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SWOPnet awarded three best writers of the year
Three writers were awarded with SWOPnet after contributing most in the participatory website. Frank Zahool highlights who good journalists are.
This frank comment like my name, considering it comes from a man who has been a journalist for all of his adult life, seems surprising. But to hear SWOPnet awards kept me talk about self-chosen and loved profession, the awards actually sounds encouraging.
"We need to discover new ways to communicate," Said Hary Hare, of SWOPnet during the awards. "We need better writers, journalists and better human beings not just people looking for the next scandal. We need to create a new journalist who doesnt look just at market share. Its possible to get something better. Each person is a treasure with nice things inside."
In the SWOPnet annual award, three people won the best writers award by contributing most in the popular participatory developmental website known as www.tanzaniagateway.org.
The winners were Aloyce Meenda, Nyasigo Kornel and XXXX, who were awarded with SWOPnet best winners of the year.
The site is developmental and participatory that require all writers in Tanzania to subscribe their articles to enable easy access to various information within and outsite the country.
According to the Director of Tanzania Global Development and Learning Center, writers in Tanzania have to increase their contributions in the site, not only for the purpose of winning awards but also for the purpose of making the domestic information available for access.
According to Nyasigo Kornel, a journalist who won the award said that it took him quite some time to realize it; but, like other art forms, good writing requires a thought process.
He said that true, the initial seed or idea, or theme itself may just "pop" into your head while you're driving down the road. However, he said, once the inspiration has sprung itself upon you, the task is seldom o'er 'til perspiration has been employed. "Verily I say unto you..." one must work one's grey cells in order to utilize the tools, data base, and other sundry equipment of the mind. "How so? you may ask.
While talikng to the some journalist who opt to start contributing to the site Nyasigo said consider if you will, the simple process of jotting down a few lines for mere rhyming. "Roses are red, violets are blue..." there is an infinite wealth of possibilities of words in the English language, from which to choose. What is the real goal of the rhyme, is it just sound? Not hardly! What is the theme? Is it: love, exposition, humor, declaration, or some other element in a vast array of choices? What is the mood or attitude? Is the writer's intent to simply please one individual paramour; or rather, to capture a prospective audience of millions?
What we are attempting to explain here, is very simple. Many people write; but "Good writers don't just write...they must also think!" They must: weigh alternatives, make decisions, take chances, attempt to be creative, avoid cliches and "hackneyed expressions"...and ultimately, make revisions! That, my friend, is the supreme sacrifice. Those truly beautiful words, which flew to you on gossamer wings, and you have "birthed", must now be: "red-lined", struck out, purged, deleted...how painful!
But, let us not tarry on such negatives, for behold ... salvation exists in the form of a man-made product, cryptically referred to as the...P.C. Yes, the www.tanzaniagateway.org has the wherewithal to save and store all those "pearls of wisdom" for future recall and restoration ...in your next "masterpiece".
In closing, I should like to point out one final, yet penultimate ingredient in the writing process. Let's take a moment to review: you got an idea, captured it on paper, made "all the right moves" but, who cares? Who will read it? Who will like it? How can anyone ever appreciate your newborn "baby Unless it is actually PUBLISHED? What a dirty word! I think that William Shakespeare described the situation very aptly, many years ago, when one of his now famous characters said, "...There lies the rub!"
A poem, an article, an essay, or even a book manuscript, will never "see the light of day" buried in the bottom drawer of your chiffonier ...under your "undies". So, how does a "would-be" writer ever get recognition in the form of publication? Where does a novice dare to send his or her
"brainchildren"? How does one market one's wares? I only wish I knew!
Confidence and persistence may well be the major criteria involved in the total process. Thus far, having only been published a "handful" of times (totally without remuneration),
I must honestly ponder the probability that this "piece" may never, ever be: read, critiqued, acknowledged to have some measure of "redeeming merit", and somehow actually reach your hands and mind.
Since deciding to "throw my hat in the ring" about two years ago, one extremely valuable lesson has been "drummed home" over and over don't quit your regular daytime job...just yet!
Until one has actually been "discovered", and even after actually receiving a check someday, good writing does not necessarily provide a constant and dependable supply of monetary support. Simply speaking, if it doesn't "bring home the bacon" you may find yourself with only your words to eat. Accordingly, along with: writing, and thinking, and perspiring, and persisting...it would probably not be a bad idea to:(Note: that was a litote) make sure your words are soft and palatable, and ... keep plenty of salt handy ... never know when you might have to "eat" them!
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