Learn to take corrections, young authors told

Esther Taiwo

Young Authors have been told to learn to take corrections no matter how fantastic they are or how great people say they are because accepting their mistakes will make them better in life.

This was the word of encouragement given by on air personality, Selma Elem, the host of ‘Book Club’ and other programmes at the Young Authors Mentorship Camp held at Corona school, Ikoyi Lagos.

The Young Authors’ Mentorship Camp was put together by Jordan Hill and Corona Schools’ Trust Council, Storyfest and Awards as a festival of creativity and intelligence with the aim of teaching young writers how to be better at making and publishing their own books and also award them for their works.

According to the radio presenter to the young writers, accepting their mistakes will make them know how to work on themselves better and become greater than before.

She said the Young Writers Club trains prospective authors the steps on how to be a good writer as well as the writing process.

She told the young writers to always brainstorm and think about what they want to write.

Other steps on how to be a good author, according to her, include writing down on paper after thinking what they want to write about, check for errors so as to make corrections, edit the work after making corrections and put everything in place like the punctuation marks, then create the story and publish it.

Guest Speaker at the event, Mrs. Adebimpe Samson, a representative of Sterling Bank, spoke about Financial Literacy with sub-topics: Learning, Saving and Earning.

Quoting a popular movie actor, Will Smith saying “Too many People Spend Money they Don’t Earn on What They Don’t Want, to Impress People They don’t Like, What We Do All the Time is Competition,

We Want to Buy Nice Things to Impress Other People so they will know we have Money,” Mrs. Samson stressed further that the way most people live in Nigeria, if the young writers want to start living that way, they won’t be able to save.

“When you give your life to unhealthy rivalry and you want to compete with others, it will affect your saving habit”, she said.

She defined money as anything that is acceptable as a means of exchange, saying back in the old days people use cowries as a means of exchange but today as it is people use currency.

“When you get money from any means there’s need for you to plan how you spend it”, she stressed.

On Needs and Wants, the guest speaker counselled them to learn to spend their money on their needs as she defined needs as important things to their everyday life. She said Needs are what they can’t do without, while Wants are things they don’t really need and are not really compulsory.

“Learn to spend your money on needs, things like food, shelter and clothes. Things that are relating to your personal life, when you get money from your parents or gift from anywhere don’t waste it on ice cream you can live without it so you can save your money to get your books published later in future”, she said.

Speaking on Financial Literacy, the Sterling Bank representative defined it as the ability to understand how money works, it’s a simple term for how one can understand money and able to manage expenses and income by living in his/her means .

“Whatever you do by the time you remove your expenses away from your income you must always be on the positive side”, she said.

She also talked about Budgeting which she described as planning how to spend their money.

“Learn to save before you spend, you should be aware of what you have so you can control yourself and be on the safe side. Do not save what is left after spending but spend what you have after saving”, she said.

Highlight of the event was award presentation for the best writer of the year by the director of education, Corona School, Amelia Dafeta.

In the Junior category, Mofinyinfoluwa Afilola took the best position while at the Intermediate category, Oluwatito Aringe grabbed the best position and at the senior category, Oluwabori Aringe took first.