GCSE English
Hi I'm in Y11 and for my mocks I got an 8 in lit but a 6 in Lang - these were both paper 1's so AIC, Macbeth, creative writing.
I was wondering if anyone had any tips/tricks on the creative writing side of the language paper and how to actually come up with things to write because I usually can't and I would stare at my paper for 20 min and then in the last 10 min, scribble random stuff down. I honestly don't know how words naturally just flow through people's brains and onto their pages! Thanks!
I was wondering if anyone had any tips/tricks on the creative writing side of the language paper and how to actually come up with things to write because I usually can't and I would stare at my paper for 20 min and then in the last 10 min, scribble random stuff down. I honestly don't know how words naturally just flow through people's brains and onto their pages! Thanks!
Reply 1
Come up with a basic story that you can use most of the time and practice applying it to different questions. Quality over quantity is key for creative writing and structure is really important- having a distinct beginning, middle and end of your narrative. Before you start writing note down a list of structural features, language techniques and other stuff you want to include and as you go add stuff in. I found writing nova fiction helpful for revision (stories with only 9 sentences) because you do 3 sentences on the beginning, 3 on the middle and 3 on the end. That way you dont run out of time to do a complete narrative. Writing nova fiction also forces you to use a range of punctuation like semi colons or you simply wouldn’t be able to get everything down into 9 sentences. Hope that helps 🙂
Reply 2
2
Original post
by DerDracologeCome up with a basic story that you can use most of the time and practice applying it to different questions. Quality over quantity is key for creative writing and structure is really important- having a distinct beginning, middle and end of your narrative. Before you start writing note down a list of structural features, language techniques and other stuff you want to include and as you go add stuff in. I found writing nova fiction helpful for revision (stories with only 9 sentences) because you do 3 sentences on the beginning, 3 on the middle and 3 on the end. That way you dont run out of time to do a complete narrative. Writing nova fiction also forces you to use a range of punctuation like semi colons or you simply wouldn’t be able to get everything down into 9 sentences. Hope that helps 🙂
Thank you! This helps because usually I spend most of my time on the previous 4 questions, so having to write only 9 sentences as a base is great! 😄 Also listing features etc will help because then I can use as many or little as I want, I feel like I just need to get the hang of actually starting the story and coming up with ideas.
(edited 12 months ago)
Reply 3
Original post
by plshelpexamsThank you! This helps because usually I spend most of my time on the previous 4 questions, so having to write only 9 sentences as a base is great! 😄 Also listing features etc will help because then I can use as many or little as I want, I feel like I just need to get the hang of actually starting the story and coming up with ideas.
Some people find doing question 5 first helps them because it means you divide your time more evenly given that question 5 is worth as many marks as the total of the other 4 🙂
Reply 4
2
Original post
by DerDracologeSome people find doing question 5 first helps them because it means you divide your time more evenly given that question 5 is worth as many marks as the total of the other 4 🙂
That's true, cause since I never understood how to start/do Q5 I'd usually leave it last, but this time I'll start with Q5 and then go back to the other 4 and see how it goes, thank you for the advice! 😄
Reply 5
13
Original post
by DerDracologeCome up with a basic story that you can use most of the time and practice applying it to different questions. Quality over quantity is key for creative writing and structure is really important- having a distinct beginning, middle and end of your narrative. Before you start writing note down a list of structural features, language techniques and other stuff you want to include and as you go add stuff in. I found writing nova fiction helpful for revision (stories with only 9 sentences) because you do 3 sentences on the beginning, 3 on the middle and 3 on the end. That way you dont run out of time to do a complete narrative. Writing nova fiction also forces you to use a range of punctuation like semi colons or you simply wouldn’t be able to get everything down into 9 sentences. Hope that helps 🙂
This is actually great advice! Saving this for my mocks in May.
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