RUMAH DUNIA WRITING WORKSHOP

By Gola Gong - (Translated by Inda Duzih Pitkanen, Edited by Johan Kalevi Pitkanen)

A Writer should posess humility, and a would-be writer must learn how to possess this attitude. Yet, the fatal attitude for the would-be writer is the attitude of easily giving up in desparity. (Ismail Marahimin, How to write in popular, Pustaka Jaya, 1994)
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Once every 3 months, Rumah Dunia holds its “Writing Course”. It has been running since January 2003. On January 9th 2005, the 5th class began. In January 2007, surprisingly, the 9th of Writing Course was launched. The last class was so lucky since they had Arswendo Atmowiloto, Naning Pranoto, and Sides Sudaryato as guest-workshop facilitators. Next August, right after “Ode Kampung 2 : The Gathering of Literary Communities all over achipelago”, the 10th class will gather.
Anyway, all classes have their own luck. Besides myself as the permanent facilitator, there is Toto S Radik (poetry), Firman Venayaksa (the chairman of Rumah Dunia since 2006), and from the other party we have : Prana Badrun—a Literary and Language Lecturer from Matlaul Anwar, Pandeglang Tata Bahasa, Iman Nur Rosyadi (a Journalist with Sinar Harapan), Abdul Malik (a Journalist/ Edotorial Staff with Radar Banten), Wan Anwar (a Lecturer of Literary of University of Tirtayasa-Serang), and I even invited some well-known writers together with book publishers as added incentive to the participants of the workshop.
During 2003 - 2004, we had these writers/ facilitators attend to stimulate the participant’s creative process. They were : Helvy Tiana Rosa, Ahmadun Yosi Herfanda, Fahri Asiza, Pipit Senja, Ali Muakhir, Chavcay Saefillah, Asma Nadia, Hilman Lupus, Boim Lebon, and Gusur. In 2006, we had Akmal Naesral Baser, Soni Farid Maulana, Jamal D Rahman, Gus tf Sakai, Kurnia Efendi, Nanang Supriyadi, Sugianto, Fira Basuki, FX Rudi Gunawan, and Halim HD. Even Herry Latief was visiting in 2005. From Publishers we had Mizan, Gema Insani Press, Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Akoer, Ufuk, Senayan Abadi, Cakrawala, Gagas Media, and Zikrul Hakim.
In fact, the workshop has been running tremendously well. During the 3rd gathering, I was able to insert testimonial sessions for previous attendees. They were those whose writings—fiction or non-fiction—were published in two local newspapers such as Radar Banten and Fajar Banten, and some other national publications such as Aneka Yess Mag, Annida, and Mata Baca. Some participants from the 1st to the 3rd class had been able to get their pieces published. For example, Qizink La Avia (”Gerimis Terakhir, Dar! Mizan 2004). He is now responsible for a Literary and Culture column in Radar Banten. Before him, there was Najwa—1 of the 7 participants from the 1st Workshop class—who joined me, Toto S Radik, and Tias Tatanka in a short-story anthology entitled “Sidik Glasses” (PT Senayan Abadi, 2004). Now, we have Ibnu Adam Aviciena (”Where is my angel?”, Beranda Hikmah), and Firman Venayaksa (”Ababil’s wings”, Mandar Utama tiga) following Qizink with his Novel. Aji Setiakarya–from the 3rd class–has published compilation of short-stories titled “Reddish rice”. He is now the one who’s responsible for literary and journalistic training at Rumah Dunia. Sometimes he, too, becomes a workshop facilitator even though his main job is to teach children creative writing, helping Tias Tatanka with “Tour of Writing”. Endang Rukmana–the Winner of Unicef’s 2004 award, is now studying History at the University of Indonesia has a remarkable story. As a participant from the 1st class, he has launched 5 novels published by Gagas Media. On Sunday June 17th 2007, he came to the 9th workshop to motivate the participants.
LANGUAGE SKILL - At first, the Writing Workshop was geared towards high school and university students to be able to live independently after completing their studies. Then, since 2005, the participants were not only students but also teachers, employees, and even merchandisers. I didn’t have the heart to reject them since they really wanted to learn more about creative writing. Within the workshop I tried to open the participants’ minds to see that writing (journalist or writer) could also be a respectable, proper, and promising profession. Through these writing workshops, there will come new generation in Banten who are smart, critical and able to express their ideas through writing. Only, the participants are limited. Each Class consists of only 25-30 participants. Each prospective participant must submit a sample piece, such as fiction (short-story/ poem) or a journalistic report (feature/news/essay). With the sample, the prospective participants will be screened. For those who are selected, still, each has to donate one of their favorite books to Rumah Dunia. The workshop itself has no tuition fee which means “c’est gratuit” (French for ‘free of charge’)
Then, the workshop will begin by asking each participant to stand in front of the class and introduce themselves. They should tell the forum their given name, date of birth, motivation to join the workshop, books they’ve read, preferences in writing (literary or journalistic), professional options (writer or journalist). One other important thing is that they must give their pen-name along with the significance behind it. This way, I am trying to examine or identify their horizon, emotion, and language organization and word selection when they speaking so that hopefully they will be able to be not only well-versed writers, but also proficient speakers. Like what Ismail Marahimin wrote in “Popular Writing” (Pustaka Jaya, 1999), there are language skills that need to be comprehended to be able to communicate with others, such as : Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.
I also suggested to them to not feel rushed to be called a ‘writer’. Here, a ‘writer’ means the profession of becoming an author. When you send your piece to magazines, newspapers, and publishers with hopes that they will consider to publish yours; so that you will get paid. Sometimes, there are prospective writers who sit in front of a computer, writing, but are never able to finish it. At Rumah Dunia, the first thing I suggest them to do is to enhance their reading frequency by reading a lot other’s pieces, and to fill their souls by examining their surroundings in order to remain sharp (to activate the affection domain). In short: to allow ourselves to stimulate the depths of our souls. Again, Ismail Marahimin wrote that there is a strong relationship between writing and reading. To be able to write, we must read a lot. Reading is the main step toward developing writing skills. Reading gives you an enormous “inner-energy” that is crucial to become a writer. Just like in Silat (Indonesian traditional self-defense sport) Movies, Silat-men who posess inner-energy would look stronger and more tremendous than other Silat-men who were empty since they didn’t posess any inner-energy. Also, it is like a car with no gasoline. For a writer who doesn’t like reading we may assume that their souls must be empty. The emptiness will be reflected through their ‘out-of-soul pieces’.
During the second meeting in the workshop, for one month, they will be given journalistic material; especially the news element (5 W’s + 1 H which means Where, When, What, Who, Why, How). This mehtod is actually very appropriate to be applied to fiction writing. For example the element of “Where”, this could belong to “At home”, “In the mountains”, “In the market”. Every participant has to try to describe and use their imagination about these places. In the field of fiction, this is categorized as ‘place’ or backgroud settomg. With the element of “Who”, participants could write about the characters of “What” and “Who”. Each meeting, the participants will be exposed not only to theory but also to practice and to actual writing.
PRACTICUM - In the second month, I introduce fiction (prose/ poem) in 4 sessions. In writing classes, certainly the participants must keep practicing and writing. It takes time of course. Theory is not enough. To quote Dave Meier in “Accelerated Learning”, learning by doing what you’re learning. In every session, I ask them to write news, feature pieces, synopses of short-stories/novels, settings (time and place), characters, and dialogs. At this stage of the workshop, I teach them conventional methods of writing Linear plots by practicing to write short-stories. For certain reasons, I do not teach them too many plot (like flashback) and writing techniques.
Usually the practicum element will be combined with Discussion Club at Rumah Dunia that is held each Saturday with varied topics such as : Education, Culture, Novel launching, Book discussions, creative process, and public-debates with regards to prospective leaders in Banten. Even the Art/Film presentation can be their source of writing. An event like “Ode Kampung 2: The Gathering of Literary Communities all over the Archipelago” is becoming an important media for them to dig and to enhance knowledge and skills from people outside of Banten. Writers like Ahmadun, Saut Situmorang, Acep Zam Zam Noor, Binhad Nurrohmat, Kurnia Efendi, Maman S Mahayana, Wowok Hesti Prabowo, Johi Ariadinata, and many more.
All of the participants of the workshop need to cultivate patience to become effective writers/authors. I always tell them that they need at least 2 years to keep of writing, writing, and more writing. As time goes by, I will suggest them to send their piece to various medias, whenever they have one. This means that I will not suggest them to just sit down in front of the computer, write and then send their piece to medias. They certainly need a process, and to keep on revising their pieces by getting others to read or to listen to them untill it is finally polished enough to be sent out. Also, I teach them to always fill their souls by reading a lot and by traveling or by examining their surroundings.
To the 1st class of alumnists, I often asked them to go traveling, take a journey, go out of their homes to see and feel many things. It is needed to challenge our bodies and souls to be fulfilled; to avoid the popular saying: “an empty barrel resounds loudly”. To keep on thinking (cognitive domain development) through reading is also not suggestable. We need to activate our affection domain (by gaining the feeling something) by traveling to new places even if it is not too far away. That way, the prospective writer will be like people who are learning in Padepokan (Indonesian place to learn about life and self-defence) or the Shaolin Temple. They will keep on practicing and doing exercises to develop their inner-energy and power so that when they sit in front of computer they will know what to write and how to write it (including how to use punctuation like commas, periods, exclamation marks, question marks, etc). Jack Lamota (alias ‘Lawang Bagja’), one of the alumnists, is now working in Ruwais-Dubai (as TKI–Tenaga Kerja Indonesia, a common address for Indonesians who are working in Asian countries by arrangement of the government). In less than one year, his short-stories with nuances of TKI’s suffering in Middle-East has been decorating mass medias. One of his short-stories was published in Radar Banten. I am now encouraging him to publish a short-story compilation about TKIs’ life. While Ibnu Adam Aviciena—who has been pursuing a Master’s degree in Leiden-Dutch since February 2007—tells by email that “I am now writing a fiction story with a Dutch setting”.
COMMITMENT - I’ve committed myself to keep assisting them. Each time I find prospective pieces from them that need to be revised, I will immediately approach him/her. Immediate and direct handling. On the other hand, Tias—my wife—also helps by reading the short-stories by workshop participants. Furthermore, I even created a special category for “Writing Class” at Rumah Dunia sites www.rumahdunia.net <http://www.rumahdunia.net/>. Those all are stimuli that I have built for the writing workshop; Theory and Practicum will always work hand-in-hand.
Quite often, I’ve helped them to revise their pieces. That way, they’ll be able to recognize the source of their mistakes or weaknesses. Usually I will say, “I think, it is time for you to have a private and intensive lesson with me!”. I am available for them on Saturdays and Sundays, anytime during my spare time. If they are men, I ask them to sleep at Rumah Dunia. Sometimes, I would be available at Rumah Dunia for them early in the morning—even before taking a shower. At the moment, I’ll input advice, or even immediately work with the computer. I’ll read and revise their piece and give some necessary advice. This way, I mean to make them learn by doing, by having some trial and error. Then to motivate them, I usually say “next week, the revision should be on my desk!”. Also, some volunteers of RD that live on the 2nd floor of my house are certainly benefitting from that favor of mine. They are; Langlang Randhawa, Rimba Alangalang, Muhzen Den, Reinhard Renn, Awi, and Roy.
ACHIEVEMENT - Since the 1st writing class, we’ve had Qizink, Ibnu, Wangsa, Endang, Aad, Ade Jahran and Najwa Fadia who just needed one year to be capable and well-versed in writing Essays, Short-stories, and Novels. Qizink is now a journalist for Radar Banten. Aji Setiakarya is now a coordinator for Suplemen “Radar Yunior” at Radar Banten. Endang Rukmana has won “Unicef Award 2004″ for the UNICEF essay competition with theme Indonesian Children, while Aad is one of the top 20 of it. Then on IKAPI (Ikatan Penerbit Indonesia, the union of Indonesian Publisher) Book Fair in 2004, Aad’s essay about the importance of reading has won. In 2006, again he won for the essay competition about youth held by Ministry of Youth and Sporting Affairs. For the record, also there is Yuanita Utami, a participant from the 5th class, who has followed in the footsteps of Endang Rukmana. She won the “Unicef Award 2006″. As of late, we have Alfy Syaharani from the 7th class who has won in an essay competition held by the National Library.
From the 3rd class arose 3 names: RG Kedungkaban, Aji Setiakarya , and Rimba Alangalang. While from the 5th class, there is only one name that arose; Asri Surtayati, a student from SMA Kavling Cilegong (High School) who has her stories published at ‘Aneka Yess!’ magazine.
SPECIAL PARTICIPANTS - Sometimes as a result of boredom or tiredness, I’ve felt annoyed by the question: “Does Rumah Dunia true value?”. Usually it will be remedied by accepting some invitations to be a guest-speaker/spokesperson for another place or event. This way, I would be able to enter tnto a new atmosphere. The other thing that helps me to regain my spirit is when the workshop has participants from outside of Banten such as Jakarta, Bandung, Depok and Subang. They were exposed to information about Rumah Dunia’s activities through magazines or newspapers.
For example, in 2005 a family came from Palembang (capital city of South Sumatera). They brought their daughter; Wanja Al-Munawar, to learn and to join the 5th class. Because of her participation she had postponed her studies at the University of Sriwijaya-Palembang for one semester. After finishing the workshop, still, she went back and forth to RD for Writing Camp as final Writing Workshop.
After 9 workshops, we’ve only held writing camp twice. I introduced and encouraged them to create a ‘point of view’ (perspective of writing). Besides me, we have Firman Venayaksa and Toto S Radik as facilitators. Once in 2006, we invited Irfan Hidayatullah. With writing camp, I hope that the workshop participants will be able to explore and express all of their senses since it is where their ideas and inspirations come from.
Once, a bread salesman named Shodik (his pen name is Reinhad Renn) came to Rumah Dunia. On the weekend, he came from Tangerang by bicycle. (Tangerang is a municipality of Banten, located +/- 200 km from Ciloang where RD located) He said, “I want to learn how to write” while covered in sweat. Another day, the daughter of a successful entrepreneur in Banten was willing to learn about writing so that she could convert her depression into happiness through positive activities. Other times, some teachers have asked to be tought how to write. Yet, further to those, I was so surprised to discover that my first daughter; Nabila Nurkhalishah Hariss was finishing her first novel, “Beautiful Days”, and was finally being published by Dar! Mizan on February 2007. With all this, I vowed to never stop hosting the Rumah Dunia writing workshops. When the day comes for me to pass away, then—I believe—the generation of Firman Venayaksa and other alumnists will take it over and move on since I believe that we all have the same belief ; “the best people are those who give the benefit of their time and energy to others”.
OPERATIONS - I started to treat the well-versed and skilled ones differently by introducing them to varied writing techniques and recognizing the target market, then encouraged them to implement them. I asked them to start practicing with varied themes such as Love, Social Criticism, Politics, and Human Interest topics. The writing technique were also expanding into: Realitic to Surrealistic and Absurd. When I see a good piece with a few mistakes I handle it immediately by asking him/her to translate it to computer. Gratefully, until 2007 Rumah Dunia has launched some short-story anthologies such as:
1. Sidik’s Glasses (sociopolitical criticism, Senayan Abadi, 2004)
2. Worthy of a Heart (human interest, Akoer, 2005)
3. Reddish Rice (socio-analytical, MU3, 2005)
4. Still, There is Love in the Evening (Senayan Abadi, 2005)
5. A Tale Before Sleep (Gramedia Pustaka utama, 2006)
6. A Rainbow Falls In the City (sociopolitical criticism, Tiga Serangkai, 2008)
I also introduced them to a way of understanding the target market. I understand that it is probably tiring for them, and yes it is. Afterall, it is what you need to do for the sake of accelerated regeneration. At the beginning 2005, I asked Qizink and Ibnu to be junior editors. Their responsibilities are to read all of the short stories that are submitted by the participants of the writing workshop. So, what will come to my desk is already 90% edited. I then simply need to add some personal revisions and comments.
That is what I meant by ‘be patient to be a writer/author’. It takes a time to travel through the processes and procedures. Two years is an ideal time, yet one year is possible as long as they work hard in: keeping-up their practice writing, doing revision, attending the discussion groups/novel discussion and launches, and of course continuing to read a lot! If you can complete this process, believe me, sooner or later writers will bloom that are consistent and long lasting rather than ‘overnight successes’ who will tend to bloom and then wither rapidly.
All of the success of Rumah Dunia Writing Workshops couldn’t be separated from an operational cost or Rumah Dunia’s fund. The funds come from individual donations, and other revenues from Novels or Anthologies of short-stories. Especially the program funding from 2005. Each time we publish an anthology of short-stories, 50% of the royalties from the writers will be donated to Rumah Dunia. While for a personal novel it will only be 25%. By the end of 2004, gratefully, we were able to save some rupiahs and were able to get a motorcycle by credit (to be RD inventory) for Rumah Dunia activities. For the motorcycle we will need to pay each month for 18 months. God willing, everything will be done smoothly.
The Rumah Dunia fund is not to be spent for volunteer’s meals, but fully to support activities. While the RD activities are focused on developing the aptitude of children/students—elementary until university, and youth who willing to become advanced and successful but have been economically opressed and marginalized.
LOVE - Believe me, to build Banten is not always by taking care of the society and feel that you deserve to take the money back from APBD (Anggaran Perencanaan Belanja Daerah—The Provincial Budget Planning). Let it be the domain of the bureaucracy and authority. Basically we–people–are paying them to take care of our needs and interests. At Rumah Dunia, we do our activities with Love and Sincerity to give to others, as our contribution to society.
What John Gerassi wrote about Che Guevara in the Autobiography “Che Guevara, People’s Revolution” (Teplok) needs to be remembered, “Love is impossible to be there between Master and slave. That relation of master-slave has to be ruined. Che knows that once it has broken then the new relation–the Love–will never grow by itself. Love comes from the root, the people, and those working within from the bottom to the top. Love is not a flash of light or a mystical eve that is short-lasting. It is an effort. It is a thing that humans can build by working for it. Before society is able to work for love and feel happy for other’s happiness, also to feel satisfied by making others satisfied, they first need to be able to communicate with the intentions of equality for all. The ‘haves’ who LOVE the ‘have nots’ is not love but an offering of mercy. Those who want to become a generation of LOVE, have to brake the generations of hatred who were supported by the greed and corruption…the know-it-alls, and the masters.”
Finally, I want to say that Rumah Dunia has been developing with the love of the volunteers and the people around it–the people who have been oppressed and marginalized. We are working with Love. We even put ourselves in the position of servants for others. We strive to act on behalf of the new generation who is critical, smart and ready to fight against the evil deeds in Banten with our pens! Therefore, those who are corrupt and spend the weatlh of Banten for the interests of themselves or groups, be prepared to face our pens!
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*) Rumah Dunia, December 2004 - June 27th, 2007.
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