Top 7 Creative Writing Courses in Kolkata (Updated)
Looking for creative writing courses in Kolkata? Here is a list of courses and workshops on creative writing. Learn and Compare to find the best one for you.
Kolkata is the largest city in the east of India. It was the capital of British India. The city has a rich literary history and a prominent regional film industry. It has produced a great many scholars and social reformers since the time of the British.
There are many great creative writing courses in Kolkata since creative writing is a natural interest of people in the region. It is also a necessary part of the film-making process. So many film enthusiasts who wish to work in the film industry flock to the city in search of work and education.
Kolkata cinema has produced many films, both feature, and art, that went on to win prestigious awards, inside India and abroad. This appreciation of the industry attracts many students and professionals who wish to work in the industry.
Screenwriting is one of the crucial elements of the film. It describes the plot, the narration, the pacing, the characterization, and the setting of the film. A writer is notably one of the most important members of the production.
The interest in writing is immense. To cater to this interest, there is a host of creative writing courses in Kolkata.
It is not enough to understand just the grammar and have a good vocabulary. Vocabulary may provide different and more precise ways of saying things but creative thinking is another skill.
It takes much more time and practice to develop creative skills. And for that purpose, one must apply for top creative writing courses in Kolkata. Every individual has his/her own definition of creativity. Each person brings their own life experiences and subjective opinion into their creative work.
But every creative work, including writing fiction, poetry, music, painting, and so on, provides fulfillment and meaning to the person. But you do not need to be a creative professional to reap the benefits of creativity.
Benefits of creative writing
- Stress buster
Our world is moving towards coding in complex languages and analyzing large amounts of data. Work like this is tedious and stressful for the majority of the population. Indulging in a creative habit provides relaxation and relieves stress build-up.
Creative writing is one of the activities that benefit emotional, psychological, and physical health even. Research has shown that involving oneself in creative writing has similar benefits as meditation. But stress-busting is not the only advantage of creative writing.
- Imagination building
During the process of writing, writers imagine different situations, scenarios, behaviors, characters, and outcomes. This gives a boost to their imagination powers. But how is that an advantage?
Imagination and creativity are important skills even in highly technical jobs. Most people wrongly assume that programming does not involve creativity. But it takes the ability to think ‘outside the box’ to solve complex problems related to products and projects. People who practice creative hobbies are better at thinking outside the box.
This kind of thinking helps in finding creative solutions to complex problems. Problems arise in every type of work. Most of the time, the solutions are not standard and we need to come up with a new idea. With this ability, a person can be a great asset to the company.
- Communication skills
Creative writing also helps in improving communication skills. Communication is considered the single most important quality in professional success. This is true even for highly technical jobs like IT, and data analysis.
Writers understand situations better. They can see things from various perspectives. This helps them understand the viewpoint of others and be considerate of them.
- Articulation
Writing also helps in the proper articulation of sentences and better expression of thoughts. This looks quite easy on paper but expressing an opinion by turning them from feelings into words is not an easy feat. Most people are terrible at it and it takes a good amount of deliberate practice to improve communication skills.
This ability of expression is so important that schools organize specific activities for children to develop the expression of thoughts. People who did not have good schooling have to learn it in professional courses after they grow up.
By practicing creative writing, people learn the most impactful way of saying the same thing. They learn that in authoritative positions, it is crucial that people respect you and admire you. If the person does not have a strong grasp of language, how is he going to accomplish that?
- Organizing thoughts
Through writing and learning the structure of various forms of writing, people learn to organize their thoughts too. Organizing thoughts into important and unimportant parts and learning how to put more weightage into specific parts are just some things people learn by learning to write creatively.
There are also things that come to mind but are not relevant enough to the topic. For example, writing a news story requires you to write in a proper structure. The most important information comes at the beginning which is mostly factual. The secondary pieces of information or opinions come later.
Writing can also help make mundane and boring things quite interesting. For example, programming is something normal people would consider quite boring. Then how does a writer make a technical article interesting? The answer lies in creativity.
- Empathy
Through writing, people learn empathy. They can put themselves into the shoes of another person and better understand their problems. Emerging studies have shown that a high Emotional quotient is as important for professional success as a high IQ.
Empathy makes for a high Emotional quotient. A high EQ makes people better leaders.
Learning technicals of writing
People who want to write full-time or have dreams of publishing their own works need to understand the technicals before being creative. They have to understand how a story is written. They have to learn different forms of creative writing and different genres.
There is no other way to get better at writing than by writing itself. This seems quite logical but most people make this basic mistake.
Through writing, people will learn the elements of the story like flow, narration, characterization, and other skills like humor, suspense, mystery, and so on. This is the only way to develop a writing style.
Confidence
This is an undeniable benefit of writing more. As people write more and publish their works on various media, they get feedback. This feedback is essential for their growth.
When people appreciate their work, this enhances their confidence. They learn to trust their skills and believe in themselves. They develop a voice. A voice that is heard and felt. They feel more comfortable when expressing their opinions and viewpoints, in general.
Creative writing in branding
There has been a surge in the number of businesses going online in recent times. Even in India, the reach of high-speed internet has penetrated even remote towns and villages.
Many medium and small businesses are seeing great potential in having a website, a social media page, and a digital marketing campaign. the trend has reached such a point where there are hundreds of companies competing in the same sectors.
With a conventional marketing communication strategy, it is not possible anymore to build a strong brand. Without building a strong distinct brand image in a competitive market, it is not possible for a new company to break in and become successful.
Brands need novel and innovative ideas to break the clutter that today’s advertising has become. Through new technology and new ways of communication, brands can create a distinct image in the market.
In the sphere of content marketing, one of the ways to create a distinct brand image is to produce creative content. Creative content often uses the elements of storytelling, creative writing style, calculated pace, and others.
The content produced in this manner is not the usual or boring content but relevant and interesting to read the material. Readers feel compelled to read it till the end. This reduces the bounce-back rate of a webpage and increases the perception of quality on the search engines.
There is an increased requirement for content to stand out. There are millions of blogs on the internet having more than tens of billions of webpages collectively. One Google search shows thousands of pages at the least. Brands need to take efforts to make their content stand out.
Here, the content writers who specialize in creating creative content are especially under demand. But how do learn to write creative blogs? If you have no experience in writing creative content, this might become a challenge.
But this challenge can be overcome by a little practice and enrolling in the right creative writing course.
Creative writing courses in Kolkata
IIM SKILLS
IIM SKILLS is a renowned digital marketing institute with courses in both digital marketing and content writing. Because of its state-of-the-art training methodologies and expert trainers, it is one of the best digital marketing courses in Kolkata. The institute has trained more than 5000 professionals in over 35 countries. It has a decade of training experience.
The IIM SKILLS content writing course is a unique course. To teach students the methods of user engagement, the course uses the principles of storytelling. The course devotes considerable time to enlightening students about various elements of compelling storytelling for branding purposes.
The course duration is 1 month. In this period, theory classes account for 16 hours and practical sessions for 60 hours. This is an intensive course. Classes are held every day. This is one of the most beneficial creative writing courses in Kolkata.
Case Studies
The course is based on case studies from real brand stories. All students undergo training on live projects. All students are required to start their own blogs so that they can implement the lessons that they learn in class.
Modules
The entire course is divided into 12 modules. Each module deals with one important skill regarding content writing.
The first module starts with teaching about how to start a website, a blog, and how to host a website. Students learn about various types of hosting. In the second module, students learn about various UI and UX design principles pertaining to website design. Together, these two modules teach students how to create a functional and beautiful website.
The third module teaches candidates about different styles of written communication. It includes content for blogs, ad copy, product description, corporate communication, email, press releases, promotional content, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and others.
In this module, candidates also learn about the components of storytelling. They also discover how it can be utilized to build better brand communication by creating engaging blog content and social media presence.
In the next module, candidates learn the technical side of content marketing. This includes Search Engine Optimization, both on-page, and off-page. Here students learn how to increase the page authority and the domain authority. This helps in improved rankings on the search results page.
The fifth and sixth modules teach students how to employ social media and email to get more traffic to the content. It teaches how to understand the utilize the culture of various social media platforms. This helps in more engagement in the form of link-clicks, shares, and reactions.
The next module teaches how to use various digital marketing analytics to continuously evolve a better strategy. Students learn SEO audit, competitor analysis, keyword analysis, trends analysis, ranking difficulty, and many other tricks and metrics.
Towards the end of the course, students learn how to gain employment as professional content writers. Candidates also receive placement assistance and specialized training to work as freelancers. They learn skills like client pitching, prospecting, onboarding, etc.
Tools
All students get an internship opportunity at IIM SKILLS partner organizations. Students get access to free tools worth Rs. 35k.
All batches are currently online so students from anywhere in Kolkata can register without worrying about the distance.
You may try browsing through the video to learn more in details about the content writing course by IIM SKILLS:
For candidates looking to learn how to incorporate creative elements from storytelling into content marketing, this is the ideal course.
British Council, Kolkata
The British Council is a distinguished organization for learning the English language. Principally, it is an organization that promotes cultural events between nations and fosters information exchange. It is operational in more than 100 nations. It also conducts the IELTS test for language proficiency.
The British Council has various courses related to language. The course list includes courses teaching the English language and there are separate courses for kids, adults, and corporates.
The British Council also conducts a course for becoming an English language teacher certified by Cambridge. The program is called CELTA and is offered as a 4-week intensive course at its premises, a 12-week part-time classroom course, as well as a 12-week online course.
The creative writing course from the British Council is one of the most popular creative writing courses in Kolkata. The course teaches various forms of creative writing including fiction, poetry, short stories, creative blogging, scriptwriting, screenplay, etc.
Students also learn about various genres in detail like travel, surrealism, humor, children’s fiction, etc. They learn to create a plot, establishing a theme and mood, providing a setting to the story, and so on. Students also learn how to write for blogs and social media by tapping into their creativity.
At the end of the course, candidates receive lessons on getting published and starting work as a screenwriter.
The course is conducted in two models. One is a weekend course. The other is the summer course. The total course duration is 50 hours. The maximum batch strength is 20.
In order to get admission, applicants need to submit an original piece of creative writing as an assessment.
Indira Gandhi National Open University
The IGNOU project began operation in 1985 with just 2 courses. Today, it is one of the largest such projects in the world providing certification in over 230 courses. The open university awards diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate, and certifications in various disciplines.
It is open to students not just in India but overseas also.
IGNOU provides Diploma in Creative writing in English. The course duration is 1-year. This is one of the most popular creative writing courses in Kolkata since IGNOU has a regional center in Kolkata.
To become eligible for the course, the applicant needs to have passed 10+2. But for candidates over 20 years of age, this criteria is not present.
The course aims to provide fundamental writing skills for creative professions like TV production, radio, films, and so on. The candidate can work as a scriptwriter or content writer. The course curriculum is designed by notable people in the field.
The course includes lessons on creativity and various forms of writing. The course introduces complex subjects gradually for a better understanding of the principles of fiction writing. Candidates also receive introductory education on how to write for women, kids, and other target audiences.
The diploma course has 2 compulsory and 4 elective subjects. The program is credit-based and students have to achieve a minimum number of credits to receive the diploma.
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute
The prestigious film and television institute is one of the most sought-after colleges among film enthusiasts all over India. The institute teaches various full-time courses in direction, cinematography, editing, music, and other disciplines in film production.
Although these courses typically last for 3 years, there are many short courses organized from time to time. These short courses often go on for just a few weeks.
One of SRFTI’s creative writing courses in Kolkata is the Screenwriting workshop. The course typically lasts for 4 weeks. It consists of 24 lectures over 72 hours of total course duration.
The course is intensive and classes are conducted on 12 days, starting from 10 am and last until 5 in the evening. Most of the medium of instruction is English with the occasional Bengali. This is due to the fact that in the course discussions on many Bengali films also happen.
Their creative writing courses in Kolkata essentially discusses writing for film. Over the course, discussions include various films over various movements and specific qualities of each movement. Various experimental and art films are discussed.
The lectures are delivered by notable professors and experts on screenwriting and film studies. These lecturers are often professors of various film institutes in India, particularly SRFTI and FTII, and various industry professionals.
The admission to the course is on a first come first serve basis. The maximum batch strength is 25.
Amit Chaudhuri’s creative writing workshop
Amit Chaudhary is a renowned novelist, essayist, and poet of the English language. He was named as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009. He is currently a professor of creative writing at Ashoka University. Before this, he has been a professor of creative writing at the University of East Anglia.
The workshop is organized regularly every year in Kolkata and is one of the most awaited creative writing courses in Kolkata. Amit Chaudhary is often joined by other renowned writer for providing their insights.
The workshop is organized in collaboration with the University of East Anglia, the British Council, the Caravan magazine, and the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet.
The best submission from the candidates in the workshop is published in the subsequent edition of Caravan magazine.
The workshop is organized for 8 days. It is typically organized in November and December, but enthusiasts need to remain alert since dates change every year.
FAQs
Q. What is content writing?
Ans- The craft of developing content online in a way that it reaches the maximum audience and brings good attention to the brand or organization, or maybe a page is called content writing.
Q. What are the practices involved in content writing?
Ans- There are many content writing practices that are followed for preparing a good piece of content that ranks, some of them are keyword research, keyword stuffing, search engine optimization, content structuring, etc.
Q. What are the tools required in content writing?
Ans- There are many tools in content writing that are used for several purposes such as keyword research, trending content ideas, and more. Some of the tools used in content writing are UBERSuggest, SEMrush, MOZ, Grammarly, Duplichecker and more.
SUMMARY
As we can see, Kolkata is home to some of the best creative writing courses in India. There are creative writing courses in Kolkata for everyone’s needs. Whether you need a short-term course for content marketing purposes or a full-time course for beginning a writing or film career.
These creative writing courses in Kolkata are from prestigious institutions, taught by notable and accomplished faculty. Most of them are industry professionals, who have won awards and recognition, for their contribution to the industry.
Naturally, learning from the masters is incomparable to learning from regular institutes. If candidates choose the right creative writing courses in Kolkata, it can propel their career forward and save months and even years of struggle.
Various creative writing courses in Kolkata are listed in this article. We hope this information mentioned here helped in learning more about various courses and compare them to find which course is the best for you.
