CREATIVE WRITING FOR DISCOVERY

Prepared by Claire OrmistonEdited by Mel Dixon

(Images from Darcy Moore Flikr)

In better responses, candidates used language appropriate to their chosen form of creative writing. These responses were well crafted and evocative, displaying originality and artistry and the mechanics of language were applied skilfully.

Comments from the marking centre

Dot Point One: You will be marked on the quality of your insights/ideas on Discovery

Dot Point Two: You will be marked on how well you structure your response and express your insights: paragraphing, spelling, grammar, sentence structure etc.

The Marking Criteria

You should develop a two or three different scenarios to do with your concept.

They should include: Causes/motives/catalysts The nature of the Area of Study Consequences/effects/results How it feels to make a discovery

Aim for a one statement scenario to do with Discovery

Use an image or artwork for your scenario

Develop Scenarios

Base your scenario on particular cultural groups/identities to avoid clichéd responses.

You need a number of levels of Discovery:

The act of discovery. The nature of the discovery itself. How one responds initially. The broader ramifications.

Give your story substance

Remember in such a short space of time your text will be largely character driven. Explore the concept of discovery through identity!

Why and where do we discover things and ideas?

Social Identities

Keep in mind you are not required to follow a complete novel or movie plot!

Limit the number of characters Limit/focus you time frame/setting DEPTH rather than BREADTH ‘Explode a Moment’ – 15 minutes, an afternoon The ‘moments and feelings’ rule – avoid plot

driven narrative

The ‘short’ short story

Limit these to three sentence treatments. If it is too complex to write in three sentences, it is probably too complex for the short story. Remember – the examiners want depth of detail not lots of action.

Engage with elements of the rubric.

Task: Write Three Short Scenarios –using the images that follow

Short scenario stimulus 1

Short scenario stimulus 2

Short scenario stimulus 3

Do the basics – Develop your character and setting first – plot will come if you know your character, where they are and their situation.

Describe – you are telling the story of your character to someone else. The reader isn’t in your head.

First write too much, then edit it down!

Short story basics

Adjectives and Adverbs Comparisons – Similes, Metaphors, Analogy Symbolism Strong Verbs Precise Nouns Sensory Description

‘Show Don’t Tell’

The straight descriptive technique reads like an inventory list, is a quick way to lose a reader to boredom, and buries talent in uninspired prose.  Never write is an illustrative scene where you simply tick off the surroundings in an orderly fashion.

Focus on the description

Butch was standing on the back porch, staring at the garden.  To his right were the red rose bushes, beside the pink azalea bushes.  The two cedar trees were at the back, along the stone garden wall, and the cobblestone path ran through the middle of the garden.  To his left were the lilac bushes and the lilies.

Here is an example of a list-like description:

A good descriptive scene invokes the visual, but also other sensory input such as sounds, smells, tactile feel, even a character’s memories.  The best writing tries to recreate how a real person would experience the event. Now cramming every tiny detail into scenes doesn’t work either, because you veer into the comical and absurd.  It screams amateur to readers, as does using unusual adjectives/adverbs to illustrate and emphasize.

How do we change it?

 Butch was standing on the back porch, in the fading light, staring at the early summer garden.  He could smell the heady scent of rose bushes wafting on the slight breeze.  He turned his head to the right, noticing how well their deep red colour mixed with the pink of the nearby azalea bushes.  Movement by the back stone wall caught his attention; he chuckled as a squirrel raced up one of the two cedar trees that grew against the wall. He could hear the drone of the hummingbirds and the sweet chirping of the sparrows, and spied them flitting among the lilies and white lilac bushes that bloomed in the left side of the garden.  There were chickadees feeding on the winding cobblestone path; Jessica had most likely thrown them some seeds earlier.

Try this passage: Find the senses,

memory

Jessica was sitting harshly, rigidly, upright at her very murky, black, baby grand piano that her most beloved grandmother had happily given her for her sixteenth birthday four years ago; the very antique piano that had once belonged to her grandmother.  She had been staring exceptionally hard for more than fifteen minutes at the vaguely spider-webbed cracked, ebony-black, ivory keys that just lay there like a stiff, solid, bit of off-white fishbone that had the last of the flesh scraped off it.  She could not focus her scattered thoughts on the sheets of music that were laid out most carefully in front of her on the shiny, shadow black music rack that was attached to the piano. 

Sample writing

When less is more … Jessica was sitting harshly, rigidly,

upright at her very murky, black, baby grand piano that her most beloved grandmother had happily given her for her sixteenth birthday four years ago; the very antique piano that had once belonged to her grandmother.  She had been staring exceptionally hard for more than fifteen minutes at the vaguely spider-webbed cracked, ebony-black, ivory keys that just lay there like a stiff, solid, bit of off-white fishbone that had the last of the flesh scraped off it.  She could not focus her scattered thoughts on the sheets of music that were laid out most carefully in front of her on the shiny, shadow black music rack that was attached to the piano. 

Jessica was sitting stiffly at her baby grand piano, the antique her grandmother had given her for her sixteenth birthday.   She stared yet again at the slightly cracked keys, knowing that she could not focus her thoughts on her music. 

She was certainly supposed to be practising Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude , a piece of music she thoroughly treasured and often played, but her thoughts and feelings would not depart the memory of Butch leaving her this morning to sail far away across the deep ocean to Cornwall, England.  His face still bounced in her memory; his thick, shiny, exuberant, wood-brown hair, his sparkling, sassy, intelligent emerald green eyes, his sculptured, firm, Roman nose, his warm, full, soft, exquisite mouth.

Sample writing ctd

From this (more) this (less) …

She was certainly supposed to be practising Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude , a piece of music she thoroughly treasured and often played, but her thoughts and feelings would not depart the memory of Butch leaving her this morning to sail far away across the deep ocean to Cornwall, England.  His face still bounced in her memory; his thick, shiny, exuberant, wood-brown hair, his sparkling, sassy, intelligent emerald green eyes, his sculptured, firm, Roman nose, his warm, full, soft, exquisite mouth.

She was supposed to be practising Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude, but her thoughts kept wandering to the memory of Butch’s leave-taking this morning.  His face still haunted her memory; his thick, brown hair, his sparkling, green eyes, and his warm, exquisite mouth.  Now he was sailing from her, to Cornwall, England

Be careful about use of details, too many spoil the mix.  

Beware the overuse of adjectives and adverbs

Match the adjective/adverb with the mood of your narrative passage.

Keep it simple, evocative and never tell your reader everything at once.  Feed your reader details like crumbs, making a trail through your story. 

When creating a scene or description, you are trying for atmosphere, to make a reader feel they are within your words.  Set the scene: strike a balance between doling out the details and going overboard with the wordage.

Warnings

Read your exam question and note important words. ANSWER THE QUESTION

Use any Stimulus in your beginning (and your end)!

Start with action! It’s the way people behave that SHOW how characters make or respond to discoveries.

Beginning

Your story needs to be engaging and it needs to make sense. An adolescent voice Clichés – someone who was an outsider discovers a friend and now they

are fine Gratuitous sex and violence ‘only a dream’ A generic war or spy story. Many students set their story during the

Vietnam War for whatever reason, which is preferable to a generic war story, but still these were often limited in specifics and justifications as to why.

Students who set their stories in America described a world of generalisations and stereotypes cultivated from a mass-consumption of American media. Look at the world around you; acknowledge it and the nuances it proposes to you in the everyday. It is important that students write about something real and which they can go into in depth. Write about a world that you have been a participant in, not a passive observer.

Things to avoid

If you are writing a clichéd narrative try a new perspective. Instead of an adolescent, be the parent. A different perspective may develop originality.

Come up with DIFFERENT ideas about Discovery. The reader is to learn something about the concept from YOU!

Originality

Remember using 3rd person allows you to enter different points of view. First person can be limiting as it invites you to think of yourself and not the story

When using 1st person: avoid starting too many sentences with ‘I’ Use language that represents the

character Think and act No need for over-information on the

character

Narrative Voice

Know the place you are about to describe. If it is not somewhere you have lived, or visited often, set it up it in your mind. The time of day, exactly what this place contains - buildings, trees, streets, mountains or desert: whatever. Put all this together, along with any special relationship this place has with the characters in your story. Do this, until the scene becomes as familiar to you as your own home town. Choose words that will paint vivid details.

Place

Prepare a range of stories to have the best metaphors established and the sensory imagery instinctively flowing from the pen to the page.

Be ready to adapt specifically to the question. This involves practice and dexterity (just like the best bowlers). Adapt to different stimuli instinctively by knowing your story or stories so well, you know when and where to tweak them.

The language that you write with must be better than what you wrote with in year 9. For many students, there is little improvement in the standard of expression, the quality of word choice and imagery and characterisation established in your work. This comes from reading a wide range of short stories regularly. Push yourself to commit to this; once a week a new short story.

Language

ActivitiesDiscovery and creative writing

The chinchilla clouds had drifted past now and outside the Montana night was bright as day. The tapestry brick of the road was smooth to the tread of the great tires as they rounded a still, moonlit lake; they passed into darkness for a moment, a pine grove, pungent and cool, then they came out into a broad avenue of lawn and John's exclamation of pleasure was simultaneous with Percy's taciturn "We're home.”

Read: 'The Diamond as Big as The Ritz’ F Scott Fitzgerald

How does Scott Fitzgerald create a mood and sense of discovery?

Write a short scene where your character looks out a window. Consider the window –

what is the frame like? What is the glass like? What is the paint like?

Use the window as a metaphor or symbol for your character –

does what they see give them hope? Or does it make them feel trapped?

Activity: a window scene

1. Pick a topic your character feels strongly about, for example, something they like very much, or something that they. Try to make it something you know. 2. Think of your 5 senses in relationship to this topic.

What does it smell like when you are in contact with the subject you are describing? For example, like oranges, rotten fruit, sweet perfume, or nervous sweat?What does it taste like? - Is it tart, or sweet, or bitter, or creamy?What does it feel like to the touch? - Does it give you a stomach ache? Does it make your muscles relax? Is it rough, smooth, sharp, slippery?What does it sound like? Is it loud, or soft, or shrill, or soothing?What does it look like? What is the colour, the shape, or the height or the depth?

3. Summarise your character’s feelings about this topic in one sentence.

Since it is much easier to build sentences to reflect your ideas when you already have them, there are a

few things to think about before you are ready to write your descriptive paragraph:

Write a paragraph where your character is experiencing something

that reminds them through their senses of something else from the

past. This is a rediscovery.

Write a creative piece which explores how an individual’s response to a difficult discovery can have positive outcomes.

Write an introduction

1.Start with your main idea. It is the summary of your feelings about this topic.

2.Continue with explanations for each of the senses you have chosen to use.

3.Connect each of the senses back to your main idea. This allows you to remind your reader of your general thoughts about this subject.

4.Follow a logical order when explaining each sense. It is good to think of the first thing you notice, then go to the second, and so on.

5.Use your strongest feeling, or impression last. If all of your impressions are equally strong, it doesn't matter which order you choose.

6.Finish with a restatement of your main idea.

With ideas already in your mind, you are ready to start writing:

Answer the question. A clear, logical structure is essential. Work on your handwriting; if we cannot read it, we cannot mark it. Use commas and apostrophes properly. Use dialogue properly. We want to see evidence of independent thought. It’s important to know the difference between “it’s” and its

alter ego, “its”. Construct your sentences carefully. Proof read! (Don’t use parenthesises.) Check your spelling and punctuation. Seriously. Ensure your piece is the required length. Practice writing under

timed conditions. It is important to engage with the question asked at all times and

deal with the complexities of the concept of Discovery.

Some final tips