Nothing inspires writing like travel does. Outside your comfort zone, away from the city in a beautiful, tranquil environment where one can actually listen to the voices in their head and put them on paper. Based on this idea Paper House, an experiential writing retreat is happening in Shilla Treks, an apple orchard in the Parvati Valley, that provides the perfect amalgamation of seclusion and company .
The Paper House Writing Retreat with an underlying philosophy of “Ideate, Create, Collaborate” will give opportunity to ten upcoming writers who will get to go on a creative vacation with three professional writers for 5 days, who will mentor them and provide them access to a plethora of resources and ideas. Their aim is to create a space where ideas flow freely among the participants and stimulate them to move away from their mundane life and enter into a creative zone that is beyond their comfort and imaginations. The writers will experience something that is deeper and more long lasting than a one-off workshop or a lit fest.
Paper House will organise workshops focusing on creative development of the story, the construction of plot and character. There will also be a session dedicated to the nuances of editing and publishing along with specially curated storytelling sessions in villages with schoolchildren. Also included are bonfire conversations, musical evenings and access to a library with a view. All this, while trekking through an uncharted trail in the hills.
The mentors include master story tellers Chintan Ruparel, the co-founder of Terribly Tiny Tales and Priyanka Menon, an author and spoken-word artist. The retreat has already started receiving many stellar applications and will be attended by multi-faceted individuals such as Usha Venkatraman, a storyteller and puppeteer, Sidhant Mehra, a script writer and documentary film maker and Adithi Raju, a writer and strategic-management consultant.
“We want to create a community of support for upcoming and established writers who are bound together by a love of the craft” say Tara Khandelwal and Mahima Sood, the two conceptualizers of Paper House who are excited to take storytelling to the next level through their maiden project. Here, great tales will be born and nurtured, unconstrained by shackles of the real world.
The Paper House Writing Retreat is happening from October 10-15. Their applications are open till September 21. The cost of attending the retreat is INR 30,000 that includes travel to and from Delhi/Chandigarh in AC coaches, three wholesome meals and a comfortable stay in gorgeous wooden cottages. To apply, visit their website.
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