10 ways to kickstart your writing craft at Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2019

Feeling enthusiastic about putting pen to paper, but don’t know how to start? UWRF is packed with opportunities to sharpen your literary abilities, from building characters and dialogue to understanding the ethics of the industry. Here are ten Workshops and Main Program sessions that’ll help you create, try something new or get your ideas flowing. 

1. Workshop: Creative Karma, 24 Oct, 10:00 – 13:00, Element by Westin Bali Ubud

What is the relationship between karma and creativity? How can the concept of karma be narrated and described through creative writing? Explore these questions and more with award-winning novelist and short story writer, Clare Fisher. Through a series of interactive writing, reading and discussion exercises you will expand and explore your own creative karma.

2. Main Program: Writing Mental Health, 24 Oct, 14:30 – 15:30, Taman Baca

Mental health is increasingly part of public debate, but in many cultures and contexts it still carries stigma and shame. No strangers to mental illness, our panelists invite you to share an important conversation about how we live with mental illness as artists, and how we create art about mental health.

3. Main Program: Location, Location, Location, 24 Oct, 14:30 – 15:30, Indus

When setting looms large, readers close a book missing the location within as much as they miss its characters. From sprawling South Asian capitals to ancient Australian wilderness, these writers have infused cities and landscapes with prismatic personalities and swathes of the fantastic, resulting in gripping reads where the setting is the star.

4. Main Program: Throwing Out the Rule Book, 25 Oct, 09:00-10:00, Taman Baca

It takes an adventurous writer to throw tried and tested structures out the window and play with the infinite possibilities of text – and an even more intrepid reader to go along for the ride. Meet the savvy scribes who are breaking all the rules of traditional literary architecture, and are getting away with it in fine style.

5. Main Program: Imagining the Past, 25 Oct, 10:15 – 11:30, Taman Baca

Weaving fiction with historical threads is no easy feat. It demands a constant juggling act between the factual and the imaginary, reality and memory. Our panel explores the challenges and triumphs of breathing life into historical characters they’ve never met and narrating events they’ve never witnessed.

6. Workshop: I Would Never Say That: Getting Real Dialogue Out of Your Characters, 25 Oct, 10:00 – 13:00,  Kori Ubud Resort Spa & Restaurant

Do you dread writing dialogue? Feel your work falls flat on the page? Do you love it in the moment and then upon rereading worry it isn’t serving the story? In this workshop you’ll study how dialogue works, dissect when and why it sounds contrived, and create strategies to keep it feeling believable and alive.

7. Workshop: Spoken Word Beyond Slam, 25 Oct, 14:00 – 17:00, Taksu Spa & Restaurants

Australian Poetry Slam Champion Melanie Mununggurr-Willams will guide you through the tough times, the joys and the big changes as you explore emotions through your senses. Craft powerful poems, stories, monologues and messages as Melanie challenges your writing techniques and pushes abstract concepts into concrete imagery.

8. Main Program: Rewriting the Classics, 26 Oct, 13:00 – 14:15, Indus

Dante’s Divine Comedy woven into a story about human trafficking. Pride and Prejudice as a Muslim rom com in modern-day Toronto. The ‘Malay trollope’ in W. Somerset Maugham’s The Four Dutchmen revisiting her lack of agency. Join us for a discussion with authors who’ve rewritten classics – as homage, critique or both.

9. Main Program: Reading In the Age of Instagram, 27 Oct, 10:15 – 11:30, Taman Baca

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Netflix… as we become increasingly screen-addicted, how can a humble book compete? The impact of social media addiction and binge-watching TV series on our reading habits has become a major concern for individuals and publishers alike. Meet our panel of creatives who are striving to stay relevant, and bring art and literature to public attention in screen-obsessed Indonesia.

10. Workshop: Short Story Secrets, 27 Oct, 10:00 – 13:00, Kori Ubud Resort Spa & Restaurant

How can the short story form help you hone your craft? In this workshop you’ll interrogate the elements of brevity, assess various writers’ styles, complete short writing exercises and explore the boundaries of fiction. Come ready to discuss the practice of revision and how to successfully establish a writing routine.

Workshop tickets can be purchased from the individual event pages. To purchase your 4-Day or 1-Day Main Program Pass, click the button below.

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