Creative writing and reflection (1 Viewer)

[eternallyboreduser]

I have an exam on this in around a month. It's unseen, how the hell do I prepare for this, especially since I'm so bad at writing narratives.

 

[liamkk112]

I have an exam on this in around a month. It's unseen, how the hell do I prepare for this, especially since I'm so bad at writing narratives.

your only option really is to practice as much as you can. but these are some of the things that i did to help with my creatives (i went from a low C in y11 to a 20/20 in trials and another creative assessment):

1. stop stopping yourself
at least when you are thinking of ideas, don't just shut something down because it sounds silly, most of the time if your idea is weird, english teachers will like it. for example in my trials (and from then on), i would just write from a perspective of an animal i said before i walked into the exam room, so i wrote a story from the perspective of a frog. it's better to just run with an idea that you like and is fun, than to write a boring slog with poorly written dialogue that goes nowhere. so don't be embarassed lmao, the only people who r gonna read it anyway is the english teachers.

2. don't focus only on the details
in year 11 my stories would move super slowly because i would add so many descriptions of everything and would basically just stay in the same time frame for the whole story. technically i did "show not tell" but seriously, you really don't need to hammer in the details of everything. try to focus on the big picture, and have the story feel like it's constantly moving, try to have a beginning that clearly moves the story towards the ending in an interesting (and somewhat obvious) way. for example don't have your characters talk about nothing for five sentences just to relay some small detail that is a niche that is somehow linked to the end of the story, or describe a chair in a room when it doesn't really have any purpose, even if you have the greatest descriptive language of all time all it does it slows down the narrative to a halt and feels painful to read.

3. experiment, and hook onto what you like
the section is called creative writing for a reason... it's okay to try out new ideas. see what happens when you play with chronology, flashbacks, perspective, setting, drawings and images, etc. it makes your writing way more original and interesting and doesn't even require any extra effort once you figure out what you like to experiment with, and you're already differentiated from 90% of people who just write a straightforward story. then afterwards, try to hook onto what you like to practice writing efficiently, and then experiment a little bit on exams. as i said for me i liked playing with perspective, so i always tried to write from a different viewpoint or character or animal. from there i could just pick one or two extra things to try to experiment with, eg in hsc i tried jumping around a bit with chronology almost like scenes in a movie, whereas in trials i had two different characters narrating who were talking to the reader (2nd person language), and were both talking about each other behind the other's backs. and the best part is, your reflection is halfway finished as you can comment on the above techniques in detail, without having to resort to how u used metaphor or something lol.
one thing to avoid with this though, is not to use the above techniques i listed in a cliche way. otherwise, your originality is already gone, so try to use things in an interesting way (which is also fun).

also take everything i said with a grain of salt. after all this is creative writing, everyone has their own style that might directly go against what i just said. so if your flair is different then just make sure to develop it as much as you can over year 11-12 so you're ready for any creatives u get given.

 

[eternallyboreduser]

your only option really is to practice as much as you can. but these are some of the things that i did to help with my creatives (i went from a low C in y11 to a 20/20 in trials and another creative assessment):

1. stop stopping yourself
at least when you are thinking of ideas, don't just shut something down because it sounds silly, most of the time if your idea is weird, english teachers will like it. for example in my trials (and from then on), i would just write from a perspective of an animal i said before i walked into the exam room, so i wrote a story from the perspective of a frog. it's better to just run with an idea that you like and is fun, than to write a boring slog with poorly written dialogue that goes nowhere. so don't be embarassed lmao, the only people who r gonna read it anyway is the english teachers.

2. don't focus only on the details
in year 11 my stories would move super slowly because i would add so many descriptions of everything and would basically just stay in the same time frame for the whole story. technically i did "show not tell" but seriously, you really don't need to hammer in the details of everything. try to focus on the big picture, and have the story feel like it's constantly moving, try to have a beginning that clearly moves the story towards the ending in an interesting (and somewhat obvious) way. for example don't have your characters talk about nothing for five sentences just to relay some small detail that is a niche that is somehow linked to the end of the story, or describe a chair in a room when it doesn't really have any purpose, even if you have the greatest descriptive language of all time all it does it slows down the narrative to a halt and feels painful to read.

3. experiment, and hook onto what you like
the section is called creative writing for a reason... it's okay to try out new ideas. see what happens when you play with chronology, flashbacks, perspective, setting, drawings and images, etc. it makes your writing way more original and interesting and doesn't even require any extra effort once you figure out what you like to experiment with, and you're already differentiated from 90% of people who just write a straightforward story. then afterwards, try to hook onto what you like to practice writing efficiently, and then experiment a little bit on exams. as i said for me i liked playing with perspective, so i always tried to write from a different viewpoint or character or animal. from there i could just pick one or two extra things to try to experiment with, eg in hsc i tried jumping around a bit with chronology almost like scenes in a movie, whereas in trials i had two different characters narrating who were talking to the reader (2nd person language), and were both talking about each other behind the other's backs. and the best part is, your reflection is halfway finished as you can comment on the above techniques in detail, without having to resort to how u used metaphor or something lol.
one thing to avoid with this though, is not to use the above techniques i listed in a cliche way. otherwise, your originality is already gone, so try to use things in an interesting way (which is also fun).

also take everything i said with a grain of salt. after all this is creative writing, everyone has their own style that might directly go against what i just said. so if your flair is different then just make sure to develop it as much as you can over year 11-12 so you're ready for any creatives u get given.

Tysm for this lengthy response

 

[eternallyboreduser]

Is anyone willing to provide feedback on my piece? If you are, please send your email through dm's. Any kind of help or feedback is welcomed and appreciated! Tysm!

 

[eternallyboreduser]

bump

 

[IhateEnglish123]

Is anyone willing to provide feedback on my piece? If you are, please send your email through dm's. Any kind of help or feedback is welcomed and appreciated! Tysm!

ill give u feedback

 

[Test-king12]

I have an exam on this in around a month. It's unseen, how the hell do I prepare for this, especially since I'm so bad at writing narratives.

 

[Test-king12]

bump