I just finished my major work and made a bunch of mistakes. I think my advice to you would be: (If you don’t want to read the block of text, skim to bottom line which is a summation of what I’m getting at.)
Start writing a story. Run along with it. If you can’t write one, don’t wait around for your muse or you might end up on your deathbed before that happens. My favourite author, Neil Gaiman says that if you’re stuck, put it aside and return to it later. He himself has left the beginnings of stories for over a year before he knows how to continue it. Time’s not a luxury in your case. Do some exercises like describing what you see, hear, smell etc. Plough through some good fodder you’ve written through before. Talk a walk, people watch. Carry a journal with you.
After you’ve got your story, discern a theme from it and develop it into something even better. Be spontaneous. Write about something you're truly interested in. Don’t pay any attention to whether it's “deep” enough, if it's postmodern or not, original or not. Just something you're interested in. My teacher casually told our class something along the lines, "Oh, the markers like postmodern twists. So if you do something postmodern that’d be great." I’m not blaming anyone but I think that might’ve been a factor in pressuring the ambitious me into a certain mindset. The whole year I was thinking, "Got to write something postmodern. Got to write something Postmodern" like a mantra. It was terrible.
I’ll even go so far as recommending you not to read the stories in the Young Writer’s Showcase. At least, not until you’ve got your story down. Reading over their reflection statements can help structure your own though. But that’s not until later.
I swear the biggest mistake I ever did was research first, story later. I swear. When I was "researching" I was actually putting off the crucial bit: writing. I googled every interesting thing that popped up in my “research” and before I knew it, half the year was gone. Sure I researched, plenty of it, but I had no structure to my investigation. Because of my “research” the story (I ended up rejecting) tried to comment on everything and anything in attempt to be something impressive. Research is important, but don't lose yourself.
I realised too late I didn't have time to be deep and meaningful and I wrote the cursed thing during my trials. I still have some physical scars from the stress (you don't know how many pimples sprouted over my face).
Have a clear focus on your message/theme from the outset. I was one of the few who left it around 2 weeks before it was due. Not that I was bludging. I had an idea, kept on working it and re-working it but I didn't have a plot, neither did I have focus. Some recommend that you should finish your story 3 weeks before the due date. Earlier is even better. Some people in my class finished their major in term 1. Not only did this leave them plenty of time for drafts and further developments but they could have breathing room to devote time to other subjects.
The night before the official date (which is by the way, AUG 19th) I was editing my Reflection Statement (RS) instead of my major work. Looking over it now, I found plenty of mistakes I could’ve avoided if I finished much much earlier. When your RS is better than your major work, something is definitely wrong.
So please don’t repeat history if you do decide to take up EE2. It’s definitely fun and rewarding but only if you go about it in the right way. Don’t end up writing a story you regret. That’s just the worst thing I think. Knowing you could’ve done so much better but didn’t.
So all in all:
Write to express, not to impress.
NB: Apologies, I think I wrote a mini essay.
