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Isn’t an expression, communication, and everything that comes tagged along just an extension of our personalities? It’s an art that we consciously and subconsciously master over time. For us, to venture into this world (irrespective of the profession we get into), it becomes highly important to be well acquainted with these basic humanistic qualities.

For kids, schooling does this job on a generic level. But is it always enough? Their imagination, their persona, their thoughts, ideas, and feelings are too vast, lively, and sky-high to fit into a boundary-driven box that we have been accustomed to forever as a society. Storytelling as an art is beyond all sorts of limitations, boundaries, and social norms. It sets you free, it lets you explore yourself and the world around you. It empowers you. It makes you a better person. It helps you venture into the territories you haven’t been to before. It gives birth to newer experiences. How profound this feeling is!

These little souls filled with innocent childlike worldviews get introduced to their inner selves and the world around them through storytelling. The storytelling of any sort, verbal, non-verbal, fiction, non-fiction, through prose, poetries, paintings, illustrations, or any kind of an artform empowers these kids to become better versions of themselves. The habit of consuming art, being surrounded by the vast endless treasure filled with literature introduces them to different facets of humankind and the world they live in. Stories make them express themselves, and help them communicate, and this in turn over time prepares them to go and confidently put their ideas out in the world and articulate their thoughts and feelings in the most accurate possible manner. In simple words, the art of storytelling helps kids be prepared to face life.

It gives me immense joy and happiness to be able to address and have a conversation with these supremely talented bunch of kids and their ever-supportive, encouraging parents. To begin with, having a platform and one which pushes these kids to believe in themselves and come out with stories is like icing on the cake. My association with Wiz Kids Carnival dates back to almost its inception and here we are years down the line celebrating and championing the cause and the kids who are transitioning into future writers, authors, poets, and artists in general. I hope and wish the initiative and every single kid associated with it grows by leaps and bounds edition after edition. Let’s have more and more reasons to smile, celebrate and spread love. Raising a toast to many more years of little masters turning into master storytellers.

Himanshu

Himanshu Nimbhorkar

Himanshu Nimbhorkar works as a freelancing assistant director on feature films, has written a yet to be aired television show, and independently writes and directs shorts (fiction as well as documentaries).

He has previously got his work screened at the prestigious Mumbai-based MAMI Film Festival, Los Angeles-based Lift-Off Sessions, etc.

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Today marks two years since we started wizkidscarnival. The start of wizkidscarnival was the result of multiple conversations, about how best we can engage kids and help them discover their own true self, as well as fill them with pride and happiness through what they have created.

We thought that competitions were a great way to engage and challenge kids – regardless of their age. Competitions – when run in a stress-free manner and with fun and exciting themes – invigorate the child to create something with passion and zest – the child puts forth his/her best foot forward, and isn’t that what we all want?

At the same time, we also wanted to make sure that participating in competitions is something that should be done with a desire to better oneself – and hence we deliberately took efforts in making every child feel like a hero! This effort took the form of our digital magazines – a place where every child’s entry – whether or not he or she wins – is published!

Today these digital magazines form the cornerstone of wizkidscarnival. Wizkidscarnival – as it stands – would not exist without these magazines. We have had multiple instances where kids who had never written a story before have gone on to write stories that are 30 pages long. These kids were not always winners – but their story’s publication in our magazine made them and their parents realize that they are skilled. It gave them the confidence to go ahead and explore and better this skill through our story-writing competitions.

We have had similar stories from almost all our formats – children who were camera shy and had never given a speech to now participating and sometimes winning the prize for the best speech in a particular contest – to children who couldn’t put rhymes together who now compose their own poems, the list is endless!

This list spans children of all ages and from all corners of India – as they say, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari – from Aizawl to Kutchh – and even children from Sweden, UAE, Norway, Germany, the US, UK – every child has found the creator in himself/herself through our competitions.

None of this would have been possible without the blood, sweat and tears of our amazing team – who comprise stars as young as 21 years old to moms and parents who discovered this platform for their children and decide to join us in our mission of “Hero”ing every child!

We are truly humbled by this response and continue to be amazed by the creative power of these kids. Which is why – we want to take our magazines one step further through the launch of “The Kids Carnival” – our newspaper – which is published monthly for now, but soon will be published weekly.

The Kids Carnival will be the place where kids can come, discover other childrens’ best content and get inspired to create their own! At the same time, there will be articles / nuggets that guide them on how to become better!

But then, as they say – “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!” So we also have a special section – appropriate for the child’s age – where they can do bite-sized, small activities and get their dose of fun!

As schools open – we are even more excited, while kids will be busy physically – we want them to not engage in mindless screen time by consuming content on YouTube and Facebook. Rather, give them a safe, engaging and invigorating platform where they can spend a couple of hours a week enriching themself and discovering what they are good at! So that they can grow more confident and as parents, we can know where we channel their natural talents to!

That is the sole purpose of wizkidscarnival, to “Hero” your child – and we are taking it one step further – by the launch of The Kids Carnival! We wish you love this first edition and would love to hear from you on any improvements that we can make on this! Feel free to drop us a line on mansi@ec2-13-203-75-43.ap-south-1.compute.amazonaws.com / abhishek@ec2-13-203-75-43.ap-south-1.compute.amazonaws.com / vinayak@ec2-13-203-75-43.ap-south-1.compute.amazonaws.com and we’d do everything that we can to see your feedback actioned!

– Mansi/ Abhishek/Vinayak

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Aren’t we all fond of beautiful poetries? What is that one thing which makes this medium of storytelling a one of a kind? Poetries let you feel a particular moment in the purest possible form. Poetries are beautiful. And the ones who write them are bound to be filled with purity within them. That’s the primary prerequisite for one to be a poet at heart. Phenomenal combination of words make us appreciate the aesthetics, but it’s the core emotion and the range of it which makes us fall in love with poetries at large.

Poetry is filled with nuances, detailings and most importantly truth. Rhyme could or could not be a part of it depending upon the writing style and the need. Meter and rhythm, conventional or unconventional, in some way, contribute to the overall vibe of the poem. But again, it’s important to not let these patterns dictate your writing style. Set yourself free and see what you enjoy the most.

  • The art of writing a poetry

    To begin with, there’s no right or wrong way of writing poetry. The most important elements which make a poem stand out are purity and honesty. This comes before anything else. There are absolutely no rules to poetry writing. Until and unless you are true to your inner feelings and emotions which you wish to express through your poetry, you can go ahead and put those beautiful lines down on the paper. They might or might not be in a conventionally aesthetic flow, but they always need to be filled with truth.

  • Poetry as an artistic storytelling medium

    One of the purest artistic mediums to have existed since centuries, poetry writing allows an individual to be free. Your writing will always be a mirror to what kind of a personality you are, the range of emotions hidden beneath the layers of your skin, heart and mind will all be on display when expressed with honesty. And this makes poetry a very rich medium of storytelling.

  • The merits of consistent and extensive reading

    One thing which will allow kids of young age to become better at expressing themselves through poetries is the habit of reading. Reading extensively is vital for an individual’s linguistic growth. The ever expanding pool of vocabulary and emotions comes handy like nothing else. The more awareness with respect to the ways in which an emotion can be expressed, a feeling can be conveyed, the art of narrating an episode of your life, or an interesting, profound observation, all of this will come across as byproducts of a good consistent reading habit.

  • Balance between substance and style

    Playing with words is an integral aspect of poetry writing. Cracking some super creative permutations and combinations will result in some unimaginable final outcomes. And ofcourse one should be conscious of this. But at the same time it is important to understand that this particular side of poetry writing should never overpower the delicate emotional aspect. In the race between substance and style, always substance should be prioritised and everything else should be tweaked in and modified accordingly. The emotion riding upon your poetry is your very own original piece which should stay unadulterated and uncompromised at all costs.

  • Just write

    Poetries should just be written. Don’t wait for the moment. Don’t prepare. Just start writing as and when you feel like. Write about yourself, write about your day, write about the emotion you are feeling at that very point of time. The possibilities are endless. Why not explore them? Being mindful is important. Notice and appreciate little things in life and develop an eye for detail. The more you explore yourself, the world around you and the more you read, the better you will write.

  • Diversify your reading habits

    In case if you start (and for your overall betterment you definitely should be) reading classic poetries and great poets, try your best to diversify your poetry consumption habits. Try to read and go through as many diverse poets as possible. Don’t get caught up in patterns or specific types. Obviously liking a particular aspect of the conventional poetry writing skill sets is understandable and then building upon the same later could be quite common a habit in young kids, but it is also important to just be flexible and open minded and see what all possibilities this beautiful medium throws at you. It is important to develop your own voice and nurture it over time.

  • Your own distinct voice is your identity

    Having a very personal and a distinct voice is very important in any medium of art and storytelling, let alone poetry writing. Through poems, your personal voice will always come across as more personal and more intimate. It will let the reader take a deep dive into your soul. And that beautiful journey through your heart will turn out to be a memorable one with the right kind of a poetic feel.

  • Write intuitively and respect and acknowledge your inner emotion

    Don’t write poetries as a task or as a project. Write them when you feel like. Write them to enjoy the process and to free yourself, to put out something that’s been waiting to find a place in this world. Once you complete your piece, reading it again should bring a smile on your face, and not only for style but primarily for substance. A good style is like an add on, a cherry on the cake. But substance first, always and forever.

The intention of this blog isn’t to teach you how to write poetries, no one can. That you will have to figure out on your own. And it is extremely important for you to do so on your own, by exploring the poetic side of yours. This medium is too personalized and an intimate one to look up to something or someone else for inspiration and motivation. For that you will have to look within yourself. Because that’s what poems are for, aren’t they?

As the legendary poet Robert Frost once said, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” “Poetry is what gets lost in translation.”

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Expression is an integral aspect of human lives. It becomes more personal and emotionally intimate when it is your very own experience which you are trying to express. Your thoughts, your ideas, your emotions, your feelings, everything is built upon these little experiences you come across on a day to day basis. Isn’t it beautiful that we have so many stories to tell? Each day is a story, each moment is an emotion. In rare scenarios we notice and acknowledge it consciously while being present in the moment and for a major part of the day we end up absorbing it all subconsciously. But we always feel some or the other kind of an emotion. Articulating these emotions into words and putting them down on a paper is a beautiful activity. We call it journaling.

Just sit down with a diary / notebook / laptop or anything that you are comfortable with and pen down your thoughts every single day. What all you came across on that very day, what were your experiences, any new thing that you noticed, learnt or explored at the school, any moment that stayed with you, any kind of a gesture (either your own or of someone around you that you found special) or any kind of a feeling in general (positive or negative) that’s playing in your head, just put it all down on the paper. Journaling lets you be free, it lets you explore and introspect yourself and most importantly it lets you express yourself.

Journaling simply means the practice of keeping a journal or diary, especially in order to express one’s thoughts. Ideally it should be done in a very quiet, peaceful environment while disconnecting yourself and your mind from the regular hustle bustle.

Let’s go through the merits of journaling one by one :

1. A medium of expression

As repeatedly mentioned above, journaling lets you express yourself. And it is extremely important for kids to develop this habit from childhood itself. Being able to communicate better will just make them more comfortable with their inner selves and their surroundings. Journaling regularly will most likely inculcate this habit within them.

2. Boost in confidence

Regular writing will make kids more confident and more prepared to go out in the world and put their thoughts out in the open. They will get acquainted with the right set of personality skills needed to be able to communicate better and with the right kind of clarity over the course of time.

3. Writing skills

Kids’ writing skills will get honed with regular and consistent journaling. Dabbling with words, ideas and thoughts, articulating and framing the right set of sentences to put across their point in the most authentic possible manner and expanding their vocabulary pool slowly and steadily is only going to help them get better at writing.

4. Channelising and confronting different set of emotions

Anger, laughter, happiness, sadness, melancholy and many such different kinds of emotions can be channelised within and expressed in a very pure manner. Imagine you not breaking a household object in anger but putting that anger out on paper and expressing your feeling through words, isn’t it a far better alternative? And the same could be the case with other emotions as well. Your journal over time would become a home to all your emotions which you have felt at some point of time and you have built this home with utmost care and affection.

5. Therapy

Journaling is often recommended in counselling and therapy treatments for patients to reflect upon their thoughts. In this context, kids might or might not be dealing with stress. But irrespective of that, journaling will always be a therapeutic experience for children. They will be at peace, will become mentally more stronger and will be able to keep a record of their thoughts and emotions while following upon them on a regular basis.

6. Mental exercise

The more you think, the more you introspect, the more you ideate, it will all help the analytical side of yours strengthen over time. The mind will always be in a stimulated state, the ideas will flow and newer, creative thoughts will be in place. It’s in a way a mental exercise, something that will immensely help a child’s brain and his / her analytical side to be in constant motion.

7. Archiving and documenting your emotional journey

With persistent journaling, you are also archiving your inner thoughts over a course of time. It’s like documenting a journey. You can look back and revisit it from time to time to understand where you were at one point and where you are today. The way a large set of photographs clicked since our childhood make us smile as we watch and feel ourselves grow physically from one moment to the other, similarly journaling over a course of time will let you have the archives which will in turn let you witness your internal and mental growth from point A to B, B to C, so on and so forth.

8. Life learnings

As you continue journaling, you will come across a lot of learnings which will be immensely vital for your self growth. It might feel as if we know ourselves really well. We know what we have experienced, what mistakes we have committed in the past, what set of efforts we have put in to correct them and become a better version of ourselves over time. Staying sane has become difficult in the present day and age. This might not be that major a concern for kids at such a young age, but there’s a possibility it might become one in the years to come. So why not prepare themselves to face life years in advance?

The list of pros could go on and on. It’s important to understand that this sweet, little, harmless activity is just going to benefit kids in some capacity or the other. It’s going to help them rise onwards and upwards on an academic as well as on a personal front.

And it is important to stay open and flexible and expand your areas of journaling as and when you feel like. You can even have prompts if you are comfortable with it and let your writing take shape accordingly on specific days. You can even incorporate drawings, sketches, paintings, illustrations or any other artforms in your writings that you love and associate yourself with.

The final goal should always be to be able to introspect, reflect, communicate and express yourself in the purest possible form. That feeling is beautiful when you successfully put out something caged within yourself. It sets you free. It makes you feel better. It helps you know yourself better. It helps you learn and grow steadily. It helps you become a better version of yourself. It makes you appreciate yourself and the world around you.

Calm your mind, sit back and express.

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Not always do we need to escape into the fictional world to come up with exciting stories. Many times, we find them around us through observations or maybe through something that we have personally experienced at some point in time in our life.

Experiences are beautiful, aren’t they? Equally fascinating are memories. Or in simple words, some incidents or moments which stay with us, which are stories in itself.

Today we will be talking about such little things which for us hold a lot amount of significance. These are the moments that we would like to share and discuss with people. We will be narrating such experiences. These things could be quite basic or something very intense, depending on the person and his / her experiences.

Take an example of a park that you have been regularly visiting since you were a 4-5 year old. Now you are 12, and that park has been shut for a year due to some reason or got replaced with industrial construction. So, in this case, you would have numerous memories to share about the park, the beautiful moments you have spent there, the friends you have been there with, games you have played, its benches, animals, so on and so forth. You are missing this all today. How about writing this all down and narrating it? It need not necessarily be in the regular ‘Once upon a time..’ format. It could be very simple, very subtle, or maybe the opposite (depending on your experiences) but should be quite engaging, involving, and entertaining for the reader to read.

All you need to do is think about 3 points :

1. What’s the incident / experience / memory?
What exactly is that thing which you remember? You need to brainstorm and try getting a clear picture of it in your mind before venturing out with the writing process. It could be something very basic, minimalistic, something intense, or maybe dynamic. It could be anything, and you need to treat it exactly the way it is, along with the kind of treatment it deserves while narrating it.

2. What led to it becoming a memory? Why do you remember it so distinctly?
What are the reasons behind an experience or an incident turning into a memory? It isn’t an overnight process; it happens gradually over a period of time. You don’t even realize the fact that the moment you are living now will end up being a memory somewhere in the future. Something as recent as this article which you are reading, it’s just another moment for you right now, but it could be something that you might remember months and years down the lane. There are reasons because of which something stays with you for long, an emotion you feel while reminiscing it. You need to think about this emotion, where did it arise from, how did it keep getting stronger over a period of time.

3. What did you learn from it?
In simple words, it is like the ‘moral of the story.’ Every story has something to offer. Similarly, your tales (experiences) must have taught you something or the other. What was your takeaway from such experiences? Today when you look back at that memory, what do you think you have learned from it? What did it teach you? Did it make you a better human being, a better thinker, an emotionally stronger or a wiser person, or any amongst the n number of other possibilities?

Once you follow these 3 points and keep penning down the content accordingly, you will realise you have a story with you by the end of it. And this one would be quite personal, something which you deeply feel about.

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Going by the mere dictionary definition, A STORY is ‘an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment’. Let’s elucidate the above definition further. The three key words in the above mentioned definition are:

  • 1. People (Imaginary or Real)
  • 2. Events
  • 3. Entertainment

We shall focus on the first two to understand what is known as ‘CHARACTERS’ and ‘PLOT’.

So, THE PEOPLE in the above definition are ‘CHARACTERS’, whereas THE EVENTS constitute to be the ‘PLOT’.

CHARACTERS:

Characters can be human beings, animals, any living or non-living things as well. Characters must possess personality. They are defined by unique characteristics and traits.

Eg. Birbal is witty, Sulley the monster (from movie monster’s Inc) is scary yet very kind, Or Amarendra Bahubali (in the movie Bahubali) is ‘righteous’ and ‘brave’.

Character Want: Character want is very essential for the story to begin and flow. It is want of the character that drives the story. Either the character can have a want from the beginning of the story or it is induced by the external forces. In the film Lion King Simba always wanted to be a king. But the tortoise wanted to win only once he accepted the challenge from the hare.

Character Flaws: We won’t dwell too much on this facet of the character but the flawed characters are extremely exciting and interesting.

Flawed characters are more human and thus believable. The readers empathise more with such characters. ‘Flawed character’ here doesn’t mean a ‘bad’ or ‘unlikeable’ character. Just as an example ‘SIMBA’ in ‘The Lion King’ goes to the restricted territories of hyenas even when he is warned against it. Here, ‘disobedience’ is the character flaw.

PLOT:

Plot is a sequence of events that unfold one after the other in a structured manner in the realm of the story that it is set into. The world where the plot unfolds can also be real or fictitious or a complete fantasy; like in the case of Harry Potter. But, is it enough to merely have Characters and Plot to make a good story..? Certainly not; here we focus on the third element mentioned in the above definition ‘ENTERTAINING’. A story in some way or the other has to be ENTERTAINING.

Though the word entertainment is very subjective in its nature the classic structure of storytelling has decoded few elements if found in the story; makes it interesting and very entertaining.

INGREDIENTS FOR A GOOD STORY :

After studying the age old legacy of storytelling experts and scholars found similarities in great epics. Stories of Panchatantra, Aesop’s tales, Arabian Nights and mythologies like Ramayana and Mahabharata entertain us as they follow a basic story telling pattern. Here without going into greater depths we will try to touch some of the important elements that make a good story.

Following are the aspects to be remembered while writing a story:

  • 1. Theme
  • 2. Conflict
  • 3. Drama (Journey)
  • 4. Good Ending (Climax)

1. Theme:

Theme is a central topic, subject, message or anything that the author intents to convey. A theme can be explained often in a line. It can be a saying or a phrase. Often it is the moral of the story. Eg. The theme of the famous story of tortoise and the hare is ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. OR ‘Slow and steady is better than being quick and careless.’ A story must have a theme. It is essential for the author/writer to have a reason to write a story. Many times the very reason can be to express one’s fear, emotion or experience.

2. Conflict:

There is no story without a conflict. Conflict drives the story forward. A character must be put into a situation that is challenging. A tortoise is challenged to race with a hare. On the offset this sounds not just difficult but impossible. Either an antagonist or the plot itself serves as an opposing force that the character needs to struggle with. Eg. ‘David against Goliath’. The opposing force (either a situation or an antagonist) must be more powerful than the protagonist of the story.

Conflict is both INTERNAL and EXTERNAL.

Eg. Fear of darkness is an example of an ‘internal conflict’ that the character needs to overcome. Whereas fighting with an antagonist or enemy is an example of an External Conflict.

3. Drama (Journey):

The character (Protagonist/Hero) is in a constant quest of achieving the goal (The character want); be it to win over his internal conflicts or inhibitions OR to win over an external force like an antagonist. This journey can only be dramatic or satisfying if the struggle of the character is both believable yet extraordinary. A constant pursuit for the want by confronting various obstacles makes the journey dramatic and powerful. The stories where character want is easily achieved are often boring and dull. Remember what SIMBA had to go through to become a king.

4. Good Ending (Climax):

The end of the story is very important as it leaves a long lasting impact on its reader or audience. It is said that each story has only one possible ending. Many a time an author or writer forces the ending upon a particular story. Such endings are inconsistent with the journey or the drama that unfolds and thus not satisfying or fulfilling.

The ending has to be in sync with the theme of the story. We must note that it is often misunderstood that fulfilling or satisfying story is the one that has happy or positive ending OR the one that ends where the physical want of the character is met with. Many a time want that is not fulfilled by the character makes the end more fulfilling. Most the stories of coming of age or stories that depict harsh realities have such endings. No matter if the end is happy or not it has to be consistent with both the theme and the journey.

Happy Writing !!!