Digital Exclusive Content Writing Workshop Flyer by Creative Idea Fest 2021 (30/10/2021)

Semarang—Creative Idea Fest (CIF) is one of a series of events in Commweek 2021 which consists of three contests in the creative field, namely marketing communication, advertising video production, and broadcasting. The highlight of the CIF event this time was a webinar and content writing workshop titled Exclusive Content Writing Workshop with the theme “Build Qualities to Maximizing Opportunities” which was held on October 30, 2021 through Zoom Meeting.

This event was opened by Fauzan Surya and Untsa Yustia as the host, followed by remarks from Arrawinda as the person in charge of CIF 2021 and the Head of the Diponegoro University S-1 Communication Studies Study Program, S. Rouli Manalu.

Creating Content That Makes a Positive Impact

Session one of this event presented the co-founder of @menjadimanusiaid, namely Rhaka Ghanisatria as the speaker of the webinar. As an overview, Menjadi Manusia is an alternative media and social platform to share and hear stories about life from various perspectives in the hope of being able to become a ladder to get a speck of hope for anyone who is facing life’s problems.

To start the session, he told about the beginning of Menjadi Manusia, which was inspired by his personal experience as a person with mental health disorders and his interest in the field of social enterprise, namely entrepreneurship that aims to help the community. He also developed Becoming a Human with a focus on creating content related to mental health and ‘being human’, both in the form of videos published on YouTube, as well as writing for websites and Instagram.

“For now, digital content has such great power that it seems to be able to brainwash and have an impact on society,” said Rhaka.

After regularly creating content, Rhaka realized that content could save lives. He concluded that this was because Menjadi Manusia content connoisseurs were grateful for the existence of such content which many of them discouraged suicide.

Writing Workshop with Best Seller Novel Writers

The second session, which was scheduled for the workshop, presented Leila S. Chudori, the author of the best-selling novel Laut Bercerita and also a journalist as a speaker as well as an evaluator.

This workshop started with a sharing session from Leila with the participants. She said that talent is indeed the first factor that really determines the ability of a writer, but that does not mean that people who are not talented can not develop. According to her, it takes hard work to hone writing skills and a good writer never stops learning.

“Reading and writing are one package. If you want to be able to write, you must be diligent in reading. Likewise, if people enjoy reading, the body automatically records how the writing is arranged in the reading so that in the future we can write,” said Leila.

To improve the writing skills of the participants, Leila recommended several writers whose works must be read to improve writing skills, namely the classics of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Umar Kayam, Ahmad Tohari, NH Dini, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Scott F. Fitzgerald, JD Salinger to contemporary writers such as Julian Barnes, Zadie Smith, and Alice Sebold.

Apart from talent and hard work, Leila thinks that being humble also greatly affects her writing ability. Leila reminded the participants not to be arrogant and feel that they are already very good at writing. He advised all participants present to remain humble.

“Without humility, our writing will only be full of self-indulgent writing, busy with oneself,” said Leila.

Leila ended the session by delivering material related to content writing planning. She also explained the assignment, namely that participants were required to write a feature or opinion which was then evaluated on the second day of the workshop, October 31, 2021, which was specifically devoted to assessing participants’ assignments.

Reporter: Salsabila Febryanti

Writer: Dinda Khansa Berlian

Editor: Annisa Qonita Andini