Writing Workshop Part I

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Discipline Core	SCC2CW103	4

Course coordinator and team: SCCE Faculty

1.How does the course link with the vision of AUD?

This course aligns with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi’s vision of fostering interdisciplinary, reflective, and socially grounded learning by integrating creative practice with critical literary engagement. Through close reading of fiction, visual texts, films, and craft essays, students are encouraged to explore the relationship between literary form and lived experience. The course promotes experimentation, self-reflexivity, and peer-based learning while nurturing students’ capacities as writers attentive to voice, form, and social context. The emphasis on creative exploration through multiple artistic mediums reflects AUD’s commitment to inclusive, innovative, and critical pedagogy.

2. How does the course link with the specific program (s) where it is being offered?

As a foundational practice-based course in the Creative Writing programme, this course introduces students to the fundamental elements of narrative craft; character, setting, conflict, point of view, time, tone, genre, and revision. Through workshop exercises and readings from fiction, essays, poetry, and visual culture, students develop the technical and conceptual skills necessary for advanced creative writing courses. It supports the programme’s objective of building critically aware and formally inventive writers.

3. Does the course connect to, build on, or overlap with any other courses offered in AUD?

Yes. This course lays the foundation for subsequent creative writing workshops and craft-based electives by developing essential narrative skills and habits of revision. It complements courses in literary studies, narrative theory, and cultural analysis by combining textual interpretation with creative practice. The course also builds skills that students will use in advanced fiction, non-fiction, and interdisciplinary writing courses.

4. Specific requirements on the part of students who can be admitted to this course:

(Pre-requisites; prior knowledge level; any others – please specify): None.

According to the structure of the two-year postgraduate program, this course is designed for first-year students enrolled in the Creative Writing programme. It is a compulsory course and must be taken as a core requirement.

5. No. of students to be admitted (with justification if lower than the usual cohort size is proposed): usual cohort size

6. Course scheduling (semester; semester-long/half-semester course; workshop mode; seminar mode; any other – please specify): Winter semester/Summer Semester

7. Course Details:

a.Summary: This course introduces students to the core elements of creative writing through structured experimentation with narrative form and style. Beginning with character construction and moving through setting, motivation, conflict, perspective, chronology, tone, genre, and revision, the course emphasizes writing as a process of discovery and craft.

Using literary readings, films, paintings, and guided writing exercises, students are introduced to multiple narrative strategies and encouraged to experiment with different modes of storytelling. Workshops, peer reviews, and reflective assignments provide opportunities for students to develop their writing through practice and critique. By the end of the semester, students will refine one substantial creative work for presentation and assessment.

Objectives: The course aims to:

Introduce students to the fundamental elements of fiction writing.
Develop students’ understanding of character, setting, conflict, voice, and genre.
Encourage experimentation with narrative perspective, chronology, and tone.
Strengthen students’ ability to revise and refine creative work.
Cultivate habits of peer review, critical feedback, and reflective writing.

Expected Learning Outcomes

On completion of the course, students will:

Demonstrate understanding of core elements of narrative craft.
Produce creative work experimenting with multiple narrative techniques.
Apply critical feedback to revise and improve their writing.
Engage effectively in peer workshops and discussions.
Complete a polished creative project demonstrating semester-long learning.

Module I:

Character, setting and motivation. (Week 1- 2)

This module introduces students to the foundational aspects of storytelling: character creation, setting, and motivation. Students examine the distinction between flat and round characters and explore how environments shape narrative mood and symbolic meaning. Through literary texts, visual examples, and writing exercises, they learn to build convincing fictional worlds and psychologically complex characters.

Topics Covered:

Introduction to creative writing as craft

Character creation: flat and round characters

Setting and symbolism

Desire and motivation: what drives a character

Readings:-

Vyasa. The Mahabharata. Translated by Bibek Debroy. 10 vols. New Delhi: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and Penguin Random House India, 2010–2014.
Valmiki. The Ramayana. Translated by Arshia Sattar. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1996.
Premchand. Godan. Translated by Jai Ratan and P. Lal. New Delhi: Jaico Publishing House, 2009.
Mohanty, Gopinath. Paraja. Translated by Bikram K. Das. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Critical Readings

Bharata. The Nāṭyaśāstra. Translated by Adya Rangacharya. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1996.
Anandavardhana. Dhvanyāloka. Translated by D. H. H. Ingalls, Jeffrey Masson, and M. V. Patwardhan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

· Forster, E. M. Aspects of the Novel. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1927.

· Welty, Eudora. “A Worn Path.” The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.

Module-II

Conflict, Perspective and Narrative Structure (Week-3-5)

Description

This module examines how stories generate movement through conflict and how narrative perspective shapes meaning. Students explore minor and major conflicts, central and peripheral tensions, and experiment with linear and non-linear storytelling. Readings and multimedia examples demonstrate how shifts in point of view and chronology affect emotional and narrative impact.

Topics Covered:

Minor and major conflict

Central and peripheral conflict

Narrative perspective and point of view

Linear and non-linear narratives

Playing with chronology

Readings

Somadeva. The Ocean of Story (Kathasaritsagara). Translated by C. H. Tawney. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, reprint edition.
Sharma, Vishnu. The Panchatantra. Translated by Patrick Olivelle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Sahni, Bhisham. Tamas. New Delhi: Penguin India, 2001.
Ghosh, Amitav. The Shadow Lines. New Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publisher, 1988.
Kuntaka. Vakroktijīvita. Translated by K. Krishnamoorthy. Dharwad: Karnatak University, 1977.
Devy, G. N. Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2010
Hills, Rust. Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular. Houghton Mifflin, 1977, pp. 87–110.
Hoffman, Michael, and Patrick Murphy. Essentials of the Theory of Fiction. 2nd ed., Duke University Press, pp. 122–135.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Raven.” 1845.

Module-III

Tone, Voice and Genre Experimentation (6-7 Weeks)

Description:

This module focuses on the expressive dimensions of writing through tone, voice, and genre. Students learn how stylistic choices influence readers’ perceptions and experiment with writing in unfamiliar genres. Through film clips, literary extracts, and peer exercises, they explore how tone and genre can be manipulated to create diverse narrative effects.

Topics Covered:

Tone and voice

Genre experimentation

Scene rewriting

Peer review and blind reading

Readings

Kalidasa. Meghaduta. Translated by Chandra Rajan. New Delhi: Penguin Classics India, 1989.
Kalidasa. The Recognition of Shakuntala. Translated by Barbara Stoler Miller. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1984.
Bama. Karukku. Translated by Lakshmi Holmström. Chennai: Macmillan India, 2000.
Devi, Mahasweta. Selected Stories. Kolkata: Seagull Books, various editions.
Vishvanatha Kaviraja. Sāhitya Darpaṇa. Translated by P. V. Kane. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, reprint edition.
Devy, G. N. After Amnesia: Tradition and Change in Indian Literary Criticism. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2015.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. Vintage, 1976, pp. 317–331.
Lodge, David. The Art of Fiction. Penguin Books, 1992, pp. 155–178.

Module-IV

Flash Fiction and the Craft of Writing. (8-10 Weeks)

Description

This module introduces students to flash fiction and to the micro-level craft elements of writing, including grammar, dialogue, beginnings, and endings. Students explore how compression, syntax, and structural choices create effect, and practice crafting short forms through in-class workshops.

Topics Covered:

Flash fiction

Grammar experimentation

Dialogue and subtext

Narrative beginnings and endings

Readings

Narayana. Hitopadesha. Translated by Franklin Edgerton. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, reprint edition.
Cowell, E. B., ed. The Jataka or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, reprint edition.
Bond, Ruskin. The Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories. New Delhi: Penguin India, 1988.
Narayan, R. K. Malgudi Days. Chennai: Indian Thought Publications, 1943.
Ramanujan, A. K. The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967.
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Scribner, 2000.
Orwell, George. “Why I Write.” In A Collection of Essays, Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1946, pp. 261–267

Module V

Writing as Critique. (Week 12-13)

Description:

The final module encourages students to think of writing as a mode of social, political, and cultural critique. Students engage with texts that demonstrate the ethical and critical dimensions of writing, and then revise one of their own semester pieces through peer feedback and faculty consultation. The course culminates in a final reading and presentation of polished creative work.

Topics Covered:

Writing as social and political critique

Deep revision workshop

Peer review

Final presentation

Readings

Arthashastra (selected passages on statecraft and ethics)
Kautilya. The Arthashastra. Translated by L. N. Rangarajan. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1992.
Kabir. The Bijak of Kabir. Translated by Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Rao, Raja. Kanthapura. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Singh, Khushwant. Train to Pakistan. New Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publishers, 1956.
Mammata. Kāvyaprakāśa. Translated by Ganganath Jha. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series.
Krishnamoorthy, K. Selected Essays on Indian Poetics. Mysore: Dhvanyaloka Publications.