Being authors for a day

The fourth workshop of United International University (UIU) and The Daily Star's (TDS) joint initiative “Imagine Write Creatively” was held on June 18 at the premises of Siddiqui's International School in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. The programme encourages school students to channel their thoughts and give life to their imaginations through the medium of creative writing.

The interactive session kicked off at 11 am in the presence of students from classes 6 to 9 with a short speech from the principal of the school, Nahid Arefa Siddiqui. She thanked UIU and TDS for their united effort to give the students this precious opportunity and asked students to take notes as she believes this would hone their writing skills.

The workshop was conducted by a team of two trainers – Sharmin Sultana and Shupriti Sarkar. “Imagination is something that can really take you anywhere you wish and it would be best if you can express what you have thought in writing,” said Sultana.

The objective of the workshop was to help the students exercise their minds constructively so that they can become proficient in writing. The students were acquainted with the technicalities of writing fiction; the instructors explained how to characterise their imagined figures, build a plot and construct a good climax. The students were then shown how to tie all that together into a neat piece of writing.

Shupriti Sarkar, who works at TDS, engaged the students in amusing activities to get them thoroughly involved in the process. The students participated actively and used their creativity, imagination and wit to handle the challenges that were thrown their way. 

Sarkar told the students that they have the opportunity to submit their own articles at SHOUT and the best write-ups would make it to the magazine.

Rakin Rezwan, an 8th grader, said, “This workshop gave me ideas to write different types of fiction quite easily.”

According to 8th grader Farhan Rhein Nabi, the workshop has opened new ways to look at things and has broadened his perspective. “This interactive event has encouraged me to try to be more innovative with my writing.”

For fellow 8th grader, Shifran Ali, the workshop was immensely important. “It helped my imagination break free of the boundaries and make sense of my usual chaotic thoughts.”

For 7th grader Maisha Farzana, it was an enjoyable experience out of the norm. “I was able to learn a lot. This is surely going to help me and I plan to submit a few articles to SHOUT.” Like her classmate, Shuchismita Saha felt that she got to take in a lot of information that would help her in the near future.

Nazia Binte Noor, a senior student at Siddiqui's International School, encouraged all the students to participate without any hesitation and present any question in their minds without feeling insecure. “This is a wonderful initiative to help students who usually do not know how to constructively write their imagination down. I think this has stimulated good ideas in the students and will come in very handy in their literary and creative writing skills in the future.”