For those who need help with Creative Writing. (1 Viewer)

mooneva

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I've noticed how many people need an example to work from for their creative writing so I'm posting here my creative writing response for 2007 HSC Trials.
I'm also willing to answer any questions anyone has. Also my mark for this was 14/15. ((Also forgive my spelling, I'm horrible in that division :p)) The topic was about two people experiencing the same journey but having different perspectives on it.
Here we go:

Ashley had not intended this to happen. The trip to Thailand with Janica was intended to be the let go and break she finally needed, and yet, 16 hours later, in a cramped and sweaty yellowed room, te lack of cockroaches in her kitchen back hom seemed much more theraputic.
Janica threw open the tiny bedroom door at her arrival and the family of thick black roaches scuttled away angrily.

"I've got them! I've got them!" She shreiked triumphantly, every new sylable raised itself with volume and pitch.

"Listen Janica, I don't think this is as good a plan as we thought it would be."

"Oh God, Ashley! Dont be spouting nonsence. You'll feel better after we down a few of these babies." She raised a rather small glad-wrap bag with something brown and shriviled inside.

"Is that them? Geeze, I'd thought they'd look a bit more...glamerous?"

"Well what were you expecting? Yellow polka dots and purple stripes?" She clamped herself onto my sweaty clammy hands and dragged me throught the splintered door and down the mangled stairs into the street.

The heat hit me like a brick in the face.
It scorched and burned along my skin and eyes.
Her hand was sill on mine & she pulled me throught the throb of people to enter another tiny cramped door. It was a nightclub, though it had barley anyone in it yet.
The lights overhead made everything blue & I could see the sweat on Janica's shoulders. She pulled me into a bar stool & leaned over the counter to a buff looking bartender.

"Two shakes please. Same dose for each." She smiled coyly & dangles the bag of dead looking, brown stuff infront of the barman.
He took it and nodded curtly before looking through the various bottles.

"Look Jan. I dont think I can do this. What if I'm alergic or something?" I could feel myself sweating as more people crowded the room on the street & a disk jockey on stage was already fumbling through the controls.

"Ash. This is why we came. This is exactly what you wanted to forget! Forget that spineless idiot back home! Forget your uptight parents at home okay, because this is what were here to do." Her face turned sympathetic in a heartbeat. "We'll be taking the same dose & Tony here," she gestured to the barmen, "will keep an eye on us. It will be completley fine."

Conveniently the ugly brown milkshakes had already been placed before us & wobbled with uncertainty.
I picked it up simultaniously with Janica and she pinched her nose.

"Helps the taste." She informed me.
I did the same & sloshed the drink back.
The pungent an earthy taste of mushrooms asulted my tastebuds, regardless of my nose.
I guzled onward until my eyes filled with tears at the taste & I could see my reflection at the bottom of my glass.

I looked at Jan, who had just wiped her mouth of the frothy brown texture.
The DJ had placed the large record down & with the sudden pumping of bass, the world began to echo.

It was like a cymbol was going off in my brain & beating me sensless from the inside.
I felt movement under my skin, like water tickling my veins. I looked up in stark horror to Jan but she was laughing, laughing so hard that for a moment I thought her jaw wasnt properly attached.
I started scratching at the tickling sensations & looked down at my arms. They were rippling & I knew it wasnt water. I felt them in my cheeks and I started screeching.

"Jan! JAN! THEYRE IN MY FACE! THEYRE IN MY FACE!!"

We were both crying but for different reasons. She seemed like the air was barely getting through her mouth & she was laughing and writhing all at once.
I knew she wasnt going to help me.
I was clawing at my face & I felt skin & blood beneath my fingernails.
The cockroaches were crawling there & I had to get them out. The cymbal in my head was thrashing madly and the strobe light in the club made everything mover slower and faster.
Suddenly I was in the scorching desert.
Then I felt an enormous pressure and I was pinned to the floor. I heard a horrible wretched screaming.
It felt like it was shredding my head appart.
Tony was holding me down. I felt my head banging against the sticky floor over and over. The sand has dissapeared.
My face was stinging and the scream that felt like rusty nails in my temple, I realised, was mine.

***
Jan was sitting next to me on the plane. The self inflicted scratched in my face burned like fire.

"That was the worst thing I've ever experienced." I held my face in my hands.

"It was my best" Jan said guiltily.
I looked up at her in confusion.

"Why was it different for me?"
Jan squeezed her eyes into a squint of thought.

"I dont know, Ash. It just was. The same thing can be different sometimes. I felt like I was on the moon."

"I was in the desert"

"See, same but different. We'll always be somewhere else but still lying on the lynolium floor."

-END-

Hahah, sorry, forgot to warn the squeamish.
Looking back on this I found the drug-trip option to be very cliché. Hoping to improve for HSC though.
So then, any questions?
 

wrxsti

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you werent kidding when you said you had shocking spelling lol
 

Shadose

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How do you come up with these ideas? All my ideas are either so complicated or cliche :(

I'm trying to get ideas! lol. I kind of feel different, because everyone has ideas and can't write an opening. But an opening isn't that hard to me at all. People say that they write what first comes in their heads, but nothing original comes in my head :S
 

mooneva

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Ideas are indeed hard to find. With such a broad subject, theres endless ways in which to start and end. I find the easiest thing is to list what you need and fill it all in. So lets see what we need.
We start with the basic foundation of a story.
Introduction, Complication, Solution and Ending.
You can stem these into smaller subjects.
We obviously need a Journey to pick first and foremost. I find Physical to be the easiest, but there are complications that come with that as with each journey.
Okay so we pick a journey.
We can either introduce what kind of journey it is straight off the bat and in the introduction or weave it in later on.
In the intro we need to introduce your character and/or characters.
Its better not to waste time explaining their appearance if its not going to have anything to do with the story.
Its much better letting their personality unravel through dialogue but you can do it straigh off the bat as well e.g "Jim had a terrible temper and it was a hazard just being around him, the tiniest thing can set him off."
Next add a setting, according to the journey.
Also dont forget this!!!
The character/s need MOTIVATION.
Why are they going where theyre going and why are they doing what theyre doing.
Complication is obvious.
What stoping them from acheiving their goal? A person? A physical obsticle? A mental obsticle?
Then solution. They come to terms with that problem, through confrontation or whatever the character thinks will get them through it.
Ending can be one of inconclution, they can still be traveling or they can finish and reach their destination.

These are basic building blocks that can establish a creative story easily. Though with the need for originality, why dont you take something thats common in the story and turn it? The obsticle perhaps, make it something unexpected! Make the character suffer a temporary impairment, have them betrayed by maybe theirselves! Or turn the character and give them intresting reactions!

Most ideas are drawn from a variety of sources! Dont worry. Using films, books, people around, (I find dreams to be an insanley good source if you can remember them ;)), absolutley anything is extremely helpful. Take little bits and peices of story line, dialouge, and apply it to your characters or situations. If a cliche will work then use it, but make something of it so it belongs only to you!

Also its an excellent idea to have a small outline of a plot in your head done before you enter the exam, but make it flexible so it can apply well to the question.
 

Shadose

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Thanks very much :) I have an idea after reading your advice, actually a lot now. Thanks :)
 

darksouljah

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one question...

Does it matter if we write a physical journey or inner journey inthe creative writing section ?

cheers
 

mooneva

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Shadose said:
Thanks very much :) I have an idea after reading your advice, actually a lot now. Thanks :)
Your very welcome <3 Glad to help.
 

mooneva

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darksouljah said:
one question...

Does it matter if we write a physical journey or inner journey inthe creative writing section ?

cheers
I suppose it depends on what they're asking for in the HSC, my safest bet is the physical journey, but, its a good idea to have two short story outlines for both, that way you'll be covered on all sides. :D
 

rr.dun.dun

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Does it have to be like that they are speaking to each other throughout the story?
 

mooneva

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Not really, unless of course, thats the way you want to write it. The beauty of creative writing is that, you can do almost anything you like with it. Though, if your looking from an examiners point of view, they probably prefer the 'introduction-complication-solution-conclusion' structure. If you can some how pull it off, and still manage to keep that structure (and it is do-able) then my hats off to you, and good luck with it. :D
 

bellabronson

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Ohhh! I Am So Not With It

Can Anyone Tell Me About Extra Uai Points For Such Things As Being School Captain, Bereavement, Elite Athletes Etc

:)
 

mooneva

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Hmmm, not on this thread i think, might have to find a different board for that subject, would'nt be here in English Advanced. Perhaps you should try asking in 'General Discussion'?
 

jimv

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I hate the creative writing section, give me an essay i can write plenty of essays but i dont have a creative bone in my body. I can only write soap opera. Thats was my little whinge before the HSC.
 

mooneva

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jimv said:
I hate the creative writing section, give me an essay i can write plenty of essays but i dont have a creative bone in my body. I can only write soap opera. Thats was my little whinge before the HSC.
You dont have to be that creative, dont worry, just as long as your prepared thats all you need.
Soap opera's are a great creative source!!! Use it to the best of your abilities and you should do fine. Soap operas can be extremely entertaining :)
 

mermer

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wow. i found the story really good.even if it was a tad bit cliche you manged to bring up the idea of two things being the same yet different. well done! hope u did well in HSC exam
 

ibewatto

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darksouljah said:
one question...

Does it matter if we write a physical journey or inner journey inthe creative writing section ?

cheers
effectivly you can make an inner journey out of an old shoe and a goat...therefore if you are goin to have a prefabricated story make it primarily physical or imaginative and the protagonist learns somethin from it; thus inner
 

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