28-Sep-15
Discovery and Creative Writing
Seminar
TSFX
Sydney University,
20 September 2015
Lecturer: David Strange
Success in Section 2 is vitally
important in order to achieve a Band
6 result. It is a free kick...
How is the English exam structured?
AOS
MODULES
Section 1 – 15 marks
A – 20 marks
(Comprehension)
Section 2 – 15 marks
A – 20 marks
(Imaginative writing)
Section 3 – 15 marks
A – 20 marks
Extended response
Plus at least ONE related text
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What should I do now before my exams?
● Relax. You can write a better story than you think. Even at this late stage. That
is, as long as you approach this task with some enthusiasm. And a method.
● Go back and re-read your favourite piece of fiction. It will help you more than
you know.
● Why did you first love it? How does it ‘work’ upon you? Why is it gripping?
● How does the author construct the main character and portray them as
sympathetic?
● What is the complication? What goes wrong in the narrative?
● Notice the imagery. Notice how the author draws upon setting to symbolise
their character.
● Re-read your own short stories from Year 11 and consider what you liked
about them. Is there anything worth keeping here?
Success in Section 2 relies upon how well you
employ literary techniques to tell your story. You
need to construct your story in its draft phase
around the same literary techniques you study in
other units of English.
Literary techniques
The markers will judge whether you have actively attempted
to employ literary techniques.
You cannot just tell a story.
These techniques include symbolic setting, motif, extended
metaphor, symbolism, foreshadowing, irony, intelligent
references to the historical context, an authentic voice,
cryptic dialogue and a well-constructed plot.
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What are the elements of a good story?
1) Symbolic Setting / Extended Metaphor / Motif
2) Authentic Voice / Sympathetic Character
3) Complication
4) Links to Discovery and the Stimulus
5) Cryptic dialogue
6) Syntactical Variety and Multiple Paragraphs
7) Reflection, Insight and Flashbacks referencing the Symbolic Setting /
Extended Metaphor / Motif
● Notice how the author draws upon the setting early in
their story to symbolise their character.
A cluttered desk represents a cluttered mind. Competing
priorities.
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What does this early image in a story represent,
symbolise or foreshadow about a main character?
What does this early image in a story represent,
symbolise or foreshadow about a main character?
A GRADE response: It symbolises a lung disease, and the writer makes
reference to Central Park as the “lungs of the city”, while referring to dying trees
and rotten undergrowth. The image is used in the first paragraph to foreshadow
the main character’s discovery of their illness. The image is returned to in the final
stages of the story: the acceptance of illness is shown (not told) by a reference to
the beauty of autumnal leaves.
What does this early image in a story represent,
symbolise or foreshadow about a main character?
B GRADE response: It represents the heart of New York City (and even calls it
that), but with no later reference in the story to an actual heart. It alludes to the
idea that New York is full of tall buildings, and Central Park is a type of oasis in the
middle of it. It might allude to the idea that central character loves freedom and
feels constrained in the city. Central Park vaguely represents this freedom.
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What does this early image in a story represent,
symbolise or foreshadow about a main character?
C GRADE response: The view over Central Park represents the wealth of the
main character who lives in an expensive apartment. The story does not return to
the imagery. The story makes a detailed reference to all the fashionable, brandname objects within the apartment. It tells the reader explicitly that the main
character is cool, but very bored and, “his friends tell him he has it all, but he feels
so empty on the inside.”
Where should symbolic setting be placed in the
story?
Symbolic setting (internal landscape as
a feature of characterisation)
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Authentic Voice
What is an authentic voice?
● A style of writing where your character’s voice sounds real.
● It is usually written in first person narration (“I thought”, “I imagined that…”)
● The character is not one-dimensional. They are not super-human.
● That is, they have both strengths and weaknesses in their character.
● The language used by the character is appropriate for their age group and
cultural background.
● The character’s dialogue (their spoken words in speech marks) is consistent
with their social background.
● The writer (you) generally knows something about the life experience of their
How do you write in an authentic voice?
You can begin with a ‘stream of consciousness’ exercise.
The aim of this exercise is to tap into the ‘acquifer’ of your imagination, voice, and
real-life experiences, hurts and pains. It is to tap into your authentic voice.
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Stream of consciousness exercise
We will now write solidly for a 5-7 minute period in which you will largely write
about yourself, beginning with the phrase: “It’s not easy being 17 when…”
What do I take out of this writing exercise?
Go back and re-read your piece.
Notice its flow, rhythm and underlying characterisation.
You have just taken a photograph of your soul.
Carve a fictional character out of it.
Make the character older or younger than yourself, but remain true to the ‘voice’ of
your character, because it is you.
Re-read your piece and ask yourself what they have discovered in their
reflections.
Writing Exercise
Write a brief backstory for your character which chronicles
their childhood, their nightmares, their saddest moments,
their secret desires.
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Drawing a link to the Area of Study:
Discovery
This Area of Study requires students to explore the ways in which the
concept of discovery is represented in and through texts. Discovery
can encompass the experience of discovering something for the first
time or rediscovering something that has been lost, forgotten or
concealed. Discoveries can be sudden and unexpected, or they can
emerge from a process of deliberate and careful planning evoked by
curiosity, necessity or wonder. Discoveries can be fresh and intensely
meaningful in ways that may be emotional, creative, intellectual,
physical and spiritual.
They can also be confronting and provocative. They can lead us to new worlds
and values, stimulate new ideas, and enable us to speculate about future
possibilities. Discoveries and discovering can offer new understandings and
renewed perceptions of ourselves and others. An individual’s discoveries and
their process of discovering can vary according to personal, cultural, historical
and social contexts and values. The impact of these discoveries can be farreaching and transformative for the individual and for broader society.
Discoveries may be questioned or challenged when viewed from different
perspectives and their worth may be reassessed over time. The ramifications
of particular discoveries may differ for individuals and their worlds. By
exploring the concept of discovery, students can understand how texts have
the potential to affirm or challenge individuals’ or more widely-held
assumptions and beliefs about aspects of human experience and the world.
Build a draft story about your
character’s discovery on one
or two of the key syllabus
points in the Discovery rubric.
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Using the Stimulus in your story
The stimulus might be referred to directly and simply if a visual image (a risky
strategy but safer than not mentioning it at all)
The stimulus might be referred to metaphorically (your best strategy)
The stimulus might not be referred to at all (a risky strategy)
EXAM TECHNIQUE: Write down as many words and images as you can about
the stimulus and include these words and phrases in your narrative.
Writing exercise
Write down as many words and phrases that come to mind about these stimulus
pieces in a three minute period.
Syntactical variety
Syntax. That is, sentence structure.
Vary your syntax between simple and complex sentences.
It. is. ok. to write a fragmentary sentence. Occasionally. For
effect.
For a child’s voice, try writing in compound sentences:
“I opened up the book and it fell apart right before my eyes. I
looked out the window and a bird flew right past.”
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A simple sentence is a dagger
A simple sentence has a strong, emotive effect.
When it is well written, it can often make a reader emotional.
Especially if it follows a complex sentence (or a sentence with
two or more phrases).
A complex sentence is such, that
it flows on through two or three clauses,
pauses, and then moves onto another
point before thoughtfully describing its
matter in a strong and convincing way,
all the while holding itself together within
a single sentence. And then it dies
suddenly. It ends in a simple sentence
which carries its emotion.
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A matter of style...
Big World
After five years of high school the final November arrives and leaves as suddenly as a spring storm. Exams. Graduation. Huge beach parties.
Biggie and me, we're feverish with anticipation; we steel ourselves for a season of pandemonium. But after the initial celebrations, nothing
really happens, not even summer itself. Week after week an endless misting drizzle wafts in from the sea. It beads in our hair and hangs from
the tips of our noses while we trudge around town in the vain hope of scaring up some action. The southern sky presses down and the beaches
and bays turn the colour of dirty tin. Somehow our crappy Saturday job at the meatworks becomes full-time and then Christmas comes and so
do the dreaded exam results. The news is not good. A few of our classmates pack their bags for university and shoot through. Cheryl Button
gets into Medicine. Vic Lang, the copper's kid, is dux of the school and doesn't even stay for graduation. And suddenly there we are, Biggie and
me, heading to work every morning in a frigid wind in the January of our new lives, still in jeans and boots and flannel shirts, with beanies on
our heads and the horizon around our ears.
The job mostly consists of hosing blood off the floors. Plumes of the stuff go into the harbour and old men sit in dinghies offshore to catch
herring in the slick. Some days I can see me and Biggie out there as old codgers, anchored to the friggin place, stuck forever. Our time at the
meatworks is supposed to be temporary. We're saving for a car, the V-8 Sandman we've been promising ourselves since we were fourteen.
Mag wheels, a lurid spray job like something off a Yes album and a filthy great mattress in the back. A chick magnet, that's what we want. Until
now we've had a biscuit tin full of twos and fivers but now we're making real money.
Trouble is, I can't stand it. I just know I won't last long enough to get that car. There's something I've never told Biggie in all our years of being
Classic Errors
Ignoring Discovery
Forgetting the plot (complication/resolution) or else overwriting the plot (too many thing happen)
Writing an historical narrative which is boring
Writing too much (only 800-900 words is necessary)
Not paragraphing enough and making it difficult to read
Know Your Marker
Stronger Responses:
Submitted a sustained narrative that developed ideas in a detailed manner.
Wrote with flair and insight, displaying a developed control of description, word choice and figurative imagery.
Made few grammatical errors that would have reduced the clarity of their writing.
Made few spelling/ punctuation errors.
Integrated the stimulus in a meaningful, sophisticated manner.
Employed an effective motif/symbol throughout their narrative.
Weaker Responses:
Composed a narrative that was brief, lacked development of ideas and characters and / or was convoluted.
Wrote a narrative or attempted to adapt a pre-prepared narrative without incorporating the stimulus in an insightful
manner.
Wrote with incongruity and / or awkwardness and / or simplicity, displaying mixed control of description, dialogue, word
choice and figurative imagery.
Made some / numerous grammatical errors that have reduced the clarity of their writing.
Created conventional and / or clichéd and / or formulaic insights.
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Obey the stimulus
Whatever you do, obey the stimulus. It is the discriminator
for examiners. The stimulus is not designed to trick you, but
to allow you to show your skills under pressure.
Dual and tri-narratives
Stories about more than one character.
However, they need to tie together by the end.
Use a different pen and colour if you cannot make the voices
distinct.
Backstory
The backstory of your character is very important, even if you do not
include it.
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The Twist
Avoid it, unless you are a brilliant writer and there is a clear purpose for it.
A twist in the story often means that you have not established a line of metaphor,
motif or foreshadowing.
Plot
Something has to happen. Your character must experience an event
which threatens to undo them or transform them.
This event is known as ‘the complication’.
It offers the character an opportunity to change. This change is known
as ‘the character arc’.
The event cannot be too trivial and it cannot be ridiculously extreme
(your character has to save the world). The event ideally allows your
character to express an emotional range.
The complication needs to be resolved.
Cryptic dialogue
The best dialogue is sparse.
It is genuine (well-researched), it is cryptic and it always adds
to the characterisation.
It doesn’t tell the story.
Consider the example of a character who is planning a
dramatic event later in the story and his reaction to an open
window. How would you use dialogue to act as a
foreshadowing device?
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Groove under pressure,
and find a rhythm in your writing
As the old, disappointed hippies said in the 1980’s (whose
one-time, long-haired friends were now wearing Nike
runners, buying Macs and investing on the stock-market):
“Simplify man!”
Slow down…slow your writing almost to a standstill in the
opening scene. Focus on minutiae – focus on extreme detail
for its symbolic and foreshadowing effect.
Extended metaphor and motif
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