Advice from a graduated HSC student on how to excel in ATB (creative writing) (1 Viewer)

strawberrye

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Introduction:

Creative writing is another opportunity for you to show the depth of your historical research about this module. It is definitely not simply an exercise of creative writing, in the sense that you create plots and details, it is heavily founded upon a display of a DEEP contextual understanding of the post WWII era in your character development, plot, the experimental forms your story may adopt or integrate.

Please feel free to supplement anything I have missed by replying to this post below:)

How to excel in your Creative Writing for After the Bomb:

1)As reiterated in my ATB post on general tips/selecting related texts, when you are selecting your related texts and are reading/watching possible texts, you should record down possible ideas that you can explore in your creative and can even draw some inspiration on the structure, characterisation, ways of expression that can immerse your marker, the teacher, into the post WWII period.

2)You should avoid writing just one creative story and perfecting it-and hope that it could be adapted into all possible questions, it is just impossible. You need to experiment with forms and structures and plots, i.e. integrating the words of poem/lyrics of a contextual song into your story to enhance its expression of post WWII contextual concerns, integrate a letter, an extended conversation, a diary entry into your story. Practice writing creative compositions to various stimuluses several times before you come up with a structure and plot that you like. Try, if possible, to integrate all the four post WWII paradigms into your story-philosophical, scientific, economic, and religious.

3)Make sure you have a look at short stories written during this period to expand your mind about the possibilities; an example of a good writer to look at would by Ray Bradbury’s short stories and novels.

4)Before you write your story, it is essential you have a thorough idea about your characters (don’t have too many) and that you have thoroughly researched the particular aspects of the paradigms you are going to examine and how these aspects are going to be expressed in the plot and any extended metaphors or symbolic objects/motifs you plan to integrate into your story. You must ensure that you enhance the realism of your story by undertaking thorough contextual research of the particular period you choose to focus, i.e. 1980s, and integrate specific expressions of the era-i.e. Reds under Beds, truth dollars, McCarthy’s 1950s Communist witch hunts, the Red Scare to show that CONTEXTUAL understanding, reference to specific historical events can also help, i.e. from the Space Race, Arms race, political speech of prominent leaders of the period, i.e. from a Russian/American Prime Minister.

5)Unless you have undertaken THOROUGH research into the lives of spies-i.e. beyond internet research, read biographies of spies, watch interviews of spies etc. Otherwise, if you are not confident and are not knowledgeable about this area, do not write about spies-because if not done carefully, the subject matter can easily be considered clichéd and you will lose marks.

6)Consider carefully the names of your main characters, make them symbolic, make them a satire/parody of the key scientists/leaders/philosophers of the after the bomb period, to add an additional layer of meaning to your story and this can further ENHANCE the conceptual depth of your story when used correctly and creatively. Make sure whatever names you used-it possesses significant meaning in the context your story is set within-and subsequently, the actions of that character can bear some resemblance to the particular person you have derived his/her name from.

7)In an exam condition, don’t latch onto using your prepared creative if it doesn’t fit with the question. Make answering the question as best as you can your first priority, find ways to change parts of your story and write extra parts. Don’t address the question in a superficial way, i.e. use the stimulus at the start and at the conclusion of your story-it is essential that you address the stimulus in a literal/metaphorical way CONSISTENTLY throughout your entire story and ensure that IT TAKES ON SIGNIFICANT MEANING, in enhancing your display of the depth of your contextual knowledge about the After the Bomb period.

Conclusion: So research, experiment, and repeat the process until you have a creative you are happy with.
 
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fatassmcfat

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Hey, can I ask in the HSC are they allowed to specify 'write a creative just after the nuclear attack' or another specific time period? Or even 'show the religious paradigm in your story' Or will the question always be general enough so we can use any characters + any scene and adapt it just to include the stimulus? (like you said we shouldnt rote learn and regurgitate our story- but surely theres an extent you can prepare?)
 

strawberrye

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Hey, can I ask in the HSC are they allowed to specify 'write a creative just after the nuclear attack' or another specific time period? Or even 'show the religious paradigm in your story' Or will the question always be general enough so we can use any characters + any scene and adapt it just to include the stimulus? (like you said we shouldnt rote learn and regurgitate our story- but surely theres an extent you can prepare?)
They won't specify a specific decade, nor will they be specifically say 'show the religious paradigm in your story'-for the simple reason they want to see a whole spectrum of responses displaying a range of understanding about the after the bomb period, and if they specify a paradigm, they are essentially limiting the understanding students can show. Questions are definitely not general-there is a reason why it is called Extension English, yes, you can prepare a generic creative and try to mould it to the question on the day, but be careful-sometimes it may not work out, so I would advise you to prepare two, for example, 2013 question was about writing a story where characters had no contact... so if your story was all about characters contacting each other, you will have a pretty hard time to mould it within the set exam time frame to the stimulus. Look at past HSC questions to give yourself the best indication just how specific creative questions can be.

Just one more thing, to ace in creative writing, particularly for English Extension One, you need to make sure you are using the stimulus in a SIGNIFICANT AND SUSTAINED way throughout the entirety of your story, integrating your stimulus in a superficial way just at the start and end is not going to give you the marks you want, because markers can instantly recognise you having not truly deconstructed the question and try to force your generic creative into answering the question. Whether it is creative or essay writing, make sure you are really ANSWERING THE QUESTION AND NOTHING BUT THE QUESTION!
 

strawberrye

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If you have ANY QUESTIONS on creative writing for after the bomb that hasn't been answered in this post, type your question in a reply to this post and I will answer it as quickly as possible:), likewise, if you have any comments, like whether you have found this thread to be helpful or not, please reply so that I can make sure my thread stays relevant to current and future ATB students:)
 

Modern

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Could u please give some examples of what would be considered cliche? For example would a person escaping to the west be cliche
 

strawberrye

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Could u please give some examples of what would be considered cliche? For example would a person escaping to the west be cliche
That's too little information to tell you whether an idea is cliche or not, but usually when I say cliche-it is more often the way the plot is presented rather than the plot itself. At the end of the day, you need to be specific about the particular time period, the broader your time period, the more confusing you risk your story to be. In general, I have said in the thread above and I will reiterate it again, don't write about spies and their experience if you don't thoroughly know them like the back of your head-at the very least, read the book, 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold' before you actually even contemplate about writing about spies.
 

skuxlad

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hi thanks for this!! i found it really helpful
I was wondering do you know any sites/resources I can use to get a thorough understanding of the after the bomb context? My teacher at school never gave us much and i don't feel like i have a clear understanding of the context which is really important in this elective. Thank you:))
 

strawberrye

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hi thanks for this!! i found it really helpful
I was wondering do you know any sites/resources I can use to get a thorough understanding of the after the bomb context? My teacher at school never gave us much and i don't feel like i have a clear understanding of the context which is really important in this elective. Thank you:))
Have a scroll through these websites: http://www.coldwar.org, http://schmenglish.weebly.com/hsc-extension-201314-after-the-bomb.html, to get you started-hope this helps:)
 

Occupied

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hi
i was wondering, do u have any exemplars for atb creative writing? (or know where to find some)
thanks
 

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