Creative Writing Revision

Revision for your Migrant Experience Exam

How can you study for the exam?

How can you study for a story that has a prompt that you will not see until you open the examination paper?

Many students deal with this problem by preparing and writing three or four stories throughout the year and then they adapt the most appropriate one of these to the question on the day.

This guide will help you to write a creative story of your own. You should prepare as many of these stories as you think you will need, or at least prepare detailed characters which you can easily adapt to the question in the examination

PurposeThe first thing you need to consider is the purpose of creative writing.

Mr Flannery is looking for an entertaining story, with language that suits the characters and ideas.

I will be reading more than forty stories in one marking session.

You therefore need to capture my interest by writing about an interesting idea from an original perspective, and with engaging character development.

Be AwareMany students make the mistake of trying to do too much within the constraints of the forty minute time limit.

It is very difficult to develop a meaningful comment on The Migration Experience when trying to juggle too many characters or an epic and wide reaching plot.

Try to find a single plot line (i.e. one storyline) which deals with an idea that can be introduced, developed and resolved within the number of words that you are able to write in forty minutes.

Most people can write about 600 words in the time limit provided

PlanningThink about what aspect of The Migration Experience you want to write about, and what kind of character would best suit this idea.

You need to use the most original approach that you can to investigate the concept.

Brainstorm who your central character will be.

Decide on a setting that reflects the emotional state of your character and the idea about belonging that you want to explore.

Which narrative perspective will best suit the story that you want to tell?

PlanningWhat is the conflict that your character will encounter?

How will this conflict challenge their sense of The Migration Experience?

How will they change or develop as a result of this challenge?

How will the conflict be resolved?

CharactersThe characters in your story are very important.

Even if you do not prepare general creative stories before the exam, you should at least have developed characters that you can adapt to the creative writing stimulus.

Choose one main character with a view to developing or changing them.

Other characters may be used, but only to help support or conflict with the main character's story. The most important element of the story is how this character experiences The Migration Experience.

Their character development should be a change in the state of their belonging.

Planning Activity (5 minutes)

O Brainstorm who your central character will be

Characters – Give them conflict

The strength of your story relies on the believability and realistic nature of your main character and how well the responder is able to relate to them.

Do you know any non-perfect people?

Perfect people are boring!

The character must have weaknesses or faults that can be developed or overcome in response to the events that happen in the plot.

The first thing to do in planning your narrative is to work out who your character is.

Jot down their strengths and weaknesses and which weakness you want to change.

Character – Structure your narrative

The structure of your narrative can be tied to the development of your character.

In the orientation, the character is introduced with a fault or weakness (Stage A.) In the complication, they experience conflict/s or change/s which force them to confront this weakness during the sequence of events. (Stage B) In the resolution, the conflict is resolved (either positively or negatively) and the fault or weakness changed from the way that it was presented in the introduction. (Stage C.)

Planning Activity (15 minutes)

O What is the conflict that your character will encounter?

O How will this conflict challenge their sense of The Migration Experience?

O How will they change or develop as a result of this challenge?

O How will the conflict be resolved?

SettingSetting refers to the time and place in which the story is situated.

This should be carefully considered and be a place that you understand and can imagine clearly.

The setting is often symbolic of what happens in the story and will help with character development as it will reflect the feelings of the character.

It is also very important in a story featuring the concept of The Migrant Experience, as the experience is often dependent upon the setting.

SettingThe weather is very symbolic of character's mood. Use some of the five senses to describe setting (sight, taste, sound, touch and smell) Think about the space that surrounds your character's cramped and claustrophobic spaces vs. vast and open.

The configuration of space forces characters into interesting situations.

Planning Activity (5 minutes)

O Decide on a setting

ConflictConflict or complication is essential for your story.

The character must come into conflict, either with another character, their environment/setting or with themselves (their ideas could clash with their actions).

This will revolve around their weakness of character.

The conflict will be associated with The Migrant Experience.

You must resolve this conflict or complication before the story ends.

ConflictUse strong verbs. Make use of all of the five senses, which are heightened in times of conflict. You can use multiple small conflicts to create a sense of crisis for your character.

Remember that you have very limited time and all conflict must be resolved.

Showing – Not TellingAn important principle to remember in creative writing is to SHOW NOT TELL the story.

Never TELL us what a character is feeling, SHOW us through actions or symbolism.

For instance, don't just say a character is angry, show us through their action, dialogue, body language, facial expressions or symbolism.

The angry character might kick the table, be red in the face, or the room he goes into might have red colours dominating it suddenly.

Showing – Not TellingDon't tell us what a character looks like with straight description.

Only include physical details about a character if they are important to the story, and show us this physical trait through action.

For example, "Lefty absent-mindedly scratched the stump of his right arm", rather than just saying, Lefty has one arm.

Think about giving your characters action by using lots of verbs to make them more realistic.

They shouldn't sit around thinking too much. Give them actions that reflect their emotion, rather than just telling responders about their emotions and thoughts.

Writing Your NarrativeNow you are ready to begin writing your narrative.

Remember, you are being assessed on the way that you write as well as how entertaining your story is.

Remember the four very important ingredients for successful creative writing:

DialogueShow don't tellLanguage techniquesControl of language

You also need to write your narrative within a defined narrative structure.

Planning ActivityO Using the Story Mountain, roughly

plan how the narrative will look.

O EG: Story Mountain on next page

Story Mountain

PracticingO Using your planning, write as much as you can

based on the following prompt

O ‘You never fully understand the migration process”

O Your piece can be a narrative, a letter or diary entries

O Mr Flannery will be checking your work on Tuesday.

O The exam is the following Tuesday!!