Renette van der Merwe

United Kingdom

As much as I love words, finding the ones perfectly applicable to myself sometimes proves more difficult than I'd like. But in the words of Pat Benetar, I'll hit you with my best shot. Firing away. Similar to most of my peers I wasn't too sure where my path would lead or even begin after graduation. Being far too stubborn to take some time to think about it, I picked a subject I was good at as my basis to outline the following years of my life. I think it might have started as an attempt to stick it to the man (which came in the form of everyone who told me to slow down) but ended up backfiring tremendously when I dropped out after my first year. But let's go back to the start. Passing Business Economics with distinction, made me think I'd actually be good at it, so I went on to study Management at a college in Cape Town, South Africa. I wasn't totally useless, but struggled to be passionate about it. To me it was nothing more than big words, profits and marketing ploys scribbled on a whiteboard by our senile lecturer's trembling hand. There was, however, one lesson I looked forward to week after week - Business Communication (which was really just a fancier term for writing). I instantly knew I loved the writing bit more than the business and knew I had to do something about it. Cue the moment where I drop out. Feeling liberated, I braved an online Magazine Journalism course with SA Writer's College in 2009 and 10 and haven't looked back since. I've been writing for South African magazines like Women's Health and Saltwater Girl and absolutely loving it. Then my partner and I moved to the UK in 2012 and being in a strange country where nothing I did in South Africa really mattered, was scary. So I started fresh, taking a part time internship with Luv Handles - writing little bits here and there and also doing entry level copywriting. From there, I followed my passion for fashion and started a part time internship with Fashion's on Vacation - posting weekly about holiday style, locations and other helpful hints. At the start of the year (2014), I've also started working on my Science Fiction novel and hope to finish and hopefully publish it by the end of the year. In the meantime, I will carry on writing for as long as my hands and mind will allow me to.

  • Work
    • Freelance
  • Education
    • SA Writers' College