• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

Creative Writing Questions. (1 Viewer)

Evil Sprinkles

New Member
Joined
May 24, 2009
Messages
16
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
"Lost"
"I hate it when people tell me to smile" (Something along those lines)


I don't really remember the other 2

I used the "I hate it when people tell me to smile" as my stimulus, not the wisest of choices.
It limits you to 2 or maybe 3 options depending on your creativity.

1) The protaginist tries to belong but fails
2) The protaginist does not wish to belong, but finds at the same time that rejection acts as a safeguard to foster you into belonging with others who do not belong
3) You belong, but you feel emptry and lost within yourself as you are not happy with where it is you belong

I had a story which didnt pan out too well for me
A world where homosexuality was the norm and a boy was confronted with the reality that he is straight and hes fallen in love with his best female friend who is gay and has a girlfriend. He admits his sexuality to his Mothers and is kicked out of home and is forced to try and conform against his sexual willingness.
 

Michaelmoo

cbff...
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
591
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
I almost LOL'd when I read my creative writing question for Belonging in my trial. It wasn't a question, it was a stimulus.
The quote was (get ready to laugh):

"I just wanted to belong somewhere. Anywhere."

My school really trains us to think on the spot *dies*
LMAO. Guess what our trial question was. The quote was:

"I just wanted to belong to something. Anything"
 

MzBiiBii

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
180
Location
Syd
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
I used the "I hate it when people tell me to smile" as my stimulus, not the wisest of choices.
It limits you to 2 or maybe 3 options depending on your creativity.

1) The protaginist tries to belong but fails
2) The protaginist does not wish to belong, but finds at the same time that rejection acts as a safeguard to foster you into belonging with others who do not belong
3) You belong, but you feel emptry and lost within yourself as you are not happy with where it is you belong

I had a story which didnt pan out too well for me
A world where homosexuality was the norm and a boy was confronted with the reality that he is straight and hes fallen in love with his best female friend who is gay and has a girlfriend. He admits his sexuality to his Mothers and is kicked out of home and is forced to try and conform against his sexual willingness.

I had a prepared story in my head about a man who couldnt belong to his identity- in that people perceived him to be someone..... somone that he wasn't.

that's why i chose it- but the marker didnt like my character lol and called him "callous" :)
 
Last edited:

Sarebs

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2009
Messages
315
Location
The Classical World
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Yeah sorry if it doesn't help.

Hey our trial question was very similar to what your going on about.

We had three pictures - a lonely house, a school, and a train
We had three objects - a kid playing with a kite, a pile of books, and a computer

we had to link one object and one picture together along with the notion of belonging.
This was ours too.

I went into the exam without any story planned or anything, but had "When the Sun Goes Down" by the Arctic Monkeys stuck in my head... which was great when I was trying to remember "The Crucible" lol.
-Train and books
-Young woman travels by train to rich suburbs, works as a prostitute
-Reads books on the train to escape
I thought it wasn't a very good story, but managed to get 13/15 :D
 

emmcyclopedia

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2008
Messages
391
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
I used the "I hate it when people tell me to smile" as my stimulus, not the wisest of choices.
It limits you to 2 or maybe 3 options depending on your creativity.

1) The protaginist tries to belong but fails
2) The protaginist does not wish to belong, but finds at the same time that rejection acts as a safeguard to foster you into belonging with others who do not belong
3) You belong, but you feel emptry and lost within yourself as you are not happy with where it is you belong
No way!

One of my dearest English chums used this stimulus, she came up with a really funny story about a girl who had braces (lol, hence she didn't like to "smile"). It wasn't an intellectually or emotionally profound story, but it was quite practical and humorous, and it covered belonging really nicely.

I think its most important with Belonging to make sure you avoid the clichés, and make something that is really original and reflective of your own understanding of how people fit into the world. Even though there are the typical "trying to belong", "don't want to belong" and "superficial belonging", I think it's important to realise that you can put your own twist, your own view, into that kind of a plot. All of the stories don't resonate on this same level of 'here we go again, i don't belong, bla bla bla...'
 

Sadiah

Member
Joined
May 18, 2008
Messages
989
Location
In a world beyond yours.
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
This was ours too.

I went into the exam without any story planned or anything, but had "When the Sun Goes Down" by the Arctic Monkeys stuck in my head... which was great when I was trying to remember "The Crucible" lol.
-Train and books
-Young woman travels by train to rich suburbs, works as a prostitute
-Reads books on the train to escape
I thought it wasn't a very good story, but managed to get 13/15 :D
Lol that's really good.

Make sure you have a story planned for the HSC so you can score a great 15 out of 15. ;)
 

Sarebs

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2009
Messages
315
Location
The Classical World
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Lol that's really good.

Make sure you have a story planned for the HSC so you can score a great 15 out of 15. ;)
My friends read it and were like "ugh, what a slut". They couldn't get past the prostitute bit.

Yeah everyone else planned theirs about bikies... but I think I'll just stick to the prostitute thing.
 

Butt Rayge

New Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
16
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
I had a story which didnt pan out too well for me
A world where homosexuality was the norm and a boy was confronted with the reality that he is straight and hes fallen in love with his best female friend who is gay and has a girlfriend. He admits his sexuality to his Mothers and is kicked out of home and is forced to try and conform against his sexual willingness.
Interesting concept.

I know we're meant to 'suspend disbelief,' but how the hell do they breed in that society?
 

M3riJaan

Another Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2008
Messages
155
Location
Female
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Quick question, it says 'stimulus', does that mean you gotta feature it in the beginning of your piece? Or can you chuck it in anywhere?
 

Sadiah

Member
Joined
May 18, 2008
Messages
989
Location
In a world beyond yours.
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Quick question, it says 'stimulus', does that mean you gotta feature it in the beginning of your piece? Or can you chuck it in anywhere?
If your referring to the Creative Writing bit here, then you can chuck it in anywhere.

Just make sure you do refer to it, making it a proportion if not the base of your story.

You don't have to commence with it either, but a Band6 response will most likely refer to it in the introduction.

Good Luck MeriJaan ;)

lmao.
 

swakeford91

New Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
8
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Yeah sorry if it doesn't help.

Hey our trial question was very similar to what your going on about.

We had three pictures - a lonely house, a school, and a train
We had three objects - a kid playing with a kite, a pile of books, and a computer

we had to link one object and one picture together along with the notion of belonging.
haha did that exam also have something about penguins int he short response??

coz our teacher gave us a practice trial with that exact creative writing question lol.
 

Cait17

New Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Messages
3
Location
Gunning
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Yeah sorry if it doesn't help.

Hey our trial question was very similar to what your going on about.

We had three pictures - a lonely house, a school, and a train
We had three objects - a kid playing with a kite, a pile of books, and a computer

we had to link one object and one picture together along with the notion of belonging.
yeh we had the same as that too... I ended up going with the school and pile of books. some girl didnt belong in her new school and found her sense of belonging in a pile of books from where she used to live.. It was terrible. our whole year failed that paper!
 

SSRabbitohs2009

28:06:42:12
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
591
Location
in the TARDIS
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
If I get some question asking me to do journal entries or whatnot, I will die on the spot. Right on the spot.

I've just got two stories (and I've been working on a third) and am planning simply to memorize them and hope that they'll us give some generic question/stimulus that's easy to work with.After all, this is the first year of "Belonging" (that's what I've been telling myself at least...
+1.
Completely unrelated, but I have been telling myself that for CONFLICTING PERSPECTIVES. It gets me to sleep at night.
 
Last edited:

cassiecocaine

Member
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
114
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
No way!

One of my dearest English chums used this stimulus, she came up with a really funny story about a girl who had braces (lol, hence she didn't like to "smile"). It wasn't an intellectually or emotionally profound story, but it was quite practical and humorous, and it covered belonging really nicely.

I think its most important with Belonging to make sure you avoid the clichés, and make something that is really original and reflective of your own understanding of how people fit into the world. Even though there are the typical "trying to belong", "don't want to belong" and "superficial belonging", I think it's important to realise that you can put your own twist, your own view, into that kind of a plot. All of the stories don't resonate on this same level of 'here we go again, i don't belong, bla bla bla...'
That's what my story is :(
I've stuck with it through the whole year, and it's great for description and metaphors and and stuff, but it's just so BORING. Establishes right away that he doesn't belong, and it doesn't change throughout the whole thing. But I can't change it now, it's the only half decent story I've ever written, and I hate creative pieces. I got 10/15 for the trials...


Anyone have any other practice questions for creative by the way?


Mine was just a series of crappily photocopied images from google and we had to pick one and incorporate it somewhere in our piece (which I was glad for, I don't want a question that says something has to be the 'central idea'). So basically I just added in a sentence, and that fit the requirements for the question.
 

tonyharrison

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
366
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
There were ones with the toys... i chose the lost with the stoner guy lol

Yeah it was:

Use ONE of the texts below as a stimulus to reflect imaginatively on the significance of belonging.

Indicate which text you have selected. You may write in any form.

a) "no one belongs here more than you"
b) "i hate being told to smile!"
c) emo guy with 'lost' t-shirt
d) picture of a giraffe and a donkey in a wagon that reads "broken toys"


I reckon it'll be a pretty easy question cause it's the first year of belonging and it's all pretty much fail.

P.S - *dies if anything but story"
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top