QUILLUSION - A World Waiting to Be Written 🪶

A Holiday, A Blank Page 

There are only two kinds of people during a holiday: those who finally get to do absolutely nothing, and those who suddenly realise they have way too much time.

From 4th to 9th September 2026, Quillusion gave RVCE students something to do with those long, unplanned holiday hours - turn them into stories.

The premise was simple. Pick a theme. Pick up a pen, or open a blank document. And see where the story takes you.

Two Prompts, Many Worlds 💫 

The event gave students two directions to take their stories. They could lose themselves in Fictional Realms, where doors could appear overnight and strangers could know more than they should. Or they could turn towards Stories That Matter, exploring questions of war, survival, nature, peace and the kind of change that begins with one person.

With around 90 submissions, Quillusion brought together students writing in English, Hindi and Kannada, each approaching the given prompts in their own way. And perhaps the most interesting part wasn't knowing what the next submission would be about - it was knowing that every new document arriving in the inbox had a completely different world waiting inside it.

The Hardest Part 🎗️

And when it came to choosing the winners, things weren't exactly easy.

With so many strong submissions approaching the same prompts from completely different angles, narrowing them down meant reading, rereading and looking beyond just a good idea. Creativity, storytelling, relevance and the way each piece stayed with the reader all had to be considered. In the end, choosing a few winners from so many deserving entries was perhaps one of the hardest parts of the event.

For a few days, the usual holiday routine of sleeping in, scrolling endlessly and wondering what to do with the rest of the day had some competition.

A blank page.

And apparently, RVCE had quite a lot to say to it.

When the Page Was No Longer Blank 🌟

What began as a creative writing event soon became a collection of very different voices and perspectives. Some stories existed purely in the imagination, while others looked at things that exist very much in our own world. The same prompts had travelled through nearly ninety different minds, and somehow, no two stories felt quite the same.

And that's what made Quillusion more than just a writing competition.

There were no microphones, no stage and no audience waiting for a performance. Just a screen, a prompt and the freedom to turn an idea into something of your own.

For the team behind Quillusion, the real reward was watching those blank pages slowly disappear.

Six days. Around ninety submissions. And far too many good stories to choose from.

And somewhere between “What should I write?” and “I'm finally done,” a holiday became a little more interesting.

Because sometimes, you don't need to go anywhere to find another world.

You just need a good story. ✨

By: Rtr. Nihar R