Do any of the following mean anything to you?
Do you believe in the power of the story?
Have you wondered why do some stories work while others don’t?
Do you understand the concept of the 'Right Brain'?
Do you believe that it is possible to dig deep into one's psyche and unleash the genius within?
Do you simply enjoy telling stories?
Do you want to create/write stories for your children/grandchildren)?
Do you believe writing is therapeutic?
Do you simply want to write to express yourself?
Do you want to be able to write what publisher's want?
Do you believe in the magic of writing?
If you are even remotely interested in any of these, read on.
Write what publishers want
The universe is made of stories, not atoms -- Muriel Rukeyser
The world is full of stories. We, humans, are the strangest of all animals. We may miss meals (ask your teenager buried in a book or your auntie hooked on a television soap) but not our stories. Even in famine stricken zones, while people wait for the food trucks to arrive, they tell one another stories to keep alive. In war zones, where life is in danger every single minute, people cannot resist telling stories. All religions have tons of stories that are constantly repeated. Stories are part of our very being, our claim to be human.
We are surrounded by stories every waking minute of the day. When we turn on our radio or television to listen to the news, or to watch a drama or sitcom or even a cooking show, when we open our newspapers or surf the net for news, when we go to the movies, to a dance, listen to a song, or look at a painting, when we go to the office, pitch a proposal to our boss, our clients, meet our co-workers when we relax over tea and gossip, or tell them about our day, or listen to their stories. When we read books, we read stories. And stories will make us laugh or cry or angry, and dozens of other things. We will love characters or we hate them. Good stories never leave us indifferent. We have a desperate need to tell stories in whatever form. That’s why some of us want to become writers. But if one does not write what publisher's want, one does not get published. So what do publisher's want?
Why do some stories work while others don’t?
Now we look at another point: how many times have we heard people, coming back after attending a creative writing course, complaining that they still can't write? (One story a year or one in ten years does not count.) There is no shortage of creative writing courses, workshops and books in the world teaching: basic storytelling, rules of plots, pace, characters, conflicts, structure, busting writers' block and etc and etc. In other words: lots of mechanical rules and routines. A student, who has registered himself in the hope of learning some of the magic that makes writers tick, comes away disappointed possibly thinking that he is fated never to become a writer and, maybe, gives up altogether.
Me, I am a publisher, though I do have written a book of short stories (more to test my theories than anything else) and I do all the writing on The Silverfish website. I started publishing ten years ago, and I must have read well over a couple of thousand short stores and a few hundred novels submitted to us for publishing. (Yeah, I am the only one here.) And you can add to that the over half a century of personal reading, and all the editing I do to pay my rent. But one thing has always intrigued me. Why do some stories work while others don’t? Can writing be taught?
Harnessing the Right side of the Brain
The Silverfish Writing Programme is, to a large extent, inspired by Betty Edwards' book on drawing. I came across the book some ten years ago. Yet, another self help book, I thought. Still I always wanted to draw and decided to give it a go. Within three weeks I was drawing the likeness of my face by looking into the mirror. It actually worked! It is, possibly, the only self help book that works the way it promises. And, after reading it, I wondered for years if writing could be taught by some similar technique. I came to the conclusion that a direct 'conversion' was not possible. That would be like asking a swim coach to teach competitive cycling. But there is one common theme in both writing and drawing: learning how to see. If you want to become a writer you must learn how to see and write what you see, not what you think you see, just as you will need to if you want to to draw.
It is often said that genius cannot be taught. Writing with the Right Side of the Brain programme acknowledges that. Only a certain part of writing can be taught, the rest has to be discovered from inside and dragged out by the individuals by themselves. We believe genius cannot be taught, but it can be learned. An average person is not one but two: the conscious craftsman who can learn rules and techniques, and the unconscious artist or 'creative writer'. Or, in 'new age' terminology, every individual consists of a left-brain person and a right-brain person. Yin and Yang. Siva and Sakti. Unfortunately, the two sometimes (often?) don't talk to one another. The programme is designed to trick the two sides into working together. In most people, years of neglect has made the artistic side 'rusty'. The programme is designed to teach you how to discover that creative side, and to switch from one to the other effortlessly. It will take a little time and practice, but you should feel something happening on the very first day.
Long before a student attends a formal creative writing course, something else has to happen. He has to learn to become a writer. It is a mysterious process - this becoming a writer. It requires a awakening of a certain instinct inside. Writing can be all consuming. It can happen even when you are nowhere near your writing pad (if you still do longhand) or your computer. It is a temperament, a desire, a feeling, an impulse … and all those things combined. It is both conscious and unconscious. And just as it is not possible to teach someone how to ride a bicycle by theory alone (get on the bike, sit on the saddle, push off, paddle and balance!), the same applies to writing. But once learned it will not be forgotten. It’s like swimming. Remember that first time you went into the deep end, and you thought you were going to die? Then the next few weeks of fighting with the water, splashing and tiring yourself out? Then, finally, the realisation, the appearance of the smooth relaxed strokes, and you become one with the water? That’s what writing is is like, doing it day in and day out effortlessly.
Silverfish's success
The Silverfish Writing Programme was launched in June 2006. We published Shih Li Kow, one of our early participants, in December 2008. Her book, Ripples and other stories, was one of the six (from all over the world) that was short listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award in Cork, Ireland in June 2009. (Previous winners of the Frank O’Connor Award are Jhumpa Lahiri, Haruki Murakami and Yiyun Li.) Interesting, Shih-Li Kow admits that she started writing seriously only after attending the Silverfish Writing Programme.
Didn’t think of it much at that time. But, a Writing Programme that has produced a writer of international standard in just two years is surely worth crowing about. And we are working with several more writers in the pipeline. Do you think you can be one of them? Shih-Li Kow is a single mother, who is a chemical engineer, who works galley-slave hours at a real estate management company in the city, and who still finds time to write daily.
Air and time and light and space
This 10-week writing programme has been designed with the average individual in mind: the average individual who likes to write, who wants to write but keeps running into walls. The most common and crippling of all excuses is: I have no time. I have a full time day job, I have to fetch and ferry my kids, I have no time to write ...
"No baby, when you become a writer, there is no time. There is no space, there is no light, and there is no air either. Everything simply stops." (Apologies, Charles Bukowski.)
When your right brain takes over, everything else simply stops. And when that happens, it is pure magic. Discover, experience and rejoice. Just like in learning to ride a bike, the hardest part is the beginning. But whether you become an Olympic Champion is another matter, though there is nothing to stop you from trying. Becoming a writer is a life enriching experience. Learning to write with the right side of the brain is not simply about the buzz. It is also about writing what editors and publishers want.
Do you, seriously, want to become a writer? Give yourself this gift that will last you a lifetime. But please be prepared to work. (More than 50,000 words should be written during the programme - enough fodder to embark on a novel or a book of short stories.) Drag that genius of yours out from in there. Silverfish Books will be your personal trainer.
OUTLINE OF PROGRAMME SYLLABUS
The programme which will be spread over 10 weeks — which means participants will be required to work on exercises on their own daily and fill up job sheets. (You can cheat, but you will only cheat yourself.)
1. REVEALING THE RIGHT BRAIN: AN Introduction to right brain technique, and starting out on writing as a career
2. WRITE A CHARACTER: Writing characters, being characters
3. LIVE WRITING: Writing from observations of real people
4. TALKING PHOTOGRAPHS: Using photographs as writing tools
5. THE PRACTICE STORY: Putting it all together, casting scenes
6. BASIC BOOK ANALYSIS: How to read books as a writer not as a reader and how to learn from the masters.
7. LEARNING TO SEE: Learning to see like an artist
8. ROOTS OF GENIUS: How to unleash the genius that resides within us
9. YOUR WORST CRITIC: Learning how to put a distance between your own work and yourself to criticise objectively
10. AN INTRODUCTION TO WRITING NOVELS
In general the programme will cover writing of characters, use of dialogues, plotting and pacing, choosing points of view, use of an authoritative writer’s voice, rhythm, structure and style, use of language, use of flashbacks, and generally writing organically (that is from your very being as opposed to mechanically).
To register, click the following link
http://www.silverfishbooks.com/Silverfish/Version4/Writing/WrtitingProgramme.html#overview
The NEW Silverfish Writing Programme
Class starting: Saturday, 31 January, 2015
(Registration open: 1 December 2014)
Limited to 10 participants. Will be held at the premises of Silverfish Books at 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur every Saturday for 10 weeks (excluding holidays) from 10.30am to 12.30 pm.
Price: RM1000.00
(THERE WILL BE AN EARLYBIRD DISCOUNT OF 10% FOR THOSE WHO REGISTER BEFORE January 10, 2015- SO DECIDE EARLY)
The Silverfish Writing Programme was launched in June 2006. We published Shih Li Kow, one of our early participants, in December 2008. Her book, Ripples and other stories, was one of the six (from all over the world) that was short listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award in Cork, Ireland in June 2009. (Previous winners of the Frank O’Connor Award are Jhumpa Lahiri, Haruki Murakami and Yiyun Li.) Interesting, Shih-Li Kow admits that she started writing seriously only after attending the Silverfish Writing Programme.
Didn’t think of it much at that time. But, a Writing Programme that has produced a writer of international standard in just two years is surely worth crowing about. And we are working with several more writers in the pipeline. Do you think you can be one of them? Shih-Li Kow is a single mother, who is a chemical engineer, who works galley-slave hours at a real estate management company in the city, and who still finds time to write daily.
Air and time and light and space
This 10-week writing programme has been designed with the average individual in mind: the average individual who likes to write, who wants to write but keeps running into walls. The most common and crippling of all excuses is: I have no time. I have a full time day job, I have to fetch and ferry my kids, I have no time to write ...
"No baby, when you become a writer, there is no time. There is no space, there is no light, and there is no air either. Everything simply stops." (Apologies, Charles Bukowski.)
When your right brain takes over, everything else simply stops. And when that happens, it is pure magic. Discover, experience and rejoice. Just like in learning to ride a bike, the hardest part is the beginning. But whether you become an Olympic Champion is another matter, though there is nothing to stop you from trying. Becoming a writer is a life enriching experience. Learning to write with the right side of the brain is not simply about the buzz. It is also about writing what editors and publishers want.
Do you, seriously, want to become a writer? Give yourself this gift that will last you a lifetime. But please be prepared to work. (More than 50,000 words should be written during the programme - enough fodder to embark on a novel or a book of short stories.) Drag that genius of yours out from in there. Silverfish Books will be your personal trainer.
OUTLINE OF PROGRAMME SYLLABUS
The programme which will be spread over 10 weeks — which means participants will be required to work on exercises on their own daily and fill up job sheets. (You can cheat, but you will only cheat yourself.)
1. REVEALING THE RIGHT BRAIN: AN Introduction to right brain technique, and starting out on writing as a career
2. WRITE A CHARACTER: Writing characters, being characters
3. LIVE WRITING: Writing from observations of real people
4. TALKING PHOTOGRAPHS: Using photographs as writing tools
5. THE PRACTICE STORY: Putting it all together, casting scenes
6. BASIC BOOK ANALYSIS: How to read books as a writer not as a reader and how to learn from the masters.
7. LEARNING TO SEE: Learning to see like an artist
8. ROOTS OF GENIUS: How to unleash the genius that resides within us
9. YOUR WORST CRITIC: Learning how to put a distance between your own work and yourself to criticise objectively
10. AN INTRODUCTION TO WRITING NOVELS
In general the programme will cover writing of characters, use of dialogues, plotting and pacing, choosing points of view, use of an authoritative writer’s voice, rhythm, structure and style, use of language, use of flashbacks, and generally writing organically (that is from your very being as opposed to mechanically).
To register, click the following link
http://www.silverfishbooks.com/Silverfish/Version4/Writing/WrtitingProgramme.html#overview
The NEW Silverfish Writing Programme
Class starting: Saturday, 31 January, 2015
(Registration open: 1 December 2014)
Limited to 10 participants. Will be held at the premises of Silverfish Books at 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur every Saturday for 10 weeks (excluding holidays) from 10.30am to 12.30 pm.
Price: RM1000.00
(THERE WILL BE AN EARLYBIRD DISCOUNT OF 10% FOR THOSE WHO REGISTER BEFORE January 10, 2015- SO DECIDE EARLY)
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