Hey, I got an 8 in language and a 7 in literature (which is getting remarked and will hopefully go up to an 8) which isn’t ideal, but hopefully your English teachers will have ironed out their mistakes in teaching by the time your time starts learning the new GCSE (yes I partially blame my English teachers for not teaching us exactly what we should have said on the exam; I was predicted high 8s and potentially 9s so I am a bit bitter, although I am still extremely happy with an 8 and 7)
For language, I was honestly terrible until mid Year 11, where I really started churning out the comprehensions for my teacher to mark during my study leave; not ideal, but the key to the comprehension is practice and learning exactly what the mark scheme is looking for for those questions
Creative writing and persuasive writing is also about churning out those colons, hyphens, semi-colons and all those techniques such as hyperboles and metaphors, as well as generally writing interestingly and persuasively. I think you start to get used to a certain pattern to follow when it comes to writing.
Literature is all learn-and-churn at the end of the day. Keep up to date with all your English notes because you’ll get A TON and it’s super important to be able to understand and pick out examples of certain ideas and themes. As well as this, you’ll get a lot better at reading between the lines in your GCSE years, so just keep working at it! I personally found I didn’t have to learn quotes for the exam because I already knew so many from the sheer depth we went in in class!
Good luck! Honestly English has always been (one of) my worst subjects throughout senior school and I only ever started seeing progress in Year 11 (or end of year 10 mocks); practice and perseverance is key!