Belonging: Short Story Writing Activities
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Transcript of Belonging: Short Story Writing Activities
Part One: Getting Started
The Ten Minute Spill
1. Choose one of the following common proverbs:
a. A cat belonging to the house is not chased away. b. There's no place like home. c. Good fences make good neighbours.
2. Write for ten minutes, incorporating your chosen proverb (you may change it in some way),
as well as FIVE of the following words:
Cliff Blackberry Needle Cloud Voice Mother Whir Lick
Don’t worry about creating a story at this stage. Just focus on writing a small scene, using the above parameters, for ten minutes.
Reflection & Evaluation
1. How did this exercise make you feel?
2. Read back over your scene. What do you like about it?
3. If you were to re-write the scene, what would you change? Why?
4. Explain how you would develop your scene into a story about ‘belonging’:
Part Two: Working with Stimulus
To develop a successful creative writing piece for Belonging, you need to be able to effectively integrate the stimulus material you have been given. A high-range response to any creative writing task will be derived solely and exclusively from the stimulus material. This means that the examiner can easily see that your characters, setting, plot and themes are a direct result of deconstructing the stimulus. Therefore, it is not enough to simply give the stimulus ‘lip-service’ by referring to it once or twice throughout your piece. Rather, the entire premise for your response must be derived from the material you are given. The stimulus you are given may be either visual or written. In either case, all stimulus material both gives and denies choices. It is important for you to recognise the limitations the stimulus places on your story, as well as the choices it is giving you. The collection of visual and written stimulus in Part Three of this guide will help you to successfully deconstruct stimulus, thus enabling you to write an engaging and imaginative creative response about Belonging. To begin, here is a sample deconstruction of a question and stimulus:
Analysis & Deconstruction
Setting: garden, backyard.
Characters: old man, young girl –
contrast. Neighbours.
Actions: exchanging a pot plant – who
is giving/who is receiving?
Character motives: why is one giving a
pot plant to another?
Back-story: how do these people know
each other? How did they meet? How
long have they been neighbours?
Symbols/motifs: pot plant could
symbolise growth and development as
fulfilling consequences for characters
belonging to this relationship – may
also symbolise change – plant grows as
the characters grow older, paralleling a
change in the nature of their
relationship.
Relationship to belonging: conveys
friendship/relationships, notions of
sharing, belonging to
community/neighbourhood.
Sample Question:
Ten Minute Spill
Now it’s your turn! Perform the same ‘ten minute spill’ exercise from Part One of this guide. In this
case, write for ten minutes using the illustration above.
Again, you are not writing a whole story, just sketching a small scene.
This tells you the text type
you need to write in. In
this case, it is a narrative.
Always be conscious of all
the information present in
the question. The stimulus
being an illustration may
be useful for a plot-line.
For instance, your main
character could stumble
upon this
illustration/artwork at an
exhibition.
This tells you that your
main character needs to
make an important
(possibly live-changing)
discovery about
themselves. This is the
end result of either
‘belonging’ or ‘not
belonging’.
Use this illustration as the basis for a short story about belonging leading to self-discovery.
Part Three: Writing Activities
1. Who is your main character? Describe him/her in detail.
Stimulus One
This is a place I am still in the habit of calling ‘home’…
Incorporate the above stimulus into a creative piece about belonging.
2. What is the name of the ‘place’ your character calls ‘home’? Where is it? Describe this place in detail.
3. Describe your character as they will appear at the beginning of your story. Do they feel a sense of belonging or do they feel isolated/disconnected/alienated?
4. How will you shift your character from ‘not belonging’ to ‘belonging’ or vice versa? What or who will be the catalyst for this shift?