disheartened by writer's showcase.. (1 Viewer)

[Nick]

i looked through the young writer's showcase this afternoon and talked to my teacher about it and it seems that most of the highest scoring Major works are all post-modernist or "insightful explorations into.. " etc.
and i was just wondering how much i am limiting myself by writing a conventional, carefully structured.. not so insightful murder-mystery story.
Like even tho i can relate it to lots of crime fiction theory and my 3unit work, will it just be immediately disadvantaged by being a generic style piece of creative writing?

 

[truly-in-bliss]

it really depends on your subject matter...obviousli an intersting/original/individual idea is far more engaging than a MW that is relatively more conventionalised

remember to focus your technique and try to integrate an individual thesis/idea into your MW.....it is the personal flair that really distringuishes one MW from another...

one suggestion is instead of 'applying the formula' or conforming to a generic convention, try to explore it. Thru this personal process of evaluation, you will be able to produce a piece that is more orignal...

so what is your thesis/idea?

 

[Nick]

well essentially it is simply a golden age country manor murder investigation set in modern day Sydney.. its basically an amalgamation of a range of crime fiction theories and sub-genres. but my primary focus is in telling the story well from the orientation to the conclusion. It might turn out to be a good read and engaging story, but it doesnt have the really obvious self reflection and philosophical qualities of an obscure post-modern story. I know it doesnt have to have these but coincedentaly they seem to be the major works that did better.. or were selected for that showcase

 

[truly-in-bliss]

i dont know much abt crime fiction (although i got paid for doing an essay on agatha christie....lol)

there is definately a move towards pomo...but oen thing to be careful abt pomo is dat it can produce two extreme outcomes ie: do really relaly well...or it ends up being a really shit MW.....

from what i have seen so far...try to integrate the crime fiction theories and sub-genres within your narrative structure..eg: experiment with characterisation, dialogue, conclusion etc.

one note: many people claim their MW are postmodern just because they have an anti-climax conclusion. Althoguh this is a charcteristic of the postmodern pastigue, but it is not a postmodern MW unless if you can reason your subversion. This is one of the dangers of a pomo MW.... it is also a factor that can differtiate your MW as either extremely good or extrmely bad.

hence i would b very careful with tryign to add pomo elements in your MW if you do not know abt postmodernism will enough.

and another note, just letting you know, try not to mould your MW as another version of your extension one work, as it does not really reflect originality

truly in bliss

 

[Nick]

yeah im not going to try adding any post mod elements into it.. itd just seem out of place and obvious.. but ill use reflection statement to highlight the theories and stuff that its commenting on.. and it is similar to what i used in a really short 3unit story, but since i wrote that one too, and its about a fifth the length, i cant see that that would render my MW unoriginal.

thanks for ur advice btw

 

[Ezalum]

Originally posted by Nick
i looked through the young writer's showcase this afternoon and talked to my teacher about it and it seems that most of the highest scoring Major works are all post-modernist or "insightful explorations into.. " etc.
and i was just wondering how much i am limiting myself by writing a conventional, carefully structured.. not so insightful murder-mystery story.
Like even tho i can relate it to lots of crime fiction theory and my 3unit work, will it just be immediately disadvantaged by being a generic style piece of creative writing?

I have also noticed this. The fact of the matter is it's far easier to write from a post-modernist perspective and achieve the marks wanted.
Like you I am also writing a short story in the genre of Crime Fiction. I am religiously following the clich conventions of the genre as well as adding a few of my own whilst all the while encorperating 'Golden Age' and 'Hard Boiled' Crime Fiction into one. Thus far, it seems to be going quite well (I'm only around 1/4 of the way through at this late stage. ). I can't see how it would disadvantage you in anyway. So long as it's done well and meets the criteria you should be home set.
Don't stress too much.

 

[truly-in-bliss]

Re: Re: disheartened by writer's showcase..

Originally posted by Ezalum
I have also noticed this. The fact of the matter is it's far easier to write from a post-modernist perspective and achieve the marks wanted.

i must say most pplz think it is easier...but a lot of the times it is not.....a good piece of pomo writing requires understanding of postmodernism..its context...its subvresion..understanding of the pastiche.. but if you do it well then you are often rewarded wiht the best marks....

in the show case you see a lot of good pomo pieces....and we dont see the bad ones....

Originally posted by Nick
thanks for ur advice btw

no worries...glad i can help

 

[Leap]

i looked through the young writer's showcase this afternoon and talked to my teacher about it

This is going to sound like a stupid question, but what exactly is the young writer's showcase?

seems that most of the highest scoring Major works are all post-modernist or "insightful explorations into.. " etc.

When i handed in part of my story to my teacher she started going on about how it was post modern, and I'm like..."It is?!" because thats not what I set out to do and in my opinion its not obviously post modern at all...and it kinda pissed me off cause its like she's trying to make it post modern, or misinterpreting and reading deeper meanings into it which aren't really there...(don't you just hate it when people do that??!!)

 

[Lazarus]

You should always keep in mind the purpose of your major work - what you hoped to achieve by writing it. So long as the purpose is of a reasonable standard (regardless of whether or not it relates to post-modernism) and you achieve it with "sophistication and flair" etc you should get the marks.

 

[truly-in-bliss]

Originally posted by Leap
it kinda pissed me off cause its like she's trying to make it post modern, or misinterpreting and reading deeper meanings into it which aren't really there...(don't you just hate it when people do that??!!)

well to look at it from another pt of view....dat just demonstrates the idea of reaidng..ie: how we read things... dominant reading/resistant reading etc. lol!!

a friend of mine has an obsession wiht pomo..but in all honesty she doesn't know a lot..lol...everytime she 'changes' the generic conventions she would call that particular part 'postmodern'...it reminds meeh of Clueless's Cher saying 'that is way existential'....anione who did Cluless would know what i am on abt..lol

Originally posted by Lazarus
You should always keep in mind the purpose of your major work

yeah so true lazarus... your purpose relaly helps you to stay on track...convey what you want to convey...

truly in bliss

 

[Ezalum]

Re: Re: Re: disheartened by writer's showcase..

Originally posted by truly-in-bliss
i must say most pplz think it is easier...but a lot of the times it is not.....a good piece of pomo writing requires understanding of postmodernism..its context...its subvresion..understanding of the pastiche.. but if you do it well then you are often rewarded wiht the best marks....

WHilst I can see where you're coming from, I simply find it easier to write from a post-modernist perspective, that's what I'm aiming for. I think the best way to go is to simply go in without the mindset you have to write from 'A' perspective or 'B' point of view. I go in and write what comes to be. After I have completed my piece I genrally find I am sub-couciously coming from a Marxist or idealistic thrological perspective. this way I am not looking for aspects of a certain lit theory and I seem to coherently fuse several theories together without conciously realising it.

 

[captnbuttons]

I also found the young writers showcase pretty disheartening... I'm doing a speech, and when i listend to uhh i think it was called "tyranny and trumph" i think?! not too sure i was shocked? all the ones.. ( the grand total of 2 lol ) i have heard have been extremley dramatic more like seminars than speechses and more like monologues than speeches... Min ei s essentially about childrens rights but the langugage is a little on the simpler side as my audience is youth... and my opening line is "why does everything we do revolve around fruit?" so you can imagine how scared i am... lol all tehse poeple have post modernist approaches and here i am talking about... well fruit and scaring aristos into the freezer section!

 

[malayz_angel]

I'm also doing a crime fiction short story and still frantically searching for ways to make it more and more original. Pretty soon it's not going to make any sense!

 

[spin spin sugar]

nick i think you have to pay close attention to the outcomes and criteria of the course. i found the young writers showcase disheartening basically because of how incredible the works are, but you can ALSO get an amazing mark if you pull off what you ar doing with 'flair and originality'. as far as i can see, if you can explicity make a GOOD connection between your independent investigation/research findings and your work, as well as referring to audience/purpose/intent in your reflection statement, you will do well. its all about PULLING OFF what you are attempting. any random could write a bunch of postmodern short stories but you need to demonstrate some skill and originality- you need to have an edge. i think they wouldn't have crime fiction etc as an option in english if you couldnt extend on it in extension 2- so don't worry about it. good luck, and be confident!

 

[Procras_witfood]

The writer's showcase can be sooooo daunting.

It's partly why I changed my whole concept 2 weeks ago! If anyone has the 2002 copy, read the political satire...it's a screenplay or something. I LOVED IT! IT'S SO BRILLIANT!

I was going to do something similar but in a short story and when I read his, I scrapped mine straight away.

If anyone knows the guy who wrote it or if you're that person....CONGRATULATIONS...U R BRILLIANT!

 

[huck fenn]

I thought the poetry in the 2001 showcase was pretty shite. The one based on the musical keys, that was so tripe; 'oh look, i have a concept, now lets hang some uninspired personal ranting on it'.

The one that had subtitles mind/body etcetc, i thought was so entirely average. Ambiguous beyond understanding, crappy techniques. It is disheartening that they were the ones that got 50... either the standard is terrible, or the system is SO broken.

The one that had the flowing line indents was good, the character study one... with the 'dark egde'. Unambitious but very well written. I would give full marks to that one. Thought the performance poetry with the radiohead/buckley songs underneath was pretty good too. The other one, with the english boy ranting about war... it was so rediculous... i couldn't enjoy that at all.

 

[braindrainedAsh]

I liked the musical key concept.... it's been so long since I read the showcase that I can't remember any others. Has there been a showcase published with the best of 2002?

Hoping some of the boredians get into the 2003 showcase!!! (hoping I do lol.... pigs may fly!)

 

[MiuMiu]

Yeah the 2002 one is out, see if your teacher has it.

 

[anti]

Don't stress about the YWS... they don't pick "the best", they carefully (and politically) select a handful of students from across the board who have excelled in Ext 2 English.

Those students may have gotten full marks on weight of their reflection statements as well as their major work. I think the RS is pretty important as far as marking goes, because it tells the marker(s) where you're coming from.

 

[MiuMiu]

They still got 50 out of 50 and thats that.