II ULUSLARARASI ÇOCUK VE GENÇLİK EDEBİYATI SEMPOZYUMU

The Organization of a Workshop with Reductio ad Absurdum Logic
In 1390, a friend, who was the chief editor of a publishing company, suggested me to set fiction-writing
workshops. The thought of being involved in the crime of replication really scared
me (something I had committed years earlier). So I opposed the idea strongly. But then with the
insistence and consultation of this friend, we decided it would not be matter if we established a
workshop not only free from any harm and damage but fight with them: a comprehensive fight
against stereotypes and replication based on reductio ad absurdum logic!
And Experience Room, aiming to discover the art of writing to create novels, was set up with
strategies which struggle everything that hinders creativity and creation and prevents the author
from writing freely.
The main aspects of the campaign were:
1. the struggle with the accumulation of fictional information in the mind of the students.
2. The fight with the replication of stories.
3. The fight against stereotypes.
4. The fight with the deferential relationship between the student and the teacher.
The Tactics of Experience Room
1. Fight the fears, the temptation to write
Young writers, strongly fear. They fear to face their story. They fear that their ideas may look
ridiculous. They feel inferior among the great writers and their masterpieces. They fear to begin
the story, fear to continue it, fear that they may not be able to finish it, fear the end of it. They
fear the significance of the elements of the story, the narration and the contradictions, the professors,
critics, readers ...
The most important role of Experience Room is to fight with these fears in the first sessions. All
the members of the class should participate in this struggle.
Fear of the Idea: in the first training course of Experience Room, there were at least 3 writers
who raised their ideas in absolute lack of self-confidence:
The first idea: a computer-game developer boy, while coding, enters the virtual world. Initially,
the young writer thought the idea was not worthy of being discussed. I remember the first two
meetings when he attempted to avoid mentioning his idea, and preferred to suggest less ridiculous
and absurd ideas. But later, this idea was converted into a novel published as The End of
the Game. The book was then nominated for two Iranian high awards for best books.
In the second case, there was just this one idea: a girl called her mother by her first name as she
could not call her “Mother”, for a reason that the author himself did not know of. The idea was
very well discussed for 12 sessions in Experience Room. The mother got an identity. She had an
important secret which she had to keep it hidden from her daughter. The relationship between
the mother and her daughter was defined- it was critical. And later all these events turned into a
fascinating novel called The Feast of Ashes. The story won the award of the seventh period of
the first-time authors.
In the third case, the author just had a naughty little boy in his mind and an idea - which he considered
to be awkward - of how to start the chapters of his childish novel. With embarrassment
and apology he explained his ideas for each chapter which, to our surprise, were very sweet and
creative. But this idea later became his own exclusive idea: he had given the brightest idea for
his story’s form. His book was reprinted five times. Sinsina, the naughty boy of this novel, also
became the main character of a TV series.
To overcome this fear - the fear of expressing ideas- we do several things in Experience Room.
The first is to distribute some pictures, which I prepare beforehand, among the students. Then I
ask them to sit and write about their picture for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the pictures are
exchanged among the students. This time the students clearly show their enthusiasm to receive
II. Uluslararası Çocuk ve Gençlik Edebiyatı Sempozyumu 721