Hi everyone,

One of the parts of the HSC that nobody can get out of, no matter how crafty you are with subject choices, is creative writing. For some people, this is fine. Creative writing is your thing. You’re excited to write a story!

We’re not talking about those people, we’re talking about the many students that come to us each year at HSC Coworks and tell us that they ‘hate creative writing’; they have ‘nothing to say’; and most commonly, they have ‘no idea where to start’.

We’ve all been there, and one of the most important parts of effective creative writing is creating a sustaining a voice throughout a piece of writing. You’ve all got something to say, even if you don’t think so.

One of our exercises that we recommend for creating a voice is watching the below video (LEMONADE STAND – a tropfest winner!) with no sound. Describe what one of the characters is thinking from your perspective. Don’t worry about being right, we want to hear what you have to say. If you get stuck, or midway through, introduce a made-up event and explore their thoughts on it. You can stick to what’s in the video, or you can expand on it. Some of the things you could introduce include 

– getting fired from a job
– what’s happened to the character the day/week/month before
– what they want to be doing
– a life problem for them

Go for it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JL82j-l6hM