Mangal D Karnad
Author & Storyteller
A Story Writing Workshop Where You Finish a Story, Not Just an Idea
This story writing workshop is a 2 to 2.5-hour hands-on session that takes you from understanding short story structure to completing a finished first draft of your own. Most writing courses leave you with notes and good intentions. This workshop is built around a single promise: you leave with a complete short story you wrote yourself, not an outline or an idea. It draws on both ancient Indian storytelling traditions (the Panchatantra) and contemporary short fiction to make the craft accessible, practical, and genuinely enjoyable.
Join the waitlist
Next cohort dates: To be announced.
I run small-group story writing workshops a few times a year, both in person in Bengaluru and online. Cohorts are kept small so every participant gets attention and gets feedback. If you'd like first access when the next dates open, join the waitlist below.
What you'll walk away with
Most short story writing workshops promise inspiration. This one promises output. By the end of the 2.5 hours, you will have:
• A finished first draft of an original short story (400–600 words)
• A clear, working understanding of short story structure
• Confidence in building a single character with depth
• Practical peer feedback you can apply to everything you write next
This is a workshop for people who are tired of starting stories and not being able to finish them.
Who this workshop is for
This story writing workshop is designed for anyone aged 15 and above who wants to actually write a short story. It works for:
• Aspiring writers who have ideas in their head but struggle to get them onto the page
• Working professionals, founders, and consultants who want to sharpen how they communicate, pitch, and lead through narrative
• Students and young writers preparing for college applications, creative submissions, or building a personal portfolio
• Anyone curious about the craft of short fiction, regardless of prior experience
You don't need to have written anything before. You just need to be willing to write for 35 uninterrupted minutes in a room (or video call) full of people doing the same thing.
Why a short story writing workshop is worth your time
You don't need to have written anything before. You just need to be willing to write for 35 uninterrupted minutes in a room (or video call) full of people doing the same thing.
Clarity of thought
Story writing forces structure: a beginning, a tension, and a resolution. Once you've trained your mind to build narratives this way, you notice the difference in everything else you write emails, proposals, presentations, pitches. You stop sharing scattered information and start communicating with intent and flow.
Empathy and understanding people
To write a character well, you have to understand their motivations, fears, and contradictions. This is the same muscle that makes someone a better manager, a more thoughtful client partner, and a stronger negotiator. Writers who take character seriously tend to read people better.
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Discipline and precision
Writing strips away vague thinking. You can't hide behind buzzwords on the page. Word by word, the craft teaches you to choose carefully, cut what isn't earning its place, and stay focused. These habits transfer directly into how you think and how you work.
Personal voice and confidence
Most professionals struggle to express themselves in a way that feels distinctly their own. Writing regularly, especially writing stories, builds a clear personal voice, the confidence to share opinions, and the ability to articulate ideas without hesitation.
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Seeing meaning in everyday life
Writers notice details others miss. Over time, this builds deeper observation, an appreciation for nuance, and the ability to find insight in ordinary situations. This sharpens both creative thinking and strategic decision-making.
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A short story writing workshop is the fastest way to feel all of this at once: structure, character, voice, and finished work in a single sitting.
What we cover
The Workshop Flow
The workshop is structured so that every minute earns its place. Here's exactly what we do.
Total duration: 2 to 2.5 hours.
What makes this story writing workshop different
Most short story writing classes ask you to commit to weeks or months of sessions before you produce anything. This workshop is built on a different bet — that you can learn the craft and finish a story in a single afternoon, if the structure is right and the room is small enough.
Three things set this workshop apart:
You leave with a finished draft, not a folder of notes.
The whole workshop is engineered around output. Every segment feeds into the writing exercise. You will write a complete short story in this room, in this session.
It's rooted in Indian storytelling tradition.
We start from the Panchatantra stories you grew up with and use them to unlock the craft principles that contemporary short fiction relies on.
The instructor is a working author, not just a teacher.
The workshop is led by Mangal D. Karnad, a published author of children's fiction and poetry. The contemporary short story we analyse is from her own book. You're learning from someone who is actively writing, publishing, and revising not someone teaching from a textbook.
Formats — in-person and online
The workshop runs in two formats. Both follow the same structure and produce the same outcome.
In-person (Bengaluru)
Small group, in a comfortable space in Bengaluru. The in-person format is ideal if you want the energy of writing alongside others in the same room, and the unhurried conversation that happens during breaks. You'll need to bring a notebook and pen, and a laptop if you prefer to type.
Online (live, over video)
A live, video-based version of the same workshop, run on Zoom or Google Meet. Same structure, same exercises, same peer feedback — held in small breakout rooms. The online format is ideal if you're outside Bengaluru, prefer writing from home, or simply want the flexibility. All you need is a stable connection and somewhere quiet to write.
Both formats are capped at a small number of participants so everyone gets read and gets feedback.
About the instructor
Mangal D. Karnad is a Bengaluru-based author of children's fiction, poetry, and short stories. Her published works include Folded Away Softly, a poetry collection, and Malli and the Mulky Stories, a children's book rooted in the coastal Karnataka landscape of her childhood. Her writing draws on cultural memory, oral tradition, and the texture of everyday life in small-town India.
Outside of fiction, Mangal is the founder of FableSquare, a Bengaluru-based digital marketing agency, which gives her a working perspective on how storytelling functions in both literary and professional contexts.
This workshop is a distillation of how she thinks about the short story form practical, rooted in tradition, and built around the discipline of finishing what you start.
Frequently Asked Question
The workshop runs for 2 to 2.5 hours, including a short break. It is designed to be completed in a single sitting so you walk out with a finished short story draft.
No. The workshop is designed for anyone aged 15 and above, whether you have never written a story before or have been writing for years. The structure works at either end of the experience spectrum.
You'll write a complete short story of 400 to 700 words. There are optional prompts if you'd like one, or you can write your own idea. The emphasis is on finishing the story within the time given.
Both. The same workshop runs in two formats — in-person in Bengaluru and live online over Zoom or Google Meet. Both follow the same structure, exercises, and peer feedback flow. You can choose whichever fits your schedule and location.
Most creative writing courses run for weeks or months and focus on building craft over time. This is a focused, single-session story writing workshop with one clear goal: you finish a short story before you leave.
For the in-person workshop, bring a notebook and pen, and a laptop if you prefer to type. For the online workshop, you need a stable internet connection, a quiet place to attend for about 2 and a half hours uninterrupted, and whatever tool you write best on. A copy of the short story we analyse will be provided either way.
For the in-person workshop, bring a notebook and pen, and a laptop if you prefer to type. For the online workshop, you need a stable internet connection, a quiet place to attend for about 2 and a half hours uninterrupted, and whatever tool you write best on. A copy of the short story we analyse will be provided either way.
Not yet. Cohorts are run a few times a year, in small groups. Join the waitlist below to hear about the next dates a week before they're announced publicly.
Ready to finish your first short story?
Join the waitlist for the next cohort of the workshop. You'll be the first to hear when dates open for the in-person session in Bengaluru and the online cohort.
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