Deisha Tamar

July 17 2011

The Jakarta Post

(as published here)

English Department students of Binus University invited author Raditya Dika to its Anggrek Campus in Jakarta to share his knowledge on how to become a writer, or one who can rake in the cash.

In the talk titled “Get Creative in Your Writing to Keep You Prosper” on June 16, the students’ body, HIMSI, partnered with stationery producer Faber-Castell. Almost 500 people flocked in to join the talk show or perhaps merely see their favorite wacky blogger-cum-writer in person although tickets were Rp 40,000 (US$4.86) each for students and Rp 50,000 for the public.

With writing as its theme, HIMSI hopes to open the knowledge of young people who, nowadays, like to express their feelings or share their stories through blogs or other various kinds of social networks — and help them turn that hobby into a source of income. 

In addition, it helps to enlighten young people on career opportunities in writing – not just by publishing a book or becoming a novelist. As said by Desvina, the head of HIMSI, a writer is actually a highly promising job, and by becoming and learning to be a good one, we can generate a good income.

Raditya delivered his presentation with his wittiness and comical approach that kept the audience laughing throughout the entire seminar. He pointed out that it was important to keep personal stories as a foundation of our writing, even the most bitter ones. Yet we need to be able to turn them into something unique. Distinguishing ourselves and our style of writing are also vital, as there are more and more writers emerging today. We have to create our own signature and set ourselves apart. 

After three hours of knowledge sharing, he asked the audience to engage in a 10-minute writing session and question and answer session before ending the event. During the event, some of the participants and Faber-Castell did live tweeting, and even held a quiz via Twitter. Putri Utami, a Binus University student tweeted that it was her second time joining seminar with Raditya Dika as the speaker, and she was pleased with the seminar and Raditya’s approach. 

Desvina contributed to the story