Hey! I was wondering if anyone had advice for writing a discovery story?? I always struggle with creative writing and seem to lack development in my stories due to the exam time pressures. 
And is it beneficial to have a few completed stories before the exam (and adapting it to the stimulus) or only brainstorm/dotpoint main themes/metaphors rather than memorising a whole creative writing piece?
I've also been thinking whether to write in first person or third person and if I should attempt a non-linear story structure (like a flashback), but I'm not sure which would be more effective in terms of the story's depth and tone.
Thanks in advance 
Hello,
I was pretty much in the same boat as you last year. I had no clue on how to write a good creative and I wasn't getting the marks I wanted. Then my English teacher gave me this advice and now I'm getting band 6, 15/15 creatives!
1) write about your interests: Think about your favourite school subject and work from there. This is a great place to start because you would've learnt a lot of the key terminology within those subjects, making your story more interesting and authentic. For example, I studied music where I learnt how to analyse components in musical pieces and I was a part of 2 school musicals. So I took these experiences and incorporated music terminology (i.e staccato, syncopation etc) I've learned over the years into a creative about a sporty boy auditioning for a school musical (very high school musical I know). You'll find that all your knowledge that you've gathered over the years studying a subject allows you to come up with sophisticated descriptive language as well as unique experiences that can be turned into interesting creatives.
Other ideas can come from: your favourite sport, your favourite book/movie etc.
2) Read other creatives. Read short stories. Watch short films.In class, we often have the debate on "nowadays, is anything original?" because some way or another, an idea normally stems off another idea, current event etc.. In saying that, you have full liberty to take concepts and snippets from your favourite stories, and appropriate them into your creative. Try not to steal ideas from dystopian novels, developing a whole dystopian society in a short story is a very hard task. My creative was very clichéd with it's school setting and similarities to high school musical but I still made it my own by including lots of music terminology in my descriptive language, adding a couple motifs here and there etc. So if you're still out of ideas, steal someone else's! Take note of nice phrases that stand out to you! Reading other creatives also gives an idea of how you should structure your own creative which leads me to my next point...
3) Keep the plot shortI've read creatives that only depict a walk down a street (mind you it was a very interesting walk) and some that just involve an interview which brings about a memory. These aren't stories that have multiple complications and have multiple stages. My creative was initially going to end when my character actually performs in the musical, instead I ended up finishing when he finds out he got the role, saving me a lot of writing, yet still providing a sense of closure. [fyi my creative ended up having about 3 stages: 1. development of his character with a love for music yet reputation to sustain. 2. desperation to audition, then finally auditioning. 3. arriving at school the next day, to find everyone ridiculing him, but he got the role.] Basically you don't want to go into the nitty gritty, you only want to provide what's important to advance the plot. Aim for your creative to be around 800-1000 words, depending on how fast you can write.
4) Include a recurring motifThis is what would make your creative really stand out. A recurring motif can be as simple as a lamp that is mentioned ever so often. Again, using my past creative as an example: The use of music was a motif in itself but I also used light and dark to describe and contrast certain things throughout my piece - 'a light shone around the auditorium's patricianly opened door' 'the school walls casted a menacing shadow'. This helps to make your creative feel whole and is something very particular that can help improve the complexity of your creative.
5) Consider a circular plotThis is a very useful idea when it comes to discovery. Lets say you started your discovery with a person in the bleachers watch a game. Then the story finishes with the same person on the field, gazing over at the bleachers. Basically, where you begin is where you finish. By doing this, you're highlighting the transformation (which results from a discovery) that has occurred.
6) Seek feedback Finally, once you've finished your creative, send it to a friend, a teacher and ask for any pointers, check grammar etc. There's even a marking a feedback thread on the ATAR notes site. (also there are a number of discovery creatives there that you can read - referring back to point 2). A good creative usually takes several drafts, so don't be too hard on yourself if it takes a long process to finish it. But once you have an idea, write as much as you can from that initial idea and then edit edit edit edit edit.
I hope this was helpful for you! If you ever want to post your creatives on the Atar notes marking and feedback thread, I'd be happy to give some feedback and I'm sure many others would be too
KT
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Topic: English Advanced Question Thread (Read 1408931 times)