How many word's should an exam crime writing story be? (1 Viewer)

[Pain]

If typed up.

 

[Empyrean444]

I would guess at 1500 words (that's about as much as you will probably write in 1 hour in the exam).

 

[Absolutezero]

At the very most 1500. You'd be pushing it to get close to this in exam conditions. I'd aim for 1100 roughly.

 

[Pain]

At the very most 1500. You'd be pushing it to get close to this in exam conditions. I'd aim for 1100 roughly.

Ah I see. Man, it's hard to write a good crime story in 1100 words.

 

[imsopostmodern]

extension english, where you have about an hour for the creative piece, you should be getting 1200-1500.

i was consistently writing ~1800 for my exam last year. and i ended up getting 49/50 for the hsc mark

 

[chewy123]

it's hard to write a good crime story in 110 words.

Don't even need an ending/conclusion, just end it with something clever and snappy.

 

[Pain]

Don't even need an ending/conclusion, just end it with something clever and snappy.

For example? I just keep picturing a detective, halfway during an investigation, calling "Fuck it" and killing himself.

 

[Absolutezero]

Or they just die, a la Sherlock Holmes.

 

[shcottydont]

For example? I just keep picturing a detective, halfway during an investigation, calling "Fuck it" and killing himself.

that would be very funny, but probs not get very good marks

y not have 2 perspectives and then they converge? ie tell the story from two different angles 500 words each and the last 100 words is them talking and the arrangment?

thats only 1100 words, very achievable in an hour

but remember that in ext 1 the composing question will be VERY specific, unlike in belonging you cant have a story written and take it in, it wont work

 

[eggy91]

man im gunning for 1660 words in both my short story and critical essay tomorrow. 11 hours to go until the exam arghh

 

[naisAtoN]

I would say around 900-1200 or thereabouts. But the main thing our teacher keeps stressing is that even if your story is short and "punchy", then you can score really well. Obviously you still need a certain amount of length to develop a degree of plot / show understanding of conventions / etc but you don't necessarily need to go in there and write 15 pages worth.

That said, I am really worried about the creative writing part of the exam. I really hate the idea of being assessed on stories that have to adhere to a set genre plus whatever stimulus they give you.

In the context of the exams I see why they do it but for me it defeats the purpose of "telling a story" if the writer is forced to try and commit to a certain fashion of writing.

You can go in with prepared stories but often you'll have to just wing it for huge sections in order to make it relate to what they give you. i.e. they may restrict you to using a "significant setting" they give you or something, as per previous exams. Very scary to think that as much as I've prepared, I might just suffer a creativity blow when I get in there and not be able to be "creative" enough to make a story fit with the stimulus under pressure.