Kids, this lockdown is a good time to cultivate those writing skills you promised you will work on. If you need a little hand-holding, children's author Nandini Nayar is taking masterclasses for children and teaching them how to write so that they can make the best of the lockdown. This 47-year-old is already very popular with the children, having written 28 picture books and has lost count of the number of novels she has written. Not only have her books like What Shall I Make? been recommended by the CBSE, this Hyderabad-based author is also a curriculum developer and an educator. Clearly, she is the perfect guide to help children write and write well!
"I was already telling stories by using the IGTV video feature and sharing writing thoughts on Instagram to keep children engaged, so this was the next step," says Nandini who started these classes last week for those children who are above 10-year-old. Currently, all her students, mostly from Hyderabad and Mumbai, are enthusiastic readers and she is receiving many more queries hence, she might start a new batch too. Yay!
As far as the curriculum goes, Nandini was very clear that she wanted a short and to the point course. It covers aspects like the basics of writing, what goes into storytelling, where to look for ideas and how to identify a good one and so on. With these lessons, this Madhya Pradesh-born writer also shares some tips. One of the pearls of wisdom she emphasises on are, "An undisciplined writer cannot be a frequently published author. There has to be some discipline. Parents can encourage, but the discipline must come from within," says the writer who herself started developing a love for writing at a very young age.
"Many children come to me with questions like, 'I know the beginning of my story and the end, but I don't know what happens in the middle'," smiles Nandini. It is these questions that she aims to find answers for, along with children. She also relishes the idea that she will get to learn from teaching children. "They have a different enthusiasm, an awareness of themselves," she shares.
Nandini is aware of the various formats of storytelling and she has done enough to introduce children to them through her workshops.
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Much as it is in her book Apoorva’s Fat Diary, where she encourages participants towards the art of diary-writing and though her book The Curious Case of the Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop, she teaches them the art of writing recipes, for the online masterclass, which she conducts with the help of Google Hangouts, she wants to keep things simple. "I don't want to confuse the children hence, I will be focusing on the building blocks of writing," she reiterates.
Nandini's tips for budding writers:
- Don't accept the first draft, work on it again
- Avoid excessive usage of adjectives
- Also avoid lofty and heavy descriptions
- Be critical and edit strictly
To know more about her, check out nandininayar.in
