Public Workshops

COURSE SYNOPSIS

Best-selling author Ng Yi-Sheng guides you into the wondrous world of writing fantasy, science fiction and horror. Participants will learn about the history of the field, the basics of craft and collaboration, and how to seek opportunities for publication. There will also be in-class writing and workshop sessions, so we can better understand, reflect on and critique one another’s ideas and writing.

The intention is to encourage people with an interest in speculative fiction to create work of their own, and to help them understand how to orient themselves in a market that is hungry for fantastical literature of all kinds, as well as visual art, performance and games. The class is open both to amateur and experienced writers.

This course comprises 3 sessions:

Session 1: Into the Fantastic
We will explore why people are drawn to the fields of fantasy, sci-fi and horror, and learn a brief history of these genres, as well as the conventions of each. We will hold an in-class brainstorming and writing exercise based on students’ envisioned projects in fantastical literature.

Session 2: Crafting the Fantastic
We will examine topics of craft, including worldbuilding, plot, character, and subversion of expectations. We will bear these concepts in mind as we continue work on our projects.

Session 3: Sharing the Fantastic
In a final session, we will discuss ways in which work can be published professionally and informally, or else adapted into visual art, performances, games or other media. Students’ writing projects, which may take the form of a finished story or an outline for a more ambitious story, can be submitted during this class, with feedback to be returned at a later date.

This course is SkillsFuture Credit-eligible. All Singaporeans aged 25 and above can use their SkillsFuture Credits from the government to pay for a wide range of approved skills-related courses. You may visit the course listing on the MySkillsFuture website here to find out more.

For enquiries, please email bookawriter@singlitstation.com.

COURSE RUNS

Venue: Sing Lit Station, 22 Dickson Road #02-01, Singapore 209506

First Run
Session 1: 18 Oct 2025, 10am - 12.30pm
Session 2: 19 Oct 2025, 10am - 12pm
Session 3: 25 Oct 2025, 10am - 12.30pm

Second Run
Session 1: 6 Dec 2025, 2pm - 4.30pm
Session 2: 7 Dec 2025, 2pm - 4pm
Session 3: 20 Dec 2025, 2pm - 4.30pm

COURSE FEES

Full Course Fee: $250
Student Concession: $150

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Ng Yi-Sheng (b. 1980) is a Singaporean multidisciplinary writer, researcher and activist. He studied creative writing at Columbia College, the University of East Anglia and NTU, and has served as a creative writing instructor at NTU, LaSalle College of the Arts, and Yale-NUS, where he taught Singapore’s first ever university-level speculative fiction writing course.

He won the Singapore Literature Prize (English Category) in 2008 for his debut poetry collection last boy (Firstfruits, 2006), as well as for his speculative fiction collection Lion City (Epigram, 2018). He is also the author of the best-selling non-fiction work SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century (Oogachaga, 2006), the movie novelisation Eating Air (Firstfruits, 2008), the poetry collections Loud Poems for a Very Obliging Audience and A Book of Hims (Math Paper Press, 2016 and 2017), as well as the children’s history book Twisted Temasek and the historical fantasy novel Utama (both Epigram, 2025).