So you thought creative writing couldn?t be taught? Well, take a look at the website Pizzaz. It?s the acronym for People Interested in Zippy and Zany Zcribbling. The url, please note, is a bit complicated ?http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html ? but once you?ve mastered it, the rest is a cakewalk.

But wait, there is a prerequisite to accessing this site ? you must have ?an interest in using English in fun, dynamic ways!?

The homepage introduces you to just about every genre of writing you could hope to explore ? poetry, short stories, magazine writing, mystery stories and even 'poessays'.

What are ?poessays?, you?ll ask. They are poems that read like an essay and show a genuine inclination towards rhyme but somehow don?t seem to quite get the act together. You could take up the challenge, though. Even if you don?t get creative satisfaction, you would have done some serious ?creative? thinking to make the twain ? essay and poetry ? meet.

Pizzaz has four segments: ?Poetry?, ?Fiction?, ?Bag of tricks? and ?Publishing Opportunities?. While ?Fiction? instructs you on how to write ?chain stories? and ?brainstorm?, poetry is easily the site?s best offering. If rhyme fascinates you, then plunge into the links ?Cinquain Poems?, ?Dimante Poems?, ?Persona Poems?, ?Sausage Poems? or even ?Twist of Fate?. Each section has a sample, followed by warm-up activities, instructions and a template where you can set out on your own creative venture.

?Bag of tricks? takes care of the fun part with its army of tongue twisters and a ?writing roulette? that links you to a pseudo dictionary ? one where you find all the words that a normal dictionary doesn?t have. And just in case you?ve churned out a few charming couplets already, you could grab some contacts from ?Publishing Opportunities?.

Saikat Dasgupta

saikatdasgupta@abpmail.com