FunDza has a mentoring programme where talented young writers are paired with professional writer mentors to guide them through the writing of one of FunDza’s weekly short stories. This is an incredible opportunity for young writers to hone their writing skills and get intensive help with the crucial ingredients that FunDza Fanz love: exciting plots, believable and relatable characters and of course, satisfying endings! It is also a rewarding experience for mentors, as is evident in one of FunDza’s current mentor/mentee pairs: Sifiso Mzobe and Amanda Ngema.

Sifiso is an acclaimed South African author and has written many short stories for FunDza – see his profile here.
Over the last few years he has mentored several FunDza mentees who have had their work published on fundza.mobi, as well as in print publications. He has also co-run writing workshops with Ros Haden, content manager at FunDza.

How Sifiso came to be Amanda’s mentor is in itself an interesting story.

Amanda writes: “I knew about FunDza because I had a Moya app. I used read a lot of stories there and they inspired me to write more. I met my mentor Sifiso Mzobe at Bayview library in Chatsworth. I was there because I wanted to find out how you go about publishing a book. Sifiso had run a FunDza writing workshop at the library, and the librarian introduced me to him. Sifiso then helped me to publish my poems through FunDza.”

Sifiso uses the Bayview library as a quiet place to work. “Luckily that day I was working at the library. We got talking and I encouraged her to send me her writing. Being both a writer and mentor for FunDza has been a blessing in my creative journey. It has afforded me a view from both sides – writing and editing, which has made my writing better. It keeps me on my toes as well because I get to see how talented other writers are. So I try to do my best every time I write.

“What I like about mentoring is helping a writer develop their idea into a story. Getting published does wonders for your confidence and I like it when I see a writer I have mentored before improve their writing.”

Sifiso is also an accomplished translator and has also translated many FunDza stories from English into his home language, isiZulu. He also works with two of his mentees in isiZulu. They write the stories in isiZulu and when they are ready for publication he translates them into English. The two versions are then run on fundza.mobi at the same time so readers get to choose which version they want to read.

Amanda says of writing in isiZulu: “I love my home language so much. When I’m writing in isiZulu I gain more confidence in my writing and I feel I write better in isiZulu. I enjoy using strong isiZulu like izaga nezisho (idioms and sayings). I feel that if my stories have a deeper meaning then readers will learn something new as they have to analyse the story in order to get the theme.

Of her writing journey she writes, “My experience of being mentored by Sifiso Mzobe is very professional and very educational. He has helped me to grow in writing and editing my work. He is very understanding of silly mistakes that I make and he is always willing to help me. I like to write stories that are educational in some way but I also like creativity. Most of my poems and stories are things that have happened to me or situations around me. I also like stories with a catchy title!

Amanda is studying full-time but she always makes time for her writing, “Every day I write a to-do list in that way I can balance studying and writing. If I have a lot of assignments to do or if I have exams coming up, I wake up early in the morning and start writing or editing my poems or stories. No matter how busy I am I always make time for writing because it gives me peace of mind and also I get a chance to express my feelings.”

One of the most exciting, and sometimes nerve-wracking things in writing stories for FunDza is reading the comments by FunDza Fanz. They say exactly how they feel about the story, whether they loved it or found it boring, whether they wanted more or a different ending, and sometimes they even give the characters’ advice!

Amanda’s first story published on fundza.mobi https here: these readers sum up their reactions:

“I enjoyed, I’ll die where you die, like I was watching a movie. There is magic in your writing”

“Awesome ????,????????????”

“The response I got from my story, ‘I’ll die where you die,’ was amazing. I never imagined it would be that huge. I thank my mentor Sifiso for helping me push my work. I would like to thank my readers for all those amazing comments they gave me,” Amanda says.

For Sifiso, reading the Fanz comments on his stories is also rewarding: “Seeing the story I have worked on published gives a sense of great satisfaction. The comments from readers are always great to read because they are sincere and in real time. They keep you in check and help you improve. You know right away if the story is good, not so good, believable or hard to believe etc. The readers say it like it is.”

Amanda is just one of many mentees that are currently working with mentors to publish their stories on fundza.mobi and bring enjoyment and inspiration to FunDza’s thousands of regular readers.

We are sure there will be many more stories to come from this talented young voice – she is already working on her second one with Sifiso!