FunDza’s first Write4Life creative writing workshop is underway with 18 learners from Fezeka Secondary School, Oscar Mpetha High School and Chris Hani High School.
The workshop, presented by Ros Haden, Dorothy Dyer and Sonwabiso Ngcowa, aims to give learners new skills to hone their writing and prepare it for an audience. The theme of the workshop is “writing myself” – finding new ways of writing stories and poetry based on one’s life experiences.
Ros, Sonwabiso and Dorothy at the Write4Life workshop
The programme is fun with games and word play that introduces learners to new words and expands their vocabulary. Autobiographical stories and poetry readings show how writers successfully set scenes and describe people and situations, how the use of detail makes a story interesting and authentic. The participants practice descriptive writing learning techniques hone in their sensory experiences, rather than writing using over-used cliches.
FunDza is posting some of the writing to the FunDza Fanz section of its mobi network as it is being written. Click here to see the latest pictures and read some of the writing.
FunDza received some early feedback from Lusanda, one of the learners. After the first day’s workshop, she wrote: “Today was the most wonderful day because I learned about awesome things like new words. And, I also learned about how you can make your own stories and how to use direct and indirect dialogue in the story you create. Another thing that made this day an awesome day was the stories that we were read by the facilitators. They inspired me and I liked the tension in all of the stories. The other thing that I learned from the stories we were read was that they had a good start, and that there were some words that gave a visual picture of what the story-teller described. Some stories started well and had conflict in the middle. But others ended with conflict. And, even other resolved their problems. FunDza is making a difference in our lives. In the coming future, they will be making a difference in our communities and even in the world.”
Thanks goes to the sponsors of the event: Claude Leon Foundation for covering core costs, Juta & Company for hosting the workshop venue and providing teas and lunches, and NoMU for sponsoring gift packs of their delicious foodstuffs.