A LOCAL author is running a writing competition to encourage children to express themselves in more creative ways.
Michael Marnewick, who has published two books and one e-book, decided to run the competition in partnership with Books and Books, to encourage children to develop a love of language, reading books and writing interesting thoughts.
Michael rose above any criticism he received as a schoolboy, and took to writing almost by accident.
“When I was in standard nine I was told I would never amount to much writing-wise and I pretty much believed it. After I finished school my friend said he would like to write, and I thought it would be more like a special achievement to write a book than a passion,” he said.
Michael went on to study psychology, and then went into pig farming, a far cry from novel writing. He used to follow his local soccer team and started writing reports to submit to his local community newspaper.
“I enjoyed writing and promoting the team and then got into websites to communicate with other pig farmers in the US. One farmer encouraged me to put a website together and I did this. I then signed up to the Sharks newsletter and eventually took over the fan site and rebuilt it. I still write for them 16 years later,” he said.
Being in the sports environment, he enjoyed more contact with sports personalities and journalists and put together a list of 25 personalities, the crème de la crème of sports, including Olympic gold medalists and Springbok rugby players.
“The more I spoke to them, the more I realised the mental aspect of coaching and the importance of this in winning games. I put together information of the key mental attributes such as character and confidence which determines who wins and who loses, and produced my first book, Quest for Glory in 2010,” he said.
Michael admits he loves a challenge but he is a great procrastinator and said putting together a book was something he had promised himself he would do, a dream he had had for many years. His book contains anecdotes from sportsmen such as Bruce Fordyce, Ryk Neethling and Penny Haynes who speak about their quest to be the best.
“It took me a year to interview, write and have the book edited, and with a newborn baby in the house I would wake up in the middle of the night with ideas to write down!” he said.
Once he had completed his idea, he sent his book to the publisher and was overjoyed that it was accepted the first time.
“It’s not exactly a career option, I’m not retired on my yacht, but it is a labour of love, with the emphasis on labour! A writer needs to be writing all the time,” he said.
His second book came about as a result of the first one. Henning Gericke, a runner who wanted to be a champion and who ended up going into sports psychology, enjoyed what Michael had written in his first book and called him to help put together his book entitled Inspiring Champions.
“He was interested in writing a book and as he was Afrikaans, he asked me to help him write it in English. We put this together in 2014,” he said.
Michael’s e-book called A Life Less Ordinary, Our Journey with ADD, was inspired by his daughter Julia who was diagnosed with ADD.
“I was in complete denial about the condition and treatment of it, and wrote the book about our home life, our journey during that time. I hope Julia will read it one day,” he said.
Then came his idea to put together a writing competition to encourage young writers.
“When I ask my daughter how her day was at school, the response is always ‘it was fine’. Children don’t use enough adjectives and are no longer enthusiastic. I got to thinking, ‘how does one get children to take more interest and not be so flippant and blasé about everything?’ I feel we need to widen our vocabulary as humans, as the reading culture is not as good as it could be,” he said.
He has teamed up with Books and Books to give prizes for the best writers in two categories, Grade 1 to 4 and Grade 5 to 7.
“We will take a simple sentence like ‘The cat sat on the mat’ and children are encouraged to develop an interesting and descriptive story around this simple concept,” he said.
He said children are encouraged to either write a composition, poem or limerick, using descriptive words to describe the theme, 'The cat sat on the mat'. Use your imagination to describe the scene. You may want to explore the cat’s colour, markings, breed, personality, owner and anything else. But remember, the basic message is that there is a cat that is sitting on the mat.
The entry must be an original work and must be submitted on an official entry form which you can get from Books and Books, or downloaded from www.michaelmarnewick.com/competition.html. Only one entry per person may be submitted.
Completed entries must then be handed in to your teacher, in-store at Books and Books or completed online at www.michaelmarnewick.com/competition.html
Remember to include name, grade, school and parent’s consent on the entry form. There is no minimum number of words but must not be more than 200 in total.
Competition ends on Friday, 5 September.
Prizes include book vouches and a signed book by a local author.
