story?

Ms. Raman stated how different stories have different format and rules, and how a murder mystery is different from traditional literary fiction, and how writing different languages does not limit your writing, it merely helps you to think even more creatively.