Creative Writing (1 Viewer)

[iwannaacetheHSC]

As of late, I've just received my creative writing marks......................It was shit. Now I need help getting a clear yet original plot but I can't think of any. Also I hear that 'twists' tend to be good for your creative writing, but the only cards I have up my sleep is that the protagonist dies or he's in a mental institution (so as you can see my 'twist' is somewhat cliche). So how can I improve???

 

[aussienerd]

Try and think of something that the marker doesn't see 100 times over, so that probably rules out school, mental institutions, death, and obviously the "I woke up this morning and realised that everything that happened was actually a dream." I would imagine that stories about your own experience growing up or experienced/what you've learnt would be original because everyone is different. If you can incorporate that into a uniquely written story I think that would be great, but that's just my opinion.

 

[MetalTheory]

Try and think of something that the marker doesn't see 100 times over, so that probably rules out school, mental institutions, death, and obviously the "I woke up this morning and realised that everything that happened was actually a dream."

This, and suicide of any kind. I did well in this assignment last year and I was in the minority that didn't write about someone dying or the protagonist dying. Like aussienerd said, don't do it unless you can find some unique twist on it.

What markers do like is patterns of imagery and its synthesis into the concept of belonging. They love it. In fact in the stories I wrote for belonging there's very little physical movement or endurance that the protagonist undertakes. All they do it sit or walk and have physical stimuli trigger memories and their experiences of belonging (coupled with your own experiences of belonging, that will help with the story's uniqueness). Personally, I think my stories lack any real depth apart from the patterns of imagery, but it's what gets marks. Just place relevant and enduring patterns of imagery into the story, synthesise that into the concept of belonging and the plot and you should be fine.

 

[TheCardician]

Consider the topic of pseudocide (faking death), I wrote about this in my creative story for the half yearlies and got 14/15. Get some inspiration by watching TV shows such as 24, Chuck or any other action/drama program. Now relating it to Belonging is a matter of how you reflect the emotions of the protagonist in this context; i.e. use metaphors to express his/her feeling of depression or anxiety in a highly fluent form. Example: "the waves of eternity wash upon my back, leave me wondering why I left it." Reading a bit of Shakespeare, or any highly fluent written story may give you some ideas as to how it can be presented aesthetically.