• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

Urgent! Creative Writin Ideas help! (1 Viewer)

NWO

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
464
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
I have a trial tomorrow for paper 1 and i need ideas for creative writing. Should i make it sci-fi as in the story takes place in 2100 AD and the earth is ravaged by natural disasters. Can i talk about a family trying to migrate to.. Australia or something? Is this a good plot thanks.

P.S should have written more belonging stories ages ago. Thought u were allowed to memorise it and im kinda creative sometimes.
XD
 

Frostbitten

Active Member
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
426
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
I have been advised to avoid:
-Killing off characters, especially the main one
-Anything surrounding school (too common)
-Anything overly dramatic (teachers think people will screw it up because you haven't experienced anything like it in your life)
 

nerdasdasd

Dont.msg.me.about.english
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
5,353
Location
A, A
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2017
Avoid stories based on famous novels and films.., they will be considered too cliched.
 

JT145

ON is my homeboy
Joined
Mar 4, 2012
Messages
1,678
Gender
Female
HSC
2016
No. Don't do sci-fi.

Do something normal. That way you'll remember it better and don't need to describe too much plot.

Do belonging as a moment in time. = not too much plot = more words to describe setting and how it influences belonging
 
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
193
Location
Hell
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Don't do adult themed stories aka violence, death, rape, running away, drugs, divorce etc.
BOS dont like that^^^
What they do like is seeing change in a character e.g. teen going through puberty all that
most importantly the change has to be more of an emotional change rather than the usual physical change

I decided to base my story on a song because I find it reallyyy easy to memorise songs so if you have a song you like that has a story behind it or it makes you think of something use that song as an outline to expand on goodluck :)
 

NWO

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
464
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Thanks so HSC marks hate violence..? I guess i write too many descriptive violent stories such as the 20 page novel ive wrote. And everything is cliche lmao. Other students also have the same ideas as you... thus writing the same thing. Today, my tutor said that regarding the 2012 paper, students wrong about the grandpa and the kid fishing, and wrote about how the grandpa died throught he use of flash backs... I was gonna write the same thing as well.
 
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
193
Location
Hell
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Thanks so HSC marks hate violence..? I guess i write too many descriptive violent stories such as the 20 page novel ive wrote. And everything is cliche lmao. Other students also have the same ideas as you... thus writing the same thing. Today, my tutor said that regarding the 2012 paper, students wrong about the grandpa and the kid fishing, and wrote about how the grandpa died throught he use of flash backs... I was gonna write the same thing as well.
mhmm they hate violence and 20 pages is about 16 pages too long ahahha ive never got anything back that was cliched and instead of a song you can ask your parents for a story / fable they were told as a kid assuming it wasn't a classic english story and then translate it to english and pray they don't know it hhahah :)

like i said they are looking for CHANGE :)
 

NWO

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
464
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
so no sci-fi...? not even about aliens u know. like a kid who has special power feel alienated from his class mates. etc Like there was this "door" question.
 
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
193
Location
Hell
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
im liking the special power and alienation idea if the kid grows accustomed to be alienated from being worried about what people think about him that might be a great idea my friend is doing her story based on a kid always getting told off and to "face the wall" so the whole story is about that the kid and the wall
if you want to use aliens be sure to make it captivating and "out of this world" :p
 
Joined
Sep 5, 2012
Messages
331
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
i think it has to be simple, it should cover a moment in time, or something very short like a day, because your story is not about what is happening, but more what the character is feeling internally, how they are changing, or trying to belong/not belong. The simpler, the better, look at short stories and you'll see. Sci-fi, and overdramatic stories don't focus enough on the internal, but mroe on rather the cool stuff that is happening.
 

NWO

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
464
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
And wow i cant believe that my ** year 11 teacher last year did not understand the term "psychic power" daf. ? What happens if the HSC marker does not understand a term? Wil lthey like google it or something? And im the creative type i read too many sci-fi lol.
 
Last edited:

NWO

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
464
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
I can easily do that by combining stories from a various sci-fi into one belonging story. But IDK if my teacher or the HSC markers like sci-fi stuff. But i bet all those stories are better than the boring cliche stories that feature bullying and out of place stories. You know. XD
 

NWO

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
464
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Na the 20 pages story i wrote was not intended for hsc or anything just for the sheer fun of writing it. Might write 200 pages or something after HSC if iget the chance.
 

NWO

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
464
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
It's gonna be hard describing how the character is feeling internally, and it might turn out to be too cliche since it is not too dramatic regarding bullying and stuff.
 

Crobat

#tyrannosaurusREKT
Joined
May 1, 2011
Messages
1,151
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
so no sci-fi...? not even about aliens u know. like a kid who has special power feel alienated from his class mates. etc Like there was this "door" question.
It's absolutely fine to write about aliens. As long as you don't get carried away with a stupid/ridiculous plot line involving aliens, you are capable of achieving a high A mark. The only student to get 15/15 in our trials last year wrote a story about an orc who had been ostracised from her tribe for saving a human, and another to get 14/15 was based around aliens. You still need to write eloquently and keep up tension/suspense/etc - this is where most of your marks will come from anyway. But there is a very fine line between stupidly ridiculous and acceptable when you write in science fiction, so be very careful.
 

kimmiee--x3

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
26
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2012
I know markers and teachers don't prefer this but having a prepared story and adapting it during the exam is the best approach. I advise you not to choose themes which involves too much violence, characters and settings because you only have a short time. It literally feels like a race in the exam, especially when you are under pressure even with a prepared essay. This is a suggestion (sounds boring but it worked for me) but write a story which is really generic e.g. a person sitting down and reflecting about their past or something. That way, it allows you to use more imagery to create a clear picture inside the marker's head. Also, you can just cut out descriptive parts if you are running out of time during the exam. Less dialogue is ideal.
 

nerdasdasd

Dont.msg.me.about.english
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
5,353
Location
A, A
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2017
I know markers and teachers don't prefer this but having a prepared story and adapting it during the exam is the best approach. I advise you not to choose themes which involves too much violence, characters and settings because you only have a short time. It literally feels like a race in the exam, especially when you are under pressure even with a prepared essay. This is a suggestion (sounds boring but it worked for me) but write a story which is really generic e.g. a person sitting down and reflecting about their past or something. That way, it allows you to use more imagery to create a clear picture inside the marker's head. Also, you can just cut out descriptive parts if you are running out of time during the exam. Less dialogue is ideal.
Dialogue can be used effectively. But if used too much, it's bad. I emphasise the word CAN.
 

NWO

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
464
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Wow. gg creative trials. Only wrote 2 pages.... It was so descriptive tho. Others wrote 4 pages.. fml. Is 2 pages work 1k words? It gave us a quote and told u to write a story based on it. Do you have to include the quote anywhere in ur story? It asked us to write a story that features relationships, self perception and belonging.
I wrote about this guy who hates the city and feels content in the contry side. I described the scenery too much and the descriptions of him and his friends ... is that good or bad? gg paper 1.
and for section III, i wrote 2 and a half out of 6. :(
 

kewon

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2011
Messages
72
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Im not sure what writing booklets you get but for me 2 pages is around 500 words. Unless it tells u to explicitly mention the quote, you don't have to as long a the ideas form the significant element of your creative.

about the city, country story I had a friend who did a similar one and he got full marks in trials/hsc. But it has the potential to be very cliche so if you were original you should be ok
but definitely I think your responses lack depth, especially for section 3 unless you guys have normal writing paper that you find in workbooks I think you are lacking length. Most people write 950-1000, but an 800 word response if it answers question well can also get good marks.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top