Embracing Possibility: A workshop on magical thinking and magical realism

Request promo code via email to [email protected] to enjoy:

• 20% off past participants of SBC Academy
• 10% off for Kinokuniya Privilege Card members

* Please be prepared to present your student pass or senior citizen card on the day of the talk for verification purposes.

More often than not, we hear writers lament about how they might find Singapore too boring to situate their stories in. We have to ask ourselves some pressing questions: When did the familiar become equated with the uninspiring? How might a writer of fiction retrain their ability to see, observe and comment about the world around us? How might we unlock our creativity when things go awry in our stories, or when we feel imaginatively stuck?

In this workshop with Daryl Qilin Yam, participants will be taken through some key lessons about narrative possibility from wider media, before exploring three specific types of possibilities we might choose to harness as storytellers. Participants are to expect a rigorous combination of in-class readings, in-class writing exercises and candid discussions about creating fictional lives, so as to think and ideate more broadly and imaginatively about the world that we live in.

• To introduce participants to a selection of educational reading
• To inspire creativity and encourage experimentation with a few imaginative tools
• To enhance participants' writing and creative thinking skills through hands-on exercises and feedback

• Develop a firmer grasp on plot mechanics
• Deepen the appreciation for reading widely and critically
• Explore different ways of imagining and developing character and world-building

Introduction (5 minutes)

• Session 1: Three Lessons on Possibility (10 minutes)
• Session 2: Possibility #1 (20 minutes)
• Writing Exercise #1 (15 minutes, inclusive of Break and Refreshments)
• Presentation and Feedback #1 (10 minutes)

• Session 3: Possibility #2 (20 minutes)
• Session 4: Possibility #3 (30 minutes)
• Writing Exercise #2 (30 minutes, inclusive of Break and Refreshments)
• Presentation and Feedback #2 (25 minutes)
• Closing Remarks and Q&A Session (15 minutes)

Daryl Qilin Yam (b. 1991) is a writer, editor and arts organiser from Singapore. He is the author of the novella Shantih Shantih Shantih (2021), shortlisted for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize, and the novel Lovelier, Lonelier (2021), the Singapore nominee for the 2023 International Dublin Literary Award. He co-founded the literary charity Sing Lit Station.

Yam’s fourth book, Be Your Own Bae, is a short story collection that puts together a decade's worth of stories about gung-ho millennials, their well-meaning mentor figures and queer folk in Singapore. A unique collection like no other to our country's literary canon, it combines magical realism, speculative autobiography and ekphrasis.

The programme can be cancelled or postponed two weeks before the programme date if the minimum number of participants is not met. Participants will be fully refunded for workshops cancelled by us.

Participants who are unable to attend a workshop they have registered for are to inform us of the reason two weeks before the workshop date. They will be fully refunded in the event of extenuating and mitigating circumstances (E.g. illness, bereavement, accidents) . Those who inform us up to 5 working days before the workshop date will receive a 50% refund. Those who did not turn up at the workshop will not receive a refund.

Upon registration, you are deemed to have read and understood the cancellation and withdrawal policy and accept the terms contained therein.

Host or Publisher Singapore Book Council