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Avoid stereotypes in creative work- writers told
Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe (BWAZ)
Extracted from BWAZ E-Newsletter: Issue No. 4, 2006
July 04, 2006

On the 17th and 18th of June 2006 Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe held a writing skills workshop at Shungu Dzevana Children's home in Hatfield. Participants were drawn from High fields High 2 Secondary School and children from this home. The facilitator- Memory Chirere, a prolific writer of note and a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

Various issues in creative writing were discussed but all having been said the central idea was on how to avoid stereotypes in creative writing on HIV and Aids. Some of these stereotypes are: prostitution; description of the deteriorating body, death, blame game, alarmism, lobbyism, overwriting and many others.

As Memory Chirere noted Aids is not only found through prostitution and in beer halls as if to say that there is no Aids in schools, churches, and homes. Writers should not dwell too much on overwritten subjects. In some short stories or plays readers can actually predict what to expect. For example a play may open with a promiscuous man who also drinks excessively and generally careless about his life. The same man is also a womanizer. Some intelligent readers would quickly predict what to expect. At the end of this play the man will contract Aids and eventually dies. Such stereotypes will destroy a potentially powerful creative work. Writers have the tendency to overwrite on the deterioration of the body. Chirere said that a good writer should find other ways of describing a person suffering from AIDS other than the excessive description of the deteriorating body.

"A poem, play, short story should be read by someone suffering from AIDS and remains unaffected" said Memory Chirere. Research has also found that in most creative writing there is the blame game. Men will be blaming women on the spread of this disease while women also blame men. Writers should be prescriptive in their writing; they should desist from the blame game and give solutions through their creative work. Lobbyism is another stereotype that writers should avoid. The creative work should not be like a campaign for some organization.

The creative work should also avoid alarmism that is scaring people about their HIV or Aids status. Memory Chirere also emphasized that writers should avoid aspects of the subject which had been overwritten. Instead of writing about husbands bringing this deadly disease to their wives writers can venture into new grounds like writing about pastors who always preach about good morals but in the end its them who are affected by this deadly disease. What about an aunt who always blame muroora that she is HIV positive and upon being tested it was discovered that she had TB which is curable but the aunt who used to blame others tested HIV positive.

The workshop ended with participants reading their short stories, reciting poems, singing their songs and acting out short plays. Participants acknowledged that the two day workshop was very helpful in their creative works. "This is one of the best workshops that BWAZ organized for us. Our students learnt a lot and l look forward to more such enriching workshops" said Mrs. Samanga, a teacher in charge of Highfield High 2 Writers 'Club.

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