A LESSON IN CREATIVE WRITING

“It was a dark and stormy night...” the beginning was plagiarised from Snoopy, hopefully Chotu would not catch on “I was in bed just about to go to sleep. Suddenly I heard a sound as if someone or something was very close. I pulled the sheets over my head as I tried to still my racing heart and get my breath back...”

“Uh?” was Chotu’s response. Of late he has started responding to everything in that manner which I find rather mystifying. There are “Uh?”s and “Huh!”s. The first implies “Not understood, kindly explain” and the second, a standard form, means “Information received, understood, kindly proceed”.  Chotu comes to me to do his homework every day. He loves maths and is excellent in it. So I have taken upon myself a personal mission to inculcate in him, a love of reading and writing.

“Chotu have you understood what I read out?”

“Uh?”

“I want you to continue this story in your own words. Now, think carefully and then write”.

Chotu scratches his head, bites his pen and stares into space. “I can’t!”

 “Think, Chotu, think”.

A couple of seconds later his eyes light up “Eureka”. He picks up his pen and starts writing furiously. Exactly ten seconds later he looks up with a triumphant look in his eyes and throws his pen on the table “Finished!”

I wonder how can he do a good job so fast.

“Wonderful” I exclaim, “Read out what you have written”.

He continues the story “When I saw what it was, I saw it was an alien and it was coming nearer and I ran. After one whole round of the house, the alien started laughing. I was surprised when I saw it was my brother dressed in his play costume and I became angry. I had planned to do the same thing tomorrow”.

“The next night” I correct.

“Tomorrow” he states with finality.

“Great” I exclaim with pleasure “what a wonderful idea”. He smiles with glee.

“Now I want you to think from the viewpoint of an author. What really makes a story interesting is description and lots of it. You have to paint a picture with words. Got it? Now what details can you give?” I ask him.

“I don’t know” his standard response.

“Think” my standard response. Then I prod him. “What would the alien look like?”

“Green in colour, a big head with two antennae coming out of it”

“Now describe your reaction on seeing it”

“Very scared” he says with a shudder.

“What do you do at this point?”

“Run into Mom’s room but she is still at work”

“What do you do then?”

“Shout for Dad but he’s not home, so I realize I’m alone”

“That’s very good. Now what would you feel when you saw it was your brother?”

“Extremely angry”

“Then what would you do”

“Punch him in the stomach” he says enjoying himself.

“Wonderful, now put these details in and you have an excellent story, don’t you?”

A wide ear to ear grin and a look of understanding is what I get in return.