How to plan a vce creative story?

[nat_1577]

Hi So, I've been looking through some of the higher ranking creative context pieces, and I know that the story needs to link back to both the prompt at the text. I'm a bit confused about how to link it back to the text - do you just use similar themes? Are you supposed to write a scene from the actual book? And someone told me that you were supposed to put quotes from the book in there.

[McFleurry]

Hey nat!

The easiest way to link the prompt and the text is to use a character/setting from the text, and to develop an underlying story/something behind the scenes that you think would add a lot to your chosen text as a whole.

You can use similar themes, however if you're just beginning, it's much easier to play around with characters and their pasts/futures than to think about themes. But themes are great fun (no sarcasm)

You don't have to put quotes in... lol it's not text response. But if it is well selected/fits in well with what you've written, then why not?

Something else you may want to have a look at/google of is quotes relevant to your context...these help a lot for ideas; write down the ones you like+are relevant cos you probs will use them later on

Context is so chill; have fun with it

[Yacoubb]

Hi So, I've been looking through some of the higher ranking creative context pieces, and I know that the story needs to link back to both the prompt at the text. I'm a bit confused about how to link it back to the text - do you just use similar themes? Are you supposed to write a scene from the actual book? And someone told me that you were supposed to put quotes from the book in there.

Hey firstly, I'd just like to say that I love writing short narratives too, so I'm really happy to answer this question.

As you've mentioned, in context writing, you need to ultimately make 3 links in your script. The first link must be to the context in which you're studying. The second link must be to the prompt that you are given, using it as a spring board to generate ideas that'll very subtly permeate through your script. The third link must be to the text - your reservoir of themes, notions and ideas which you can readily integrate into your pieces.

Once you read your text, pick a particular theme that interests you. I studied Encountering Conflict in 1/2 English, and studied The Crucible by Arthur Miller. This text explores "Witchcraft in Salem", and the burning of witches, etc. In my short stories, I used the backdrop of The Crucible - that is, of witchcraft. My story had completely different characters to The Crucible, but I adopted by witchcraft element in my pieces. This'll suffice for your link to the text.

Linking to the prompt. With context, I guess I like to be a little cheeky. I come up with 5-6 different storylines, and develop an almost setting, characters, storyline, etc. Once I see the prompt, I pick the piece (i.e. one of the 5-6) which best suits the prompt. I then tailor my piece to specifically explore the given prompt, and for my ideas and annotations of the prompt to really shine through my piece.

Lastly, your story needs to be a good one. Vary sentence length for impact. Start and end your piece with a punchy sentence that'll leave the reader with a lasting impression. Use dialogue, have character development and use imagery to give your narrative depth. This way, you'll score well. Good luck with short narratives! Great decision!

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I really enjoyed preparing a creative piece for context! I'm just going to add a bit to the great posts above. We were encouraged to make allusions to the text in our piece eg we studied growing up Asian in Aus and many short stories in this book used food as a vehicle to explore ideas about identity and belonging so I wrote my piece on a specific dish. I don't recommend using quotes from the book. It's good to be more implicit and just use the ideas explored in the text and not the text itself. Lastly, I think it's a good idea to prepare different paragraphs or sentences which you could slip into specific places in your story so that it links to the prompt. Like a jigsaw puzzle so you're pretty much creating different versions of your story so that you can use it for almost any prompt they throw at you. Just remember to be flexible and tailor your response to the prompt. Have fun!