Right, "Just Write"!

It was Hasan, the General Manager of LPM Manunggal who phoned me in the afternoon and asked me to join “Just Write”, a national writing training which held by Diva Press, a major publisher from Yogyakarta. At first, I just like “What? Me?”, but he begged me to apply my essay for the selection of this event. He said that he believed this will be a good start for me to improve my writing skill, but I still doubt with my poor writing skill. Since we still couldn’t deal well, he asked me to come to LPM Manunggal’s editorial office to meet him.

             In that meeting which also attended by Fakhrul, the Advetorial Manager of LPM Manunggal, Hasan asked me again and again to join this event, but I said that since it was a national event, it would be hard for me to pass the selection. They told me that it wouldn’t as hard as I thought and they also supported me to apply my essay. I even showed my essay to them and I said that it still needed some revision yet I still doubt to pass the selection.

Then, I asked Hasan to tell LPM Manunggal members to join the selection as well and he agreed so he phoned them. Soon after that, some friends of mine and I submit our individual essay to the publisher, but it was only me who passed the selection. I was both happy and sad. I was happy because I could pass the selection and I could join the national writing training in Yogyakarta, but I was sad because some friends of mine didn’t pass the selection.

Actually, I had no idea how to tell my parents that I would go to Yogyakarta by myself since my parents were very protective to me. But guess what? They let me go to the event!

Time goes by, the first day of the event was coming so my mother and I went to Yogyakarta to attend the event. I was really happy there because I met a lot of people from many cities in Indonesia and I guess they’re all great writers. But, sometimes I felt like I was dislocated and misplaced since I knew that some of them have already published their books.

Two people whom I met in this event at the beginning are a participant from Palembang and Madura. Both of them are very kind to me and even we still keep in touch by facebook until now.

I must thank God because my new friends here are very kind to me. Although I wasn’t publish any book of mine, they were support me to write and write again until I can publish a book of mine someday. I even share many stories with my roommates, Ammy, Dani, and Nimas, who are older than me. We shared about college life, daily life, until… umm.. love life! Besides, we had special calls toward each other, that are, Ammy “kakak tertua pertama” or Ammy “the oldest sister”, Dani “kakak tertua kedua” or Dani “the second older sister”, Nimas “kakak tertua ketiga” or Nimas “the third older sister”, and me, Nina adek kecil or Nina “the youngest sister”.

Well, in this event, the participants were not only got a writing training, but also trailed to Mount Merapi in order to find some ideas and also attended a seminar which the speakers are Alitt Susanto (the writer of Skripshit) and Joni (the editor of Horison Magazine).

Three days in Yogyakarta felt like a very short time and this event ended up by evaluation about our writing and distribution of some books published by Diva Press. Yeah, I got a great experience by attending this event. Thus, I must say a big thanks to Hasan!

Honestly, I want to gather with the 20 participants of Just Write again. I do hope I can meet them someday. By the way, I heard that the publisher make Just Write an annual event so they will hold Just Write 2 next year.  For those who wants to enroll the selection of this event, I really support you to do so!


P.S.: All photos in this article are owned by Diva Press