Lately I’ve been thinking (oooh, I channeled some Henry Ate* there) that it won’t be such a bad thing if it happens that I never make it as a serious writer.

Yes, it’s been this dream; this full-on burning, for so long, that the acceptance of this possibility does feel a bit like cutting off a thumb.

Digitectomising (not a real word) aside, I will not stop writing. I just need a bit of space to figure out where I see myself ascending professionally. I’m hoping our time in Egypt will bear some revelation (Inshallah Ameen).

I’m rather rudderless right now. Stagnant qi and mosquito-brained.

The freedom that freelancing affords me, now seems to be the very thing that’s frazzling me. I’m a dabbler of note, a doyenne of nada.

I am loving the layout and typesetting gigs though, and am keen on upskilling that. I don’t quite know where the papercrafting is heading, but I have learnt that hobbies-turned-jobbies are not all about the glitz and glue-buzz.

Was it not reasonable for me to believe that by the time I reached this age, I would have had it all figured out?

–

*really lekker now-defunct South African band

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Fascinating bit I hope I understood correctly from Arabic class: The words Binte (Daughter of) and Ibn (Son of) have at their root, the letters Baa and Noon. The arabic word transliterated as “Banaa” means “to build”, implying a notion that your progeny build you (and your legacy perhaps?).

{picture-heavy post up-ahead, most of which has been pre-tweeted/facebooked}

While this is effectively the second month of my 8-5 rebellion, here’s the official announcement;

I am now a freelancer.

I’ve swapped traffic terrors to battle pyjama-procrastination, with some losses and a few wins. I’ve just passed that stage where the amount of free time was so novel and overwhelming, that all I did was whittle it away on long breakfasts, catch-ups with friends, google reader, twitter and The Office (Dunder Mifflin’s and not frayintermedia’s).

But redemption came via little fits of productivity and I did a bit of writing, co-facilitated a design and layout training session at the IAJ, populated www.colournoun.co.za with some examples of work and

magicked this

into this (still cluttered but now there’s a semblance of method to the madness).

I also pepped up a fongkong-moleskine I got at Woolworths…

…and played with some modge-podge (I can see now that it needed more layers of the modge).

I made a couple more cards and have stocked up on enough supplies to launch Soul&Paper quite soon. Look out for the blog with more details.

Now that my time has been returned to me, I hope to get down to reading some of these…

…and writing more towards something that would be worth a space on some shelf somewhere.

Some things I’ve learnt from my time at home so far:

Your day only starts when you get out of your pyjamas.

You can sleep too much.

Your rozi* will find you.

*rozi-sustenance/daily bread/income

As it is mine, may this be your guide too:

If one of the things on your to-do list is to tell the great South African story (or any damn-good story), you simply can not afford to miss this year’s Narrative Journalism conference.

For both writers and journalists, the conference organisers have lined up speakers such as Zakes Mda, Mark Gevisser, Fred Khumalo, Jacqui Banaszynski, Tom French and Dave Hazelhurst, among others.

Master of magical realism, Mda will take participants through the journey of building effective characters while speakers such as Gevisser and Hazelhurst, pass on the practical skills to write and deliver compelling narrative.

French and Banaszynski have both won Pulitzer prizes for their work while acclaimed author Khumalo is the winner of the 2005 EU Literary Award for his novel Bitches Brew.

The award winning Gevisser, who is currently updating his much lauded biography of President Thabo Mbeki, writing a narrative film script on the ANC’s 1930 Congress and his celebrated Mail and Guardian political profiles were collected in the anthology: Portraits of Power.

Creative director at The Star newspaper, Hazelhurst will unpack the production of a narrative project – from idea to publication – through “The Search for Looksmart”, a story which recently won the Mondi Shanduka award for best narrative story.

Taking place at Hackle Brooke Estate on May 21 and 22, the conference aims to deepen the understanding and power of narrative journalism, and to give journalists the skills to use it more effectively.

The conference, now in its fourth year, continues to attract considerable media interest from across the continent.

Said frayintermedia Managing Director Charmeela Bhagowat: “This year we want to build on past gains and focus on practical skills for reporters, sub editors and editors from every type of media.
A specialist one day skills workshop will also be run on 23 May by Jacqui Banazynski.

With limited space, interested parties are advised to book sooner rather than later.

For more information on the conference, please contact Debby Kramer at: 011 341 0767 or at dkramer@frayintermedia.com

Download registration forms here.
Download the draft programme here.