I think you’ll agree with me when I say: HSC Creative Writing is REALLY hard. How do you even come up with a imaginative writing structure or techniques?
As a tutor with 2 years of experience and a former student with a 95+ ATAR, I’m going to take you through a simple, proven formula for writing a Band 6 story – and it comes in 9 easy-to-follow steps!
Let’s get started!
What does the Module C: Craft of Writing rubric say?
Step 1: Find Inspiration
Step 2: Develop Your Character
Step 3: Develop a Setting
Step 4: Develop Your Point of View
Step 5: Using A Formula To Write A Band 6 Plot
Step 6: Pick Your Narrative Type
Step 7: Add Literary Techniques
Step 8: Edit and Proofread Your Piece
Step 9: Adapt your Piece to Exam Stimuli
What does the Module C rubric say?
Most students sit down and try to develop an idea for creative writing without first thinking about what Module C is about and then struggle to mould their story to the stimulus in the exam.
The result? A story that often doesn’t convey anything much in a meaningful way that nails the marking criteria for the HSC.
The marking criteria for HSC Module C creative writing to score a Band 6 requires you to:
‘…consider purpose and audience to carefully shape meaning.’
To “carefully shape meaning” refers to the deliberate and thoughtful construction of your narrative to convey a specific message, theme, or emotional response to the reader.
It involves making conscious choices about language, structure, and literary devices to effectively communicate your intended meaning.
This step-by-step guide will show you how to create a well-crafted, meaningful story using a sample Mod C question as an example:
Step 1: Find Inspiration
Writer’s block happens to everyone and it’s really difficult to come up with a great story idea out of thin air… let alone a deeper meaning.
However, your Module C prescribed text is a really great point of reference for finding ideas and themes which are compelling to write about. Plus, you have to familiarise yourself with the text anyway because you will need to reference it in your reflection.
For example, Nam Le’s short story “Love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice” explores themes such as generational trauma, cultural connection and what makes writing meaningful.
Any one of those could be a great focus for your own imaginative writing piece!
And now for the deeper meaning:
The Module C rubric also gives you some suggestions for what the purpose of a story could be:
“to describe the world around them, evoke emotion, shape a perspective or to share a vision.”
For example, if you wanted to share your perspective on technology, you could write a dystopian story about a society in which every human role has been replaced by AI.
Or, if you want to evoke the emotion of nostalgia, you can write a story about an old lady flipping through a photo album and recounting memories from her youth.
So, how would you adapt this to an HSC question?
Usually, the stimulus is vague enough that you can write an imaginative writing piece that explores the same themes as your pre-written story. However, you might need to change the purpose of your story to make sure you are incorporating the stimulus.
The good thing is that you can interpret a stimulus any way you want to.
Take the example shown in Step 1. Here are some deeper meanings you could derive from it:
- Finding a sense of hope or beauty in the mundanity of life.
- Experiencing an emotional connection despite differing circumstances.
These are fairly simple concepts which you can fit into your story to show that you’ve drawn inspiration from the stimulus.
Step 2: Develop Your Character
It is very common for students to put greater emphasis on the plot of their imaginative writing piece, causing the character to become kind of an empty vessel that things just happen to.
This makes it hard for the reader to connect with the character and the story becomes less engaging overall.
Alternatively, some students go really over the top to try and create a memorable character. During highschool, I really wanted to make my writing stand out so I wrote a story about a jester living in the Tudor era just because it felt like something no else would do.
I didn’t know anything about the historical context and just threw “thou” and “thee” into the dialogue every so often to try and make it authentic. As such, the character came out confusing and honestly just really cringy.
The trick to a great character is nuance. To make a character feel like a real person you need to flesh them out. Consider some of these questions: What are their characteristics? Their beliefs? Likes and dislikes? Important past experiences? How do they feel about the world around them?
For example, here’s some ideas for deriving a nuanced character based on the stimulus from Step 1:
- Optimistic outlook on life → could be a positive or negative trait. Maybe the character reflects the notion that you need to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life to be content. Or maybe their idealism is their downfall and the bird flies away at the end, making them realise how harsh the world really is.
- Sentimental → attributes meaning to an unrelated event (bird chirping) that many people would overlook. Is there a root cause of their sentimentality? Maybe they lost a family member so they have learnt to appreciate how precious life is? Maybe they are really lonely and constantly seek out intimate connection from the world around them.
Great characters are also memorable and engaging!
Memorable characters always have two qualities:
- The first is that they feel like a complex and realistic person! This can be portrayed through exploring their personal values and unique characteristics.
- The second is that they develop or change as a result of the narrative.
Let’s have a look at a few example characters:
#1: Steve Rogers/Captain America from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011 film)
Steve Rogers starts off as a sickly young man from Brooklyn.
However, what makes him the perfect candidate for Captain America is that he personifies stereotypical World War II values of heroism, courage and patriotism.
Despite his small stature and poor health, these values drive him to make multiple attempts to sign up to become a soldier for the Allies in World War II.
But where do you start?
The best way to think about your character is to interview them!
Here are some key questions to think about:
- What is your character’s name?
- What is your character’s hair colour? Eye colour?
- What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?
- Does your character have any distinguishing physical features? What about scars? How did they get them? Are they proud of them, or is it shameful or embarrassing to them?
- What is their biggest fear? Who have they told this to? Who would they never tell this to? Why?
- What is the one thing they love to do most in the world?
- Do they have any secrets?
- What makes your character laugh out loud (if anything)?
- When has your character been in love? Had a broken heart?
Step 3: Develop a Setting
So you understand how to carefully create meaning for your HSC Creative Writing piece. Tick.
You’ve got a sophisticated character. Tick.
Now, in what setting and context do they live? Or, to put it simply, when and where will your story take place?
The moon? Ancient Rome? The Amazon? Your local area?
Whatever setting you have it needs to:
- Be intentionally chosen and planned
- Be something you are familiar with and can write about well
- Be consistent with your character
- Be flexible to fit with varied stimulus material you receive in exams
For example, if you were choosing a setting based on the stimulus in Step 1, it could be anything from a little girl’s bedroom to the tent of a wildlife photographer in the Amazon.
You don’t need to rack your brain thinking of a super creative and original setting (although you can if you’d like), it just needs to be a place and time that suits your imaginative writing piece. Remember, a compelling story can happen in the most mundane places.
So how do you pick the setting and context?
Making decisions about the setting of your story has a lot of layers to it. Where is the story set? When? What was going on in that time period? What did people wear? What was the culture like?
Here’s How to Develop A Setting For Your HSC Creative Writing Piece.
Step 4: Develop Your Point of View
There are three types of narrative voice you can use in imaginative writing: first, second and third person:
- My journey to the shops was made much less enjoyable by the sweltering heat. I was feeling light-headed and faint.
- Your journey to the shops was made much less enjoyable by the sweltering heat which forced you to become light-headed and faint.
- Jennifer’s journey to the shops was made much less enjoyable by the sweltering heat which forced her to become light-headed and faint.
Writing in any of these narrative voices can produce great imaginative writing – it just depends on the type of story and the purpose you are trying to convey.
I’m going to take a bet though. You probably don’t even think about which point of view to write in. When you start, you automatically write in the POV you feel most comfortable in.
Sound like you?
Here are some things you should consider when you choose your POV:
- You need to choose it intentionally.
- You need to evaluate which POV will be most flexible with different stimulus types (second person is usually pretty rare).
- You need to consider which POV enables you to get inside your character’s head and whether this is critical.
For example, if you were responding to the stimulus in Step 1, you could achieve entirely different effects through whatever narrative voice you choose:
- The original text is in first person so that using the same narrative voice might make it easier for you to connect with the text and draw inspiration from it. First person also allows a character to directly tell the reader how they feel about a situation, which could make the story seem more personal or relatable.
- You could use second person and write a letter to the character from the stimulus, expressing affection for their gentle nature or admonishing childish attitude and telling them to grow up.
- You could use third person for stylistic reasons such as making the literary world more immersive. For example, it would be unnatural to use first person narration to go on long tangents describing the environment around them because humans don’t really do that. In that way, third person can be easier to use because the author doesn’t have to make sure the narrative voice is consistent with the protagonist’s character.
So, how do you choose a point of view for your HSC story?
Not sure whether to go with 1st person, 2nd person or 3rd person? Each point of view has different pros and cons depending on the imaginative writing structure of your plot, and the number of characters you have.
Here’s Selecting A Point of View for HSC English Creative Writing.
Step 5: Using a Formula to Write a Band 6 Plot
OK, I know what you’re thinking.
Now that you’ve laid the foundation of your story, it’s FINALLY now the time to develop your plot. And because you’ve laid the foundation, creating a great story idea is going to be much easier.
So what’s the secret?
Most stories have the EXACT same imaginative writing structure.
It’s called the 5 Point Plot Structure:
Step 1: The Orientation, or the ‘Inciting Incident’
Every story has to start somewhere to ‘orient’ the reader. This will often establish the protagonist and the setting, and will sometimes present hints of the crisis or situation which the protagonist is likely to encounter, and will be a departure from everyday life for the protagonist. This event doesn’t necessarily have to be something bad, just something impactful for the protagonist that will open them up to change or new perspectives and experiences.
Step 2: The Rising Action, or the ‘Lock In’
After the protagonist and the setting are established, the crisis typically presents a challenging predicament for the protagonist which will create the main tension of the story.
Step 3: The Conflict, or the ‘First Culmination’
This is the point of the narrative where the protagonist experiences their first challenge, testing their initial capability.
Step 4: The Climax, or the ‘Main Culmination’
This is the main test of the protagonist in the story. To keep this interesting, this is also the point where the protagonist may look like they are going to fail once and for all. This is usually the point which allows the protagonist to define who they are as a person, and includes definition of their values or beliefs.
Step 5: The Resolution, or the ‘Third Act Twist’
The resolution usually starts where the antagonist or the crisis has taken the upper hand and the protagonist is doomed to failure. This is usually where the turn of events has occurred, the crisis has been resolved and the protagonist has come out victorious, but has been changed or transformed as a result of their experience. If you want, you can also write a tragic ending where the problem doesn’t actually get resolved. What’s important is that the character undergoes a personal change and learns something about themself or the world around them.
If you were responding to the stimulus in Step 1, a sample imaginative writing structure could look like this:
- Orientation: An old lady with no living relatives bides her time tending to her garden, she confides all her thoughts and feelings to the birds that visit her because she has no one else to talk to and genuinely considers them her friends.
- Rising Action: She notices her favourite bluebird has stopped visiting and becomes very anxious.
- The Conflict: She finds the bluebird with a broken wing in the corner of her garden, she is dejected and tries her best to nurse him back to health.
- The Climax: Although the bird seemed to be getting better, she walks in one morning to find it passed away.
- Resolution: The lady comes to the realisation she was projecting her suppressed feelings that she never shared with her loved ones onto her one-sided relationship with the bird. She processes her emotions in a healthy manner and is hopeful for the remainder of her life.
Step 6: Pick Your Narrative Type
The HSC imaginative writing PIECE can take any form you’d like.
There’s nothing wrong with just writing in the standard short story form. However, writing in a different style could help you stand out from the competition and impress those HSC markers!
Here’s a list of common narrative types to help you choose:
Letter | A story where one person is communicating to another through a piece of writing. You can either write a one-sided story with a single letter, a letter and its response or a sequence of letters sent back and forth. The technical term for this is an epistolary story. |
Script | This narrative type is not the same as a film or television script, but it uses the same format. A short story in script form can recount a fictional recorded situation like a celebrity interview or police interrogation. |
Diary Entry | This narrative type simulates an individual writing privately in a diary about their day and personal feelings. |
Interior Monologue | A story that essentially happens all in the head of the main character. They are constantly giving their thoughts and feelings on their situation, but never describe any concrete actions happening around them. This usually takes the form of someone going on an internal rant without any external plot development. |
Speech | The entire narrative is told through dialogue from one person. This type should only be used if you’re comfortable with writing natural dialogue consistent with the type of character you chose e.g. a dictator would probably not be delivering a speech using Gen Z slang. |
So how do you choose a narrative type?
You get some help from Art of Smart of course! Read our in-depth article on picking a narrative type that will help you get that Band 6 here:
Here’s How to Pick a Narrative Type for your HSC Creative Writing Piece.
Step 7: Add Literary Techniques
This is the step that can turn a band 4 story into a Band 6. Module C is literally named “The Craft of Writing,” adding literary techniques such as metaphors, symbolism etc. adds a layer of complexity that helps to craft your short story into a piece of profound imaginative writing.
If you were responding to the stimulus in Step 1, you could easily integrate symbolism by making the chirping bird symbolic of a certain quality or emotion. For example, this line represents the bird as a symbol of hope:
“Though the tune he warbles is clumsy and off-key it stirs something within the deep recesses of my heart, and I feel that we are flying through the sky together.”
The example also incorporated auditory imagery (describing sound)! Using imagery that relates to the five senses is a really easy way to incorporate techniques and make the atmosphere more engaging for the reader.
Including literary techniques is also really important if you are asked to write a reflection because you will need to justify your creative choices by quoting excerpts from your own writing. Essentially, you won’t be able to analyse anything for your reflection if you don’t include any techniques.
Need help finding techniques to use in your writing? Check out our Literary Techniques Cheat Sheet
Step 8: Edit and Proofread Your Piece
Believe it or not, there’s an art to editing and proofreading that could push your mark right up!
Here’s a checklist you can follow of things to look for while editing:
- Make sure your spelling and grammar is all correct.
- Show – don’t tell! Are there any parts in your writing where it seems like you’re just stating how a character feels like “Bob is sad” rather than showing his sadness through techniques such as dialogue and characterisation.
- Are you getting bored while reading it? Good chance your marker will be getting bored too. Think of some ways you could add suspense to your piece. If there’s really long passages of action maybe break them up with some dialogue or description.
- Does it feel too simple or cliché? Add some language techniques to spice up your narrative and make sure it’s well-crafted.
- Does your narrative just meander along or does it have a meaning? Try and think of what you’re trying to convey and whether it comes through in your story. If your story is too abstract the marker might not pick up on the themes you’re trying to explore.
To find out how to effectively edit your imaginative writing piece, check out our article below.
Here’s How to Edit & Proofread Your HSC Creative Writing.
Step 9: Adapt your Piece to Exam Stimuli
Congratulations! You’ve got a really great HSC Creative Writing piece under your belt.
Trust me, that hard work is going to pay off in the HSC Exam! Though you obviously won’t get the question beforehand, it’s still great to have a pre-planned narrative to fall back on because imaginative writing on the spot is really hard.
Most of the time, the prompt just asks you to write a story about a particular human experience such as hope, loss or betrayal. These experiences are common to most stories so you could just adapt your story to invoke a certain theme. For example, if you wrote a story about being betrayed by a friend and the stimulus tells you to talk about hope, you can add an extra paragraph at the end talking about how you’ve learned from the experience and have hope for your future relationships.
In terms of exam technique, I also recommend starting with Mod C first to quickly write it out while your memory is fresh and then getting into full essay mode with mod A and B.
For more advice here’s How to Adapt Your HSC Creative Writing Piece to Exam Stimulus.
Then, guess what! You’re done with your HSC Creative Writing Piece – and most likely earned a Band 6 in the process!
Really want to nail that HSC Creative Writing Piece for HSC English?
We have an incredible team of HSC tutors and mentors who are creative writing experts!
We can help you master HSC English creative writing and ace your upcoming HSC assessments with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at one of our state of the art campuses in Hornsby or the Hills!
We’ve supported over 8,000 students over the last 10 years, and on average our students score mark improvements of over 20%!
To find out more and get started with an inspirational HSC English tutor and mentor, get in touch today or give us a ring on 1300 267 888!
Elizabeth Goh isn’t a fan of writing about herself in third-person, even if she loves writing. Elizabeth decided she didn’t get enough English, History or Legal Studies at Abbotsleigh School for her own HSC so she came back to help others survive it with Art of Smart Education. She’s since done a mish-mash of things with her life which includes studying a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Relations) with a Bachelor of Laws at Macquarie University, working for NSW Parliament, and writing about writing.
Christina Ugov is currently completing a double degree in International and Global Studies and Theatre and Performance at the University of Sydney. Outside of her studies, she enjoys exploring creative writing projects, analysing literature and playing with her cat. She spends her spare time reading, listening to music and drinking lots of tea.