Start writing,little ones

Started by two friends,who are also mothers of teenagers,the aim of the website is to encourage children to write. Launched in the first week of May,it has at least one new post daily. And it’s entirely free.

Children send their entries,which are edited for grammatical and other errors and then uploaded accompanied with illustrations that are also done by children. And though it is open to children between seven and 18,the youngest contributor so far is six-year-old Arnav Garg from the US. The themes are simple: friendship,family,pets. One contributor,11-year-old Aditya,has been writing a serial story on time travel. Another,11-year-old writer-illustrator Ananya from Chennai,has not only provided visuals for her own article on Tanjore paintings,but also for a poem by Meghna Goel. Also,Pratham Books has allowed reproduction of the award-winning entry of its under-16 writers’ contest.

The initial success has been encouraging for the founders,Meeta Sengupta and Parul Gupta,both published authors. A Nepali children’s website has posted its desire to do something similar in Nepali language. Tying up with the school edition of a newspaper may also happen in the near future. However,there are no plans to earn profit from the venture.

As Parul Gupta explains,“The idea of wordsandmore germinated two years ago when I noticed that children,including my daughter,were facing difficulties in languages. On the other hand,even though children are reading less and less these days,preferring the television and the Internet,nonetheless,their creativity has not dampened. They have stories in their heads,but they never make it to paper or computer. Wordsandmore encourages creative writing among children by providing editorial and technical support. The byline is an incentive for the child — it prompts him/her to continue writing. Over a period of time,the child’s language skills are bound to improve.”