In my opinion, EE2 was amazing because I didn't have to sit in a stuffy class room listening to somebody drone on about something that I really didn't care about. I was always better at creative writing than any other part of the English syllabus, so I took on the subject as a way to inhance the talent I suppose I'd merited from so many years of writing fanfictions and wannabe purple prose around Year 7. In any case, I recommend you start early. I'm an evil thing that people like to call 'a perfectionist', and I couldn't think of any way to begin my story. Nothing sounded right, and I was incredibly harsh on myself, which forced me to abandon writing for another day and another and another. That said, I did an INSANE amount of research, on werewolf myths, on latent homosexuality, on dream analysis, Freud, you name it, I did it (I even read de Sade, which, has now taken every last part of my innocence.) So, personally, I'd recommend you do a bit every day, even if it's just doodling in your journal or whatever, but have something in your head, because the fact that I did so much research, is probably what saved me in the end, because I wrote and finished my story two nights before it was due, my teacher marked it, I edited any mistakes I found and then it was off! You don't want to be like me, so make sure you do start early. Nothing is worse than procrastination.
I have a few questions:
- what was your critical study about? I wrote a story, and it was about lycanthropy. It was about a werewolf, and I suppose, in a sense it was a satire, I made reference to historians and myths that incorporated the werewolf and the modern interpretations that were used to justify lycanthropy.
- how did you get the idea? I listened to a song called 'Tristan' by Patrick Wolf, and I remember thinking that the song should have been in Underworld, which got me to thinking about wolves, I laughed that the singer's last name was wolf, and the rest as they say, is catnip. My original idea was compleeeetely different though.
- how long do you spend on it everyday? I wrote nothing till about, the last week. But I had pages and pages and sketches and clippings and all this hunk of crap that I accumulated from daily research. I also watched a lot of films and studied nursery rhymes that featured wolves, etc. The movie part was good, there are some amazing lycanthropic films out there. Oh, and wolf footage, and blizzard footage. (apparently, it helped Anthony Hopkins get into the role of Hannibal, so I figured it'd work for me)
- and what did you do when you got stuck or ran into difficulties? Haha, um. I ate. I ate an awful lot, and watched more films and researched and asked people for their opinions on things. My friend was really helpful during this time. My teacher said that I should probably cut back on any bloody and gory descriptions when I first told her my idea, my friend was really helpful in getting me to make up my mind over a death scene. I had a few ideas, and in the end, I decided to write it as a sex scene. It worked!
Well, after that ramble, I suppose you've gathered that I'm rather wordy (probably another reason why I did the subject) and that it does take up a lot of your time and a lot of your thinking, so I'd recommend setting aside time to write a bit every night and incorporate that with whatever study plan you have when you do homework, because you really don't want to be sitting in the middle of maths or something and suddenly all you have is EE on the brain. Though, of course, that might happen, and if it does, 'don't panic!'.
You do get quite emotionally attached, and sometimes you might think 'oh, that would have been awesome to put in my story!' after you hand it in, but I suppose if you start early, you shouldn't run into too many problems.
