ITWeb's Digital Expo Begins Today

ITWeb's Digital Expo begins today. It's the first digital lifestyle expo in SA. One of my colleagues attended this morning and says it really rocks.

So if you're in Johannesburg and have the time this weekend, check it out at the Sandton Convention Centre. It runs until Saunday 20 April.

For new readers, I work as a journalist and write for ITWeb Online, iweek (weekly print pub) and occassionally Brainstorm (monthly print).

I also have a blog on ITWeb's social networkng site, My Digital Life. My blog, called Mobile Life, looks at how mobile phones are changing the way we work, play, learn and communicate.

My thoughts, right now, are with Townboy, who is trying to set a world record of 48 hours continuous blogging.

Please pop in and comment on his posts; offer him some encouragement. He's been blogging since yesterday, and as you'll see, the post I highlighted in number 41 in the series.

Hard Work Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Monday was the first day of my ten year old daughter's three-week school break.

We decided to leave the first week unstructured so she can enjoy lazy days.

Me (sitting back on a large sofa and stretching my legs): Schoe! I'm completely knackered.

The writing went so fast I didn't realise how much it was taking out of me.

Baby (mimicking my movements): You're telling me!

We need to find something else for me to do with my time this week. Watching TV all day is exhausting!

Traffic on my children's stories blog exceeds traffic here

The fantabulous news is that traffic on the blog where I posted some of my children's stories now exceeds traffic on Storypot.

The reason I think it's wonderful is because I want people to read my stories. I sure do love it when people visit Storypot and read about how some of the writing happens. Or get to know me a bit.

But ultimately, my greatest wish is that people the world over read my stories and articles.
Now I need to get off my butt and post some of the stories I've already written.

7 Things To Do When You Feel Like Every Word You Write Sucks

Deborah Ng at Network Blogging Tips is running a competition where bloggers are to write to a list post. "Between now and the end of the day April 20th, you must post a list on your blog," she says.

I don't expect that it is feasible for me to win the OneTouch 4 Mini 250 GB external hard drive, worth $129.00. It would cost too much to mail through, I think.

Still, something today forced me to write this post, and I thought, why not arrange the info as a list?

Anyway, I hope you find this post useful, and if you do enter the competition and do not win, go out and buy an external drive for yourself. You don't want to find youself in this situation, as I recently did. Take it from me - shelling out the money for the external drive is less painful.

Damaria
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Today I had one of those days when , no matter how good a writer you are, or how confident, you feel that every word you write sucks.

The feeling had nothing to do with how productive I was. In fact, I researched and wrote two news articles, a 650 perspective and a 900 feature today. Yet, I felt like I really suck.

Sometimes a small incident triggers the feeling: a rejection which under normal circumstances wouldn’t bother you suddenly acquired gigantic importance, or a comment from a reader who disagrees with you on a certain point is blown out of proportion.

Despite the fact that the reader is saying “I disagree,” what you hear is “Your writing sucks. Your writing has always sucked, and I can’t figure out how the hell the conned anyone into publishing your work.”

Here are some of the things I did that helped raise my my spirits, and kept me so busy I didn’t have the time to dwell on whether I’m a terrible writer or not.

1. Look to Internet for encouraging words/words of wisdom– Here are some of the articles I found through a Google search:

Bonita Lillie’s “Encouraging Words for Writers.”
Thirteen Encouraging Quotes for Writers Striving to Become Authors
What to Do When You’re Feeling Down by Cheryl Rainfeld

Some of the articles/quotes did not speak to my particular circumstance, but there were things I could relate to.

Look for more articles from writers/bloggers you respect, or on subjects that closely match you and your needs.

2. Write about it – Write the whole story down: what happened to make you think you’re a terrible writer, how it happened, how you feel.

If there were some things that you could have done differently to improve the story, acknowledge your mistakes and outline what you learnt from them.

If you think writing about your experience is a waste of time, consider that wallowing in self-pity is even less useful.

In any case, you may choose to publish it as a blog post, or if you’re not comfortable spilling your guts in a public forum, leave it as a personal journal entry. Or you may write about it in a less personal way, as I did with this list post.

3. Consider what you accomplished that day –Sometimes we writers let our specific writing problems overshadow what we accomplished.

Don’t restrict your accomplishments to writing-related activities either – if your major accomplishment involved taking care of your child for 5 uninterrupted hours, without shouting at him, then acknowledge it as an accomplishment that is important to you.

4. Read previously published works – Editors accepted your work, used it, and even paid you for it in the past. So your writing is not as bad as you imagine it is.

5. Share with others – This is where joining a writing community, or even forming some kind of partnership with another writer, helps.

“Sometimes things are so bad you start think you’re terrible at your job and then you realize that someone else is actually having a worse time,” another journalist, who also had a trying day, said to me.

6. Chat to someone who always makes you laugh – I was fortunate in that the same journalist who also had a bad day has a skewed sense of humour. Before long, we were laughing over life’s silly moment.

7. Correct your mistakes ASAP –If you’re feeling down because you made a mistake in a story, or a story was rejected, work on it again as soon as possible and send it somewhere else.

You don’t want the failed story to acquire demonic proportions, as this will make it difficult for you to resume work on it.

Enter local language writing competition

I decided to post the media statement as is, so the terms and conditions are clear.

Good luck,
Damaria

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Room to Read is currently promoting its first Local Language Publishing Writing Competition that is open to all writers over the age of 18.

There are cash prizes of R10 000 each for the best five stories.

Independent judges, who will be looking for such qualities as originality, imagination and flair, will read the entries.

Most importantly, they will consider how the story will appeal to children from a range of South African backgounds.

The purpose of this competition is to encourage the writing and production of children's literature in South Africa, especially in indigenous languages.

We plan to publish the best of these works in 2008.

Competition rules

The competition is not open to Room to Read South Africa staff and their immediate families and the judges of the competition.

Authors must be 18 and over.

No entries will be returned and Room to Read South Africa will not be accountable for any entries that do not reach our office.

Room to Read South Africa will publish the winning manuscripts only if they meet our publishing requirements.

Non-winning entries may also qualify for publication.

Room to Read South Africa has the right to edit and revise the manuscripts according to their requirements.

The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

There is no restriction on the number of entries made by any one person; however, an official entry form must accompany each separate entry.