Despite the numerous difficulties created by the COVID19 Pandemic, there is one aspect of the lockdown that a lot of people have taken advantage from. Free time at home! Men and women took a break from their busy work life. Some people used this time to work on themselves spiritually while others learnt new skills like cooking, painting at what not. And we took this opportunity to conduct a Story Writing Workshop!
We saw how school-going children were being bombarded with home assignments and online classes. Team Daastan felt the need to brighten up this mundane school schedule for the students of Beaconhouse Satellite Town Rawalpindi – Senior Girls Branch. We conducted a short Story Writing Workshop with students of grades 6 to 11.
Story Writing Workshop – How Stars Die
This Story Writing Workshop was aimed at familiarizing students with basic plot and character requirements. Emphasis was laid on stages of writing a story. As discussed, the starting must have some action or conflict that will drive the story forward. The middle of the story must be focused on the main character struggling to achieve the conclusion which will be set by the end of the story after the climax. But this was not all. There was a twist that kept our audience glued!
We talked about the villains of our stories. Students were asked to sketch the villains of their stories. To give them an idea, our team discussed the issue of plagiarism. In our story, a villain was one who steals someone else’s idea!
Heroes Of Tomorrow
Our next Story Writing Workshop was with students of Grade 9 to 11. For this session, our topic was Heroes of Tomorrow. We introduced the idea of Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG) as the superpower of the heroes of the future. Our team members explained what SDGs are, listed them and asked students to choose an SDG and make it the superpower of their protagonist. The preliminaries of writing a short story was discussed too.
We received amazing stories from the students which we will be publishing on Qissa. The main idea behind this activity was to engage students in learning through stories. Sometimes, we forget how small things leave a huge impact on our thinking. Reading books should be valued by parents and teachers. The lessons we learn through a story forms our values and stays with us for a long time. Daastan is struggling to establish and reinforce reading and writing in the younger generation. We believe in developing our nation through education.
Join us and be a part of this struggle for a better society. What we write today, would be read tomorrow!
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