Story tales

The group has Rita Chhablani,Jayashree Dhillon,Manjula Shukla,Mala Rihan,Kavita Dayal and Setna who came together a year ago owing to the initiative by Chhablani. “I was a part of a critique’s group while in Chicago,so when I moved to the city I wanted to initiate it here and we all got together to write and read on precisely anything. Along with being a creative outlet,the exercise is a way to know each other better through thoughts. In fact since the time we started this exercise,our writing skills and language has improved a lot,” adds Chhablani who is also working on her book on historical fiction that traces her own roots.

While some of the group members have been writing earlier as columnists,this exercise they feel,hones their writing skills. “We do have constructive criticism and advice each other on the structure,plot and so on. Since each one of us has our own comfort zone of genre,we also shuffle and suggest topics that range from sci-fi to humor and even romance. While I am a last minute writer,for someone like Kavita,the story develops through the fortnight. There is no particular limitation on writing but each one must have some story or a part of it to read out,” adds Dhillon.

“Even though we focus on fiction,a lot of research goes into projecting the story to make it authentic and interesting. It’s more about colouring incidents and ideas that click,” says Shukla.

Next in the pipeline is a blog to take it farther while they also plan to compile the stories together for a book,“This exercise has become a top priority for us which we immensely enjoy and would not like to cancel it for anything in the world,” they chorus.