ATAR Notes: Forum

HSC Stuff => HSC English Stuff => HSC Subjects + Help => Area of Study (Old Syllabus) => Topic started by: Kira Leigh on February 11, 2017, 09:02:36 pm

Title: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: Kira Leigh on February 11, 2017, 09:02:36 pm
So after getting marks back for task 1 and being extremely disappointed with my creative marks my teacher has told me to estiatally read more short stories. Does anyone know of some short stories and where to find them?


Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: sudodds on February 11, 2017, 09:20:04 pm
So after getting marks back for task 1 and being extremely disappointed with my creative marks my teacher has told me to estiatally read more short stories. Does anyone know of some short stories and where to find them?
Roald Dahl has some great ones! Try 'Over to You', a collection of stories based on his experience in the air force during WWII. Some other ones (I've only read 'Over to You' myself but i've head good things about the others) include "Kiss Kiss" and "Someone like you". I know he has a rep as a kids author but these definitely are targeted at an older demographic. I know he also published one called "Switch Bitch" but it was written for playboy so not exactly sure how appropriate that'd be for school haha (yes the guy who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG was also published in playboy how random)

You could probably find these in your library because they're all quite popular/critically acclaimed (i wouldn't be shocked if you found a pdf of them online either because they're quite old)
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: jamonwindeyer on February 11, 2017, 11:48:02 pm
Orphan Stories by Margaret Atwood was a short story I used for my AoS - It is really different and really powerful. Highly recommend!

(It is from an anthology called The Tent, which if you can get your hands on, is fabulous)
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: Kira Leigh on February 12, 2017, 08:33:36 pm
Thank you so much guys!!   ;D
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: miss_demeanour on February 21, 2017, 08:05:48 am
Definitely try Anton Chekhov. He's a prolific short story writer, I'm pretty sure you can read his works for free online.
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: biancajuru on February 21, 2017, 03:23:15 pm
If you want a short story with a specific focus on discovery, so you can see how to integrate discovery aspects in your own story, I would suggest looking at The Pearl by Steinbeck. I used this as a related for my discovery essay, and the reason why I would highly suggest this is because it incorporates the concepts of discovery in a multi faceted way and of varying depths eg. physical, emotional, psychological which all contributes to transformation and change, while also acting as a critique on the condition of the human psyche/nature of human kind. There's a pdf of this online

Another author who writes brilliant short stories in Annie Proulx. Hope this helps!
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: jamonwindeyer on February 21, 2017, 03:56:02 pm
If you want a short story with a specific focus on discovery, so you can see how to integrate discovery aspects in your own story, I would suggest looking at The Pearl by Steinbeck. I used this as a related for my discovery essay, and the reason why I would highly suggest this is because it incorporates the concepts of discovery in a multi faceted way and of varying depths eg. physical, emotional, psychological which all contributes to transformation and change, while also acting as a critique on the condition of the human psyche/nature of human kind. There's a pdf of this online

Another author who writes brilliant short stories in Annie Proulx. Hope this helps!

Welcome to the forums Bianca!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge - Congrats on those awesome results for your HSC last year too! Hope you're keen to start your degree ;D
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: biancajuru on February 21, 2017, 05:13:26 pm
Welcome to the forums Bianca!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge - Congrats on those awesome results for your HSC last year too! Hope you're keen to start your degree ;D

Thank you so much! No problem, I'm here to help; if you've got the knowledge or answer to someone's problems might as well share it :)
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: sudodds on February 21, 2017, 05:35:06 pm
Thank you so much! No problem, I'm here to help; if you've got the knowledge or answer to someone's problems might as well share it :)
spoken like a true schols girl  ;)
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: sophroberts812 on March 25, 2017, 09:50:57 am
Hey guys! I've written my creative and am now just working on tidying up all the loose ends. One of which is that I've noticed I'm consistently starting sentences with 'her', 'the girl', 'she' and 'the student', which gets extremely repetitive and boring. Does anyone have any other ways to start sentences in similar (but different) ways?

An example of a few sentences is....
The girl sat up straight as her legs unconsciously jiggled up and down. Her knuckles were white, and her cheeks flooded with an intense red glow. Her gaze was drawn to the children outside the window running toward their open-armed parents. She couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be accepted; to be understood; to be loved. Her restlessness shifted to an intense longing to fit in and just be ‘normal’ – whatever that meant. Her eyes turned glassy, the corners of her lips drooped, and her chin began to waver.

Which definitely gets tedious so I want to either rephrase some of these sentences to have different beginnings. Any ideas? thank you!!!!

Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: jamonwindeyer on March 25, 2017, 10:47:02 am
Hey guys! I've written my creative and am now just working on tidying up all the loose ends. One of which is that I've noticed I'm consistently starting sentences with 'her', 'the girl', 'she' and 'the student', which gets extremely repetitive and boring. Does anyone have any other ways to start sentences in similar (but different) ways?

Hey! Let's see:

She sat up straight as her legs unconsciously jiggled up and down; white knuckled, her cheeks flooded with an intense red glow. The children outside the window drew her gaze - running toward their open-armed parents.

She couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be accepted; to be understood. To be loved. An intense longing overcame her restlessness - a deep desire to fit in and just be ‘normal’ – whatever that meant. The corners of her lips drooped, her eyes turned glassy, and her chin began to waver.


I basically just played with the sentence ordering in a few spots ;D I will say though that interchanging "she, her, the girl" does keep it from being too repetitive. Like, I wouldn't have noticed any problem with your initial version of the paragraph (although over the whole story, perhaps I would notice). Your writing style is great though! Good on you for wanting to work on the small stuff to really make your writing incredible ;D
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: sophroberts812 on March 26, 2017, 10:59:47 am
Hey! Let's see:

She sat up straight as her legs unconsciously jiggled up and down; white knuckled, her cheeks flooded with an intense red glow. The children outside the window drew her gaze - running toward their open-armed parents.

She couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be accepted; to be understood. To be loved. An intense longing overcame her restlessness - a deep desire to fit in and just be ‘normal’ – whatever that meant. The corners of her lips drooped, her eyes turned glassy, and her chin began to waver.


I basically just played with the sentence ordering in a few spots ;D I will say though that interchanging "she, her, the girl" does keep it from being too repetitive. Like, I wouldn't have noticed any problem with your initial version of the paragraph (although over the whole story, perhaps I would notice). Your writing style is great though! Good on you for wanting to work on the small stuff to really make your writing incredible ;D


Ahhhh thank you so so much! This is amazing - so much better than anything I would've come up with! Thanks Jamon :)
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: TheFreeMarketeer on March 26, 2017, 05:02:18 pm
Definitely try Anton Chekhov. He's a prolific short story writer, I'm pretty sure you can read his works for free online.

I'm sorry, I just feel the need to second this and emphasise Anton Chekhov's works. I've ready a handful of them and they're really wonderfully written. I urge you and anyone else to really check of Anton Chekhov's works.

I've read the Lady and the Dog, the Bet and a couple others. Thing about Chekhov is that structure, voice and all other literary features change from piece to piece giving you a plethora of different approaches towards the short story medium.
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: bowiemily on March 26, 2017, 07:20:43 pm
Check out Shoes by Etgar Keret. It's amazing how an author can capture so much whilst still employing a child's voice.
Also, I second Roald Dahl. My favourite is Lamb to the Slaughter
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: elysepopplewell on March 29, 2017, 01:24:59 am
I want to stress Tim Winton short stories..
They are never difficult to read, the writing is always blunt but beautiful. It's not difficult for a student to emulate given that his stories are usually set in Australia, are really quite short and often involve discovery. I recommend the anthologies Minimum of Two or Scission.

If you are into sci-fi/dystopia - definitely check out Margaret Atwood. She's a genius. And while her short stories are quite as simple in their form as Winton's, the ideas will surely inspire you.

Looks like now you've got enough reading for the whole year ;)
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: Aaron12038488 on April 04, 2017, 05:16:23 pm
So my teacher said for my creative writing for the half-yearly which is 40min, that I should be aiming for about 3 pages. Is this realistic?
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: jamonwindeyer on April 04, 2017, 05:22:11 pm

So my teacher said for my creative writing for the half-yearly which is 40min, that I should be aiming for about 3 pages. Is this realistic?

I'd say so! 3 pages of about 200 words each is about 600 words, which is roughly what I'd expect to see from a Creative!
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: Aaron12038488 on April 04, 2017, 06:19:53 pm
how do i do an appropriation of a text and modify it.
Spoiler
E.g. To the guards!’ the men around the table lifted their glasses, grinning to each other as they leaned back in their wide chairs. The meal was much appreciated by the guards, who having forced the prisoners to eat their watery stew, now felt like kings. As the bell rang, bouncing through the passage of the small rooms, Mark and four others pushed their chairs back and stood together, ready for their next shift. ‘Give prisoner 310 a bit of a push! Yelled one of the guards at the table, ‘he’s being a pain, barricaded the door of his cell with his bed today.’ Mark nodded, pulling his eyes as he filed into the hall behind the other uniformed men.

Once inside, with the door locked, they checked each cell. Each room was small with two narrow beds filling most of the space. Sitting or lying on each bed was a man clothed in a thin white smock. 310 lay under his square blanket, his bare feet hanging off the edge of the mattress. Mark hit the bars on 310s cell with his baton, breaking the humid hush that had settled over the rooms and causing him to sit up. The skin on his face was pale and strained and with no natural light his eyes looked like shallow pools, murky and still.  Mark hit the door again and again, the stinging sound growing louder until it reverberated through each of the rooms as if the building was shaking causing yells of complaint from the prisoners. Mark looked to the other guards, smiling behind their matching glasses. Tom, the guard closest to him motioned for Mark to pause and cleared his throat, ‘You can blame 310 for the noise’ his voice was loud but unsteady ‘Repeat! “310 is a bad prisoner.”’ The prisoners waited in silent defiance. Tom walked towards the cell next to 310s followed by the other guards. The silence in the cells making the sound of their thick boots scuffing the ground unnaturally loud. Grinning to each other they all began to hit each prisoners door, the sound joining into a shuddering thunder. Mark felt their power as they moved together, each strike of the baton becoming stronger and faster like a train, each wheel spinning with more force, pulling the train from the station and sending it with momentum as it races down the tracks. In these rooms, together, they had control.

When they stopped, Tom reiterated his demand. This time his voice was low and firm. ‘Repeat my words. “310 is a bad prisoner, 310 is a bad prisoner.”’ Two voices joined his and then another and another. ‘310 is a bad prisoner. 310 is a bad prisoner. 310 is a bad prisoner.’ As the chant picked up the guards stood back from the doors, moving back to their chairs on the opposite side of the narrow hall. Tom sat upright on his chair, tugging his uniform straight as he watched 310 from a distance, his hands over his ears, his face pulled even tighter with dread.  ‘We did that well’ said Mark as he lowed himself to the chair beside Tom, ‘We’ll have a good laugh to share with the others’.

Three hours into the shift, a key turned in the lock and the professor entered the hall. He walked to the center of the room, pulling back the blind that had been tied close for the last four days. ‘Students, we are ending the experiment early.’ Tom stared out of the window, shocked by the sunny courtyard outside, filled with students moving from class to class.

Four days earlier, Professor Zimbardo stood in a classroom with twelve students, half the number he had selected for the experiment. The twenty-four young men were considered the most emotionally stable and normal of the many more they had tested. ‘In just a moment’ the Professor explained ‘I will show you where the mock prison has been set up. In this place, your new identity is to be a guard. I will give you your uniforms’ he motioned to a pile of clothes, boots, sunglasses and batons ‘It is your job to control your prison. In those rooms you will have superior food and sleeping arrangements than the prisoners. Together you can create in the prisoners a sense of fear to some degree. They’ll have no freedom of action, they can do nothing, say nothing without the guards permission. They will be divided into cells, locked behind bars, you will move freely in the prison and act together as one unit.’ The men sat still, glancing uneasily at those around them, unsure if they had the authority or desire to fulfill this role. The Professor opened the door, ‘Come let me show you your prison.’

An hour after the Professor ended the experiment all twelve prisoners emerged from storage rooms at Stanford University, their faces pallid and eyes blinking in the sunlight, pulled unexpectedly from a life that had consumed them in just days. With them were the guards. The prison was gone. Tom walked home alone, blending in with the crowds of students as they left for the weekend. His mother answered the door when he knocked, her eyebrows raised. ‘I thought you weren’t back for a week at least?’ Tom stepped inside the house kicking of his sneakers.

‘They finished it early.’

‘Oh, no! Did you get paid for the two weeks?’

‘Yeah they paid us the full amount anyway.’

‘That’s great luck! Well go and clean up Tommy, and then we will have dinner’ Her smile wasn’t returned by Tom. ‘Actually, dear, would you mind going and bringing the bins in first?’

‘No, I won’t get the bins’ Tom pushed past his stunned mother, feeling his frustration growing like a hot cloud within him. He wanted to be back with the guards; the keys to each of the cells strapped to his uniform and striding through the dark halls with the other men. He climbed the stairs, his frustration swirled around his chest, winding itself around him like a serpent around its prey. He was so much more than this, if only they knew what he was in his territory, with the power of the pack around him. Now he was alone, the tendrils wrapping tighter around him. Trapped. Unlike the prisoners who emerged from their prison, there were no keys to unlock this cell. The tendrils closed tighter and harder, pushing the blood from his face.

Mod Edit: Added spoiler
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: jamonwindeyer on April 04, 2017, 06:26:05 pm
how do i do an appropriation of a text and modify it.

Well, an appropriation is basically taking some element(s) of the text, be it the plot-line, characters, themes (etc) - And using them in a story of your own! This could take the story in a new direction, extend on the end of a story - The options are endless. There just needs to be enough new stuff - You can't just take the same story and adapt it slightly to make it yours. You need to be creative with it :)
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: ericazzz on July 02, 2018, 07:02:42 pm
Orphan Stories by Margaret Atwood was a short story I used for my AoS - It is really different and really powerful. Highly recommend!

(It is from an anthology called The Tent, which if you can get your hands on, is fabulous)

Hi,
I know this is a while ago but do you by any chance have any notes left on Orphan Stories by Margaret Atwood you used for Discovery?

Thank you  :)
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: Ellielh on July 27, 2018, 05:53:49 pm
Hi,
I know this is a while ago but do you by any chance have any notes left on Orphan Stories by Margaret Atwood you used for Discovery?

Thank you  :)

Have you checked the notes section?
https://atarnotes.com/notes/
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: headsup on September 04, 2018, 08:57:55 pm
Hey ppl!

Just a question about my creative writing.... For my trial exam I got 8.5/15   ???  :o and I have written extracts from a diary.... The teacher that marked this said that I should have done a narrative with diary entries and not just diary entries as they do not make a good creative writing...

What do you people think?? Should I try and write it as a narrative now?

Thanks!!!!
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: fkkiwi on September 04, 2018, 09:09:00 pm
Hey ppl!

Just a question about my creative writing.... For my trial exam I got 8.5/15   ???  :o and I have written extracts from a diary.... The teacher that marked this said that I should have done a narrative with diary entries and not just diary entries as they do not make a good creative writing...

What do you people think?? Should I try and write it as a narrative now?

Thanks!!!!

Creative writing is arguably the most subjective part of both English papers. Different teachers have different styles and preferences so it's hard to satisfy them all! I showed my story to several teachers; a couple said it was good and conceptual but in my trials the teacher who marked it gave me an 11/15. I know this isn't really helpful, but just write what you feel is best for you. As long as you encapsulate the core ideas of discovery and engage with the stimulus, it doesn't matter if it's a diary entry or narrative.

Alternatively, you could look into embedding an epistolary in your narrative? That way you keep your idea but also incorporate your teacher's feedback.
Title: Re: Creative Writing and short stories
Post by: headsup on September 04, 2018, 09:45:02 pm
Creative writing is arguably the most subjective part of both English papers.

Thanks heaps!! I will keep working on it. Would appreciate it will someone would be able to go over my creative below and let me know your thoughts.... (PS. Its not great...  :'( )
Spoiler
12th March 1932 | Mannheim
Have you every heard the voice of people? The stories of people's feet? The voices of feet?
The closeness of a spanish heel to an Oxford Brogue tells a story of an evening ball. A story of wealth. A story of love.
Add to this story the voices of flaky, cracked feet conversing with black hobnail boots and you have a crime. A suspicion. Tears.
Our story is suddenly interrupted by polished wingtips. The voice is loud and rushed. It tells of a concluded meeting. Of business. A deal.
The voices whisper from all parts of the street. Every shoe, every foot has a voice. No foot tries to drown out anthers voice. No foot tries to kill another foot. The pavement accepts all the stories. Regardless of religion it hears. Regardless of heritage it hears.
I love these voices. They tell what is not spoken. What I cannot see. What there is to tell of the world.

10th May 193 | Berlin | Book Burning
The smoke hangs low in the air. The smell of burning flesh eats at the nose. Tonight the plot is different. Hobnails dominate the story tonight. They tell of power. Of authority. Yet a shuffle of fear exists. A  tremor in the voice. The story becomes intense, more authors interupt. The darkness chokes the voices. Ash is caught in the throat. The words become forced, confused and disjointed.
Here and there a rustle of paper. A word. A page. An intertextual reference that has no bearing on the story being told. Yet, it tells a story of its own. A story of a wasted life, a burnt author.
The page tells of an act against the Un-German spirit. What is the Un-German spirit? Those born here. Those born in Paris. Are we not all Germans? The Poles, Turks, Greeks, Asians, Africians and the Jew?
Think about the word 'Jew' for a minute. It is a title proudly born, yet one that comes from many mouths as a curse. An insult. When a little boy wants to insult a little girl does he not call her 'girl'? It it an insult? No! It is a title borne proudly and openly. It is not something of which to be ashamed.

14th November 1940
The train screams to a halt. Yet, the screams continue. The voices of mothers, calling for there children. The voices of children, calling for their mothers.
The voices are different here. They speak of cruelty. A shuffle of fear, which once existed, now controls. Hobnail, harsh voices surround those of the crocs. The crows cow in fear. There is no-one individual noise. It is the cry of a multitude. The cry to an unseen God. A cry of pain and sorrow.
A hand rises. It claps at my breasts. It explores, feeling for a heart. A heart that pines with the voices. A heart that helps. Yet, it finds only an unsteady throb. The hand falls limp. The heart , as if missing the love of a hand cries out. It continues to cry out, until the sickness of loss forces the cry to stop. It stops. These feet speak no-more. An individual voice among the multitude stops on earth and starts in heaven. A cry to a now seen God.

Epilogue - I know and as pointed out by the marker doesn't fit however it needed to add something to explain in relation to the question  :(
Sara was born in Germany during the first World War. She never saw her father. She never spoke to her father. He died in the trenches.
She never saw her mother. She never spoke to her mother. She died of the sorrow at the loss of her love, as of the sound of silence.
Sara was blind and dumb. Yet, her ears heard what is missed by all. Common ground among all people. The lack of understanding of differences. She never discriminated. She couldn't. She judged on the voices of peoples feet.
The voice of those people...

EDIT: This is my trial creative so written under exam conditions....