The Write Stuff: A Writing Lab for Teens

What are the details of the workshop?

What: The Write Stuff: A Writing Lab for Teens
When: April 23, 2015 (Thursday), 1PM to 5PM
Where: U-View, Fully Booked, Bonifacio Global City

What is the workshop about?

Are you raising a teen who loves to read and write? Do you believe he has the potential of becoming a writer? If you’re looking for a productive activity for your kid this summer season, sign him up for “The Write Stuff: A Writing Lab for Teens”.

In this half-day workshop, the Founders of Writer’s Block Philippines will share different writing techniques and help your child discover his writer’s voice. It will also feature the basics of fiction writing, character design and story creation, which will be discussed by Talecraft creator, Ria Lu.

What is Talecraft?

Talecraft is a story-creation card game designed to help writers break out of mental block and create stories with genres and characters that are outside of what they usually like to create. There are three types of cards in Talecraft: the Genre cards, the Archetype cards, and the Key cards. Players need to pick cards from each type and create a story based on what they’ve picked. For more information about the game, please visit http://talecraft.komikasi.com.

Who can attend the event?

Ideally, participants should be teenagers between the ages of 13 to 17 years who generally have an interest in writing and want to hone their skills, especially in the following topics: 

• fiction writing
• feature writing
• journaling
• blogging

What is the course outline?

The workshop will discuss the following topics:

Finding Your Voice

Knowing what you like to read is crucial to developing your writing style and honing your distinct writer’s voice. How do you know what kind of writing works best for you? We’ll take a short quiz to find out.

(Don’t worry, this isn’t the kind of quiz you need to study for.)

Writing Techniques & Hacks

How do you turn a personal experience into a feature article? How do you deal with writer’s block? Those are all issues that even the most veteran of writers have to deal with.

Writing Lab: Writing a Story with Talecraft

Then it’s Writing Lab time! Using Talecraft Cards, we’ll help you develop characters, work out a plot and create your own story.

How much is the registration fee?

There is a P2,500 fee per person, which simply covers the course fee and a Writer’s Block Philippines – Talecraft workshop kit. We’ll take care of the substance, but you take care of your sustenance, that okay?

How can I reserve a seat?

Simply sign up through our online registration form to signify your interest and we’ll email you the details on how to confirm a slot.

How can I pay for the workshop? 

You may settle the workshop fee by making a deposit to our bank account. Details as follows:

Bank: BPI
Account name: Writer’s Block Training Services
Account number: Savings account 1759 0377 11

If you have the BPI app on your phone, you can also pay via bank transfer without having to enroll our account in your Bills Payment Roster. Simply click on the option, “Transfer to Anyone”.

Once you’ve made the deposit/funds transfer, please email us a copy of the deposit slip/screen cap so we can confirm your slot.

You may also pay via Paypal, which has a payment feature in our website.

Is there a deadline for signing up?

There is no deadline but please note that we will close the registration once all the slots have been filled up. Walk-in participants will only be accommodated if there are still available slots.

The workshop will discuss the following topics:

Finding Your Voice

Knowing what you like to read is crucial to developing your writing style and honing your distinct writer’s voice. How do you know what kind of writing works best for you? We’ll take a short quiz to find out.

(Don’t worry, this isn’t the kind of quiz you need to study for.)

Writing Techniques & Hacks

How do you turn a personal experience into a feature article? How do you deal with writer’s block? Those are all issues that even the most veteran of writers have to deal with.

Writing Lab: Writing a Story with Talecraft

Then it’s Writing Lab time! Using Talecraft Cards, we’ll help you develop characters, work out a plot and create your own story.

It will be conducted by Writer’s Block Philippines, a duo of editors and communicators who have collectively had more than 20 years of experience in freelance lifestyle and corporate writing.

Ana P. Santos: sexual reproductive health rights and women’s issues

Ana has had over 12 years experience in advertising and marketing communications. She left her post as Assistant Vice President of a financial institution five years ago to pursue a career as a freelance writer.

As an independent journalist and foreign correspondent covering sexual health rights and women’s issues, Ana has received media grants from Newsbreak, Probe Media Foundation and the Philippine Press Institute to cover population and development issues.

Most recently, she was named the 2014 Persephone Miel Fellow by Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in Washington, D.C.

Ana has regular columns in Rappler and Working Mom while some of her full-length features have been published in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy and The Atlantic.

Nikka Sarthou-Lainez: lifestyle / travel

Nikka has over 10 years of experience in writing for various online and print publications, as well as developing content for corporate clients. She is currently a full-time freelance editor/writer handling independent projects and corporate accounts.

In 2012, she was chosen as one of the five Asian representatives for Moleskine’s Modern Nomads and was included in its exhibition of travel writers’ kits where some of her travel paraphernalia were shown on display. She was the only featured travel writer from the Philippines, the others were from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Her feature pieces have appeared in local publications like asianTraveler, Travelife, Spark, Celebrity Mom, Business World, Highlife, Metro, Metro Society, ClicktheCity.com, Spot.ph, Herword.com, Homegrown.ph, GMA News Online and Rappler. She has also been published in Filipino publications abroad such as Filipino Star News in Michigan, Hawaii Filipino Chronicle, and Dubai-based magazine Illustrado.

She is currently a Contributing Editor in Smile, the in-flight magazine of Cebu Pacific Air.

Ria Lu: Talecraft Creator

Ria Lu is President of Komikasi Games and creator of the Talecraft Story-Creation Card Game. A published fantasy writer, Ria has done workshops on story writing for young people for more than five years.