Creative Writing w/ The Ugly Duckling as Stimulus (1 Viewer)

[JaciintaM]

I have to write a short story/ creative writing piece using The Ugly Duckling as stimulus.

So far my ideas are either: a) An immigrant family experiencing not belonging, non acceptance etc and then finding belonging amonst other immirants with similar experiences
b) an orphan in a village
c) Or possibly similar to that of The Arrival by Shaun Tan.
With a childrens book (The ugly duckling) symbolising belonging e.g. the only thing they have left etc.

Imput, criticisms or ideas anyone?

 

[khorne]

Too cliche, all your ideas. The concept of the ugly duckling is a sense of disconformity with society, something not up to perceived standards, something out of place. Try something more metaphorical or political.

I did a similar story for the ugly duckling, and I invented a dystopic world where amnesia was a common illness. I followed around a hard boiled detective, who was employed in a hospital to recreate patients memories/lives as best he could. The story was fractured into several scenes, the detectives personal life, the reconstruction of memories, etc. The relation to the concept was the inherent disconnection the detective felt, living in other people's lives, lives he could not hope for, and the emotionally effecting and infecting nature of the lives he reconstructed (basically he made them shit to level the field).

If you do take the immigrant one, for example, make it well done. Very well done. Maybe write it in a similar style to Anne Frank's diary, depicting the families struggle among ultra conservative inner west families and government agencies (think of modern, relevant topics, e.g. boat people in Australia). The parallels with nazism are both appropriate in this current political climate and do a fairly good job at attacking established ideas and conservative thinking.

Point is, be unique. That gets marks. Great writing also gets marks, but being unique is so much easier.