9
Jan
2024
Parina Takes 2nd Place in the SCMP Young Post “Write to Win” Competition
Parina Khiatani took part in the SCMP Young Post “Write to Win'” competition and was the first runner up. “Write to Win” is a creative writing competition that consists of 9 rounds, with one contestant being eliminated each round. In each round, contestants had to answer an open-ended question as creatively and innovatively as possible. The word count for the responses got longer as the competition progressed. Every week, a new question was sent out to the remaining contestants, with just a few days to write an answer as creatively as we could.
Parina said: “Waiting for the results that would tell us if we got through to the next round every Thursday at 1pm sharp was exhilarating! The writing prompts really helped me write something creative as well as keep my writing concise, the word count for the first piece was just 50 words and the last was 350.”
“One question I found particularly challenging to answer was, If you could design a night market in Hong Kong, where would it be held, and what stalls would you include? because it was hard to think of a Hong Kong night market without being too generic (e.g. selling Hong Kong street food). However, I eventually thought of a idea – the “Chek Lap Kok Night Bazaar” located right inside the HK airport so that a taste of HK could be provided to those in transit or give those who have just arrived in HK for their holiday a great first impression of our beautiful city.”
“I really enjoyed responding to was, If you could communicate with a plant, which would you choose and what secrets do you think it would reveal? because I turned this into a narrative story which was unlike my other pieces. I chose to communicate with the Venus Flytrap!
“Participating, let alone winning 2nd place and completing all 9 rounds of Write to Win has been an incredible experience for me – it has made me love creative writing more than ever!”
