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October 07, 2024, 07:33:20 pm

Author Topic: Creative Writing and short stories  (Read 17900 times)

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Kira Leigh

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Creative Writing and short stories
« on: February 11, 2017, 09:02:36 pm »
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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?


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sudodds

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2017, 09:20:04 pm »
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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)
« Last Edit: February 11, 2017, 09:23:16 pm by sudodds »
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jamonwindeyer

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2017, 11:48:02 pm »
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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)

Kira Leigh

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2017, 08:33:36 pm »
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Thank you so much guys!!   ;D
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miss_demeanour

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2017, 08:05:48 am »
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Definitely try Anton Chekhov. He's a prolific short story writer, I'm pretty sure you can read his works for free online.

biancajuru

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2017, 03:23:15 pm »
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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!
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jamonwindeyer

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2017, 03:56:02 pm »
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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

biancajuru

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2017, 05:13:26 pm »
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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 :)
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sudodds

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2017, 05:35:06 pm »
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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  ;)
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sophroberts812

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2017, 09:50:57 am »
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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!!!!

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jamonwindeyer

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2017, 10:47:02 am »
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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

sophroberts812

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #11 on: March 26, 2017, 10:59:47 am »
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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 :)
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TheFreeMarketeer

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2017, 05:02:18 pm »
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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.

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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2017, 07:20:43 pm »
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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
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Re: Creative Writing and short stories
« Reply #14 on: March 29, 2017, 01:24:59 am »
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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 ;)
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