I'm panicking (1 Viewer)

[mollytee]

Third week of year 12 and I have no idea what I'm doing for my short story. My teacher is mad at me and everyone in my class has a solid concept that works for them. I have a hard time committing to things and tend to be a perfectionist. I find so many things interesting but I cant seem to figure out a concept that I could stick with and not doubt. Any advice? I feel like shit lmao

 

[Orwell]

Don't worry, I'm in the same boat you are.

 

[30june2016]

Third week of year 12 and I have no idea what I'm doing for my short story. My teacher is mad at me and everyone in my class has a solid concept that works for them. I have a hard time committing to things and tend to be a perfectionist. I find so many things interesting but I cant seem to figure out a concept that I could stick with and not doubt. Any advice? I feel like shit lmao

don't worry, same !!! kind of...even though I have a concept right now it's kinda vague and I'm doubting some aspects of it...

Besides, teachers at my school have constantly mentioned that heaps of people COMPLETELY change their idea midway through the course so it's okay (lowkey self-reassuring here)!???? just find a starting point I guess
Also, if you find a lot of things interesting, maybe find a way to combine them all into a single overarching concept that is easier to explore in your major work???

Or maybe even talk to someone about all of your ideas/the things that interest you??? After talking about my idea out loud to someone, I felt like I found a concept that I could potentially stick to and work with in the form of a short story, as well as something I could present in my Viva Voce (due in 2 weeks fml). My ideas are also slightly more organised than when I was just stressing myself out from brainstorming HAHAHA so maybe give it a try if you haven't

 

[tloos]

short story for advanced or extension?

 

[RyanT7]

short story for advanced or extension?

well..it is in the extension english 2 section

 

[Zoinked]

short story for advanced or extension?

Look at the subforum this is in. English Extension 2 major work

 

[Orwell]

Yeah, my teacher signed the EE2 students up for it

 

[grapegatsby]

Relax! Most of my Ext 2 class this year changed their concept/form much later than a few weeks into the course. As long as you have the drive to finish whatever you (eventually) choose to pursue, it's going to end up way better than if you made a reckless decision on the basis of an arbitrary time constraint right now and hated your work for the rest of the year (or worse, dropped the course, as quite a few did at my school!). I was lucky enough to have a good idea to start on almost right from the start, but a lot of people didn't, and the ones who were committed to writing something powered through. Just make sure that you're not only committed to learning about the subject matter, but that you're also really engaged with exploring the form. So my advice would be stop panicking and just keep reading short stories (if that's what you want to write), even if you're lost on what to read about. It might start as simple emulation but you would be surprised how your relationship with the medium will shape your project, so keep (or start) reading, and keep (or start) writing for the next few weeks, as much as you can. If you're still stuck by the time it gets to the viva, you can always pretend you're more committed to one or two of your ideas than you really might be at heart and try to flesh them out during the viva with your teacher(s). It might give you a bit of a push in the right direction.
And good luck! Ext 2 is a blast if you put the hours in.

 

[chiefpasco]

I recommend doing exercises from Kate Grenville's 'Writing from Start to Finish' .

Honestly, tell your teacher to gtfo, Term 4 should be all about trial and error, messing about with writing styles, doing character profiles and readings of short stories. After doing this, you will be able to see what kind of material you consistently produce and what you find yourself writing about.

Then over these summer holidays work on your first draft, then periodically revise the draft every week until submission. This is what my teacher told us to do and her cohorts consistently get into the top bands - because in the reflection statement (which actually makes up a huge component of the work, enough to separate an E3 from an E4), you can talk about reading Kate Grenville, your trials and errors, what you discovered about yourself, how you went about planning your major work etc etc.

As my teacher said: "Markers will eat that shit up." and they do, they really do.

 

[chiefpasco]

I have a hard time committing to things and tend to be a perfectionist. I find so many things interesting but I cant seem to figure out a concept that I could stick with and not doubt. Any advice? I feel like shit lmao

Build your reflection statement around this!!! Markers will eaaat that shit up!

 

[mollytee]

Oh my god yall are the best. Seriously thanks so much for this! I'm going to take in all this great advice and hopefully manage to form an idea to give to my teacher next week. Idk why she's rushing so much and putting all that pressure on me. Her attitude literally made me consider dropping like girl bye I'm sticking this through. Thanks again

 

[Kittyrules]

Relax! Most of my Ext 2 class this year changed their concept/form much later than a few weeks into the course. As long as you have the drive to finish whatever you (eventually) choose to pursue, it's going to end up way better than if you made a reckless decision on the basis of an arbitrary time constraint right now and hated your work for the rest of the year (or worse, dropped the course, as quite a few did at my school!). I was lucky enough to have a good idea to start on almost right from the start, but a lot of people didn't, and the ones who were committed to writing something powered through. Just make sure that you're not only committed to learning about the subject matter, but that you're also really engaged with exploring the form. So my advice would be stop panicking and just keep reading short stories (if that's what you want to write), even if you're lost on what to read about. It might start as simple emulation but you would be surprised how your relationship with the medium will shape your project, so keep (or start) reading, and keep (or start) writing for the next few weeks, as much as you can. If you're still stuck by the time it gets to the viva, you can always pretend you're more committed to one or two of your ideas than you really might be at heart and try to flesh them out during the viva with your teacher(s). It might give you a bit of a push in the right direction.
And good luck! Ext 2 is a blast if you put the hours in.

one of the girls in my class changed her FORM after we had handed in our draft major work for marking! so the school never even read the way she wrote in the form type that she submitted to hsc! it was a change from film to script, so there were similarities in it, she just turned her film idea into a script, but the point is it was THIS LATE in the course and ended up alright!

 

[mollytee]

Ok I know you guys said it's okay not to know what direction I'm going but I still don't have a clue and my teacher is gonna kill me on thursday

 

[mollytee]

Also thoughts of dropping are creeping in

 

[chiefpasco]

Also thoughts of dropping are creeping in

Don't drop! If you need a good atar, do. not. drop. The median band in EE2 is E3, that would equate to high band 5/6 in most subjects! It's not as hard as people say it is either. just go for the good old short story form for now, write a few pages - if it's shit, try another form, and whatever you like/are good at, do it

 

[chiefpasco]

Ok I know you guys said it's okay not to know what direction I'm going but I still don't have a clue and my teacher is gonna kill me on thursday

dw about your teacher. things got so bad between my teacher and myself that she would pull me out of legal studies and give me "State of the Nation" addresses on how, and I quote "Listen here, if I don't see a draft in two weeks, you are fucked and you may as well drop this subject buddyboy". I didnt finish my draft until a month before submission! She threatened me almost every week for for a year. I'm not making this shit up either, she was an english genius but crazy as fuck. I stuck it out, and I was happy with what I did.

EDIT: I made her into a character in my story, legit she got a subject dropping form and waived it in my face laughing. i will miss her.

 

[whacky]

dw about your teacher. things got so bad between my teacher and myself that she would pull me out of legal studies and give me "State of the Nation" addresses on how, and I quote "Listen here, if I don't see a draft in two weeks, you are fucked and you may as well drop this subject buddyboy". I didnt finish my draft until a month before submission! She threatened me almost every week for for a year. I'm not making this shit up either, she was an english genius but crazy as fuck. I stuck it out, and I was happy with what I did.

EDIT: I made her into character in my story, legit she got a subject dropping form and waived it in my face laughing. i will miss her.

That is so savage ahaha

 

[mollytee]

dw about your teacher. things got so bad between my teacher and myself that she would pull me out of legal studies and give me "State of the Nation" addresses on how, and I quote "Listen here, if I don't see a draft in two weeks, you are fucked and you may as well drop this subject buddyboy". I didnt finish my draft until a month before submission! She threatened me almost every week for for a year. I'm not making this shit up either, she was an english genius but crazy as fuck. I stuck it out, and I was happy with what I did.

EDIT: I made her into a character in my story, legit she got a subject dropping form and waived it in my face laughing. i will miss her.

Omg Im dying thats so funny lmfaoooo

Ill let her yell at me tomorrow and just suck it up. I gotta stop being sensitive. Thanks heaps my dude.

 

[mollytee]

Don't drop! If you need a good atar, do. not. drop. The median band in EE2 is E3, that would equate to high band 5/6 in most subjects! It's not as hard as people say it is either. just go for the good old short story form for now, write a few pages - if it's shit, try another form, and whatever you like/are good at, do it

I just cant decide what direction to go, like genre wise or creating my concept or whatever. I definitely know I wanna do a short story but the endless options have me stuck. If you dont mind me asking, what mark did you get?

I'm also considering dropping because history extension is pretty intense so far and extension 1 requires a lot of my effort. Idk I think I'll stick it out for a bit more and see what happens.

 

[chiefpasco]

I just cant decide what direction to go, like genre wise or creating my concept or whatever. I definitely know I wanna do a short story but the endless options have me stuck. If you dont mind me asking, what mark did you get?

I'm also considering dropping because history extension is pretty intense so far and extension 1 requires a lot of my effort. Idk I think I'll stick it out for a bit more and see what happens.

I can't remember what mark I got internally, the finish product was only submitted an hour before it had to be "Officially emailed to bostes" lol. But I had a teacher from another faculty, who has read every major work my school has produced, critique mine, he said it was very "solid" and the reflection statement was killer. Got full marks for that I know.

I still don't understand why your teacher expects so much of you so early... My crazy teacher stimulated our senses by doing writing exercises and just messing around with our interests for Term 4, and only over the summer holidays were we expected to do anything - consistently students here get E4 based on her teaching methods.

I still think you have the aptitude to do well in this subject, just having the initiative to consult ex-students online shows that you are taking this course seriously and geez you would have a mint reflection statement to go with whatever you submit because the tribulations you face in this subject are exciting to markers.

Summer holidays are long and by the second week boring as fuck - you'll have plenty of time to think of something, and if shit hits the fan and you still haven't progressed beyond this stage in February of 2017 then you may as well pull the string.