Creative Writing: Hints

[h8hsc]

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Im finding it very hard to come up with a story line =(

[rachael.mcgee]

use your own experience and build on it.

also, one of the really early posts explained that you shouldn't just put in loads and loads of lyrical metaphors and some subtler stuff like aliteration, similes and all the techniques you know JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT. e.g. some teachers say "put in loads of description (adjectives adverbs etc)!!"

this is what we've always been told, and it's a good starting point, but sometimes good writing can go beyond that -- don't TELL people what's going on, SHOW them. make it a bit subtler, getting the audience (the markers!) to have to make inferences, judgements on the characters and BECOME INVOLVED IN THE JOURNEY.

i dunno if that makes sense but i dunno how else to describe it

[Forbidden.]

How to make my grandfather's trip interesting ..... ?

[woho]

Originally Posted by h8hsc

Im finding it very hard to come up with a story line =(

omg SAME!!!

actually i'm finding it very hard to come up with a story line that is NOT clichéd (i.e. one that's preferably not about teenage angst).

i hate you CREATIVE

[-pari-]

it doesn't matter if the storyline is not 'originial' -- most sotires are ideas from what already exists out there anyway

what matters is how you write it.

try to have some fun with this piece and things actually turn out better

characterisation is important so know your character!
also remember not to have too many events- one or two are enough. (keep it simple!!!)
too many events and yourisk sounding like "he did this...and then he did that...and then......and then...and then...." etc. if it sounds too repetitive and shallow like that, you need to add some descriptiong to it -- what the character thought/felt/saw etc , this is espcially important in journeys because it shows how the character developed over the process of the journey

gud luck!

[Xenmae]

just have a story prepped b4 the day im working on mine now

[Toranaman]

Adding to what was earlier said about the ending. Be weary of the very last thing you say. For instance, if you write your last line and then are like mmm maybe one more. DONT. Chances are you will just be over telling the story. Show dont tell. Leave the story with a slight open ending.

Ie.

A faint whistle strang out across the plan, closely followed by the echo of a bark unlike anyother.

Then you are like mmm 1 more sentence.

The bark drew closer until i could see his dirty hair as if it were on my own arm, I patted him and we walked back to the house.

They already got the point with the first last line. Dont stuff your story by trying to give every detail of the ending. I did it and my teacher was like you would have got another mark had you not ruined the ending... So remember show dont tell.

I hope this helps

[snowflakelatte]

you can write as many stories as you want to practise, but it can be hard to adapt them. my teacher told me a classic storyline which can lead into any statement/quote/picture stimulus we're given.

for our trials, we had to use a picture of some old guy sitting on a bench as the start of our story, and a lot of people struggled because theyd prepared a story on something totally different.

so what you can do is the psychologist's office.

if the stimulus is a picture, the psychologist asks "picture the best day of your life/start of your journey/whatever. what do you see?"

so you go off into a description of the stimulus, talk about seeing your long lost relative sitting on the bench looking really old.

or if its a quote/statement, the same applies. psychologist: "Travelling is a fools' paradise. How does it feel to be told that?"

Works every time its just an easy way to lead into whatever answer you've prepared or want to talk about

[tylercal]

I'll share one of the pieces of advise our teachers gave us.

A good creative writing story often doesn't have to tell an entire story - it gives us a short moment in time, perhaps a snippet of a much larger event.

For example, 2 of the best creative writing responses in our class. One of them was about a planning consultant whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere on the way to her lecture. She thinks about the importance of making room for the unexpected when planning, and watches a spider rebuild a web after she keeps destroying it. Then she drives off, having come to a new conclusion about the journey after the experience.

The other one was about a person running through a park, training for a upcoming race. A passer by makes some comment (Something like "Who are you running from?") and then the runner contemplates this, and gets a new resolve after thinking a lot.

The key point to remember, is that a creative writing piece is usually a SHORT STORY. Short stories are a genre of their own - often the chracter is not even named - they are often like extended jokes, or a short event with a witty twist. They do not have much to them

[bodymindsoul]

give me ideas please?????????????????

[tsyme89]

Should we try to somewhat base it around the rubric about journeys? Like, write a creative piece that ends up with the character having a changed perspective, or have their thinking challenged or whatnot?

[Dr Sloth]

Our teacher suggested that we use the 'steps in the journey' ie
Decision to go
First steps
Obstacles/challenges
Climax
Destination
Reflection

[Forbidden.]

Originally Posted by Dr Sloth

Our teacher suggested that we use the 'steps in the journey' ie
Decision to go
First steps
Obstacles/challenges
Climax
Destination
Reflection

In a Physical sense ...

[coolcapsicum]

does the creative writing have to be a kind of journey (like physical or imaginative or inner).. or can it be a combination or does it HAVe to be the one we are focusing on in terms of the prescribed text (for me that would be physical journeys)

[Forbidden.]

Originally Posted by coolcapsicum

does the creative writing have to be a kind of journey (like physical or imaginative or inner).. or can it be a combination or does it HAVe to be the one we are focusing on in terms of the prescribed text (for me that would be physical journeys)

The point of creative writing (Section 2) is to apply your own understanding to the journey to the question, drawing knowledge from your prescribed texts must be left to Section 3 only !

For 2008, the creative writing task must be on a journey.
I did physical journeys in my AOS and I only wrote about the inner and imaginative journeys (with almost no physical reference) in my creative writing response.
I did better than I expected !
(Only do this if you know all three well, otherwise stick to your own physical journey.)

Most importantly, in a journey you must have a catalyst (not the Chemical sense) for change and how this results in changing you in the form of a resolution/tragedy or something that is distinctively different from before you take on a journey. This is common to the three types of journeys.

I'm using second-person because the best pieces of creative writing are realistic and that you have experienced it personally.

PM me for more help.