Nat 5 english creative writing folio

[123Runner]

Hi
My DD has to submit a creative writing piece for her Nat 5 portfolio, shes doing a short story and been advised by the teacher she can base this on a film or book - is that right? The Nat 5 guidance and examples talks of prose fiction but all tend to be original stories not based on an existing?

Hi, their teacher is absolutely right. They can use an existing text (film, play, novel) as a stimulus. I marked an excellent piece one year which had used a very famous novel as inspiration and had written a short story imagining events after the book ended for the main character. It was a 15/15. I’ve also marked a piece that used the opening scene of a famous war film as a stimulus, writing from the pov of their original character. So yes, absolutely can be done.

Sometimes candidates will reference it at the start of their piece eg. Inspired by “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott.

(English teacher/experienced SQA marker).

Thank you @junebug22 she was going to focus on a significant event from the book and retell it in the third person or does she have to create or imagine an entirely new part to it with those characters? (sorry feel like I am asking really daft questions but first time going through nat 5!)

Hmm I’d say she doesn’t want to lift too much of the actual text but it depends on how she does it. If she has a chat with her teacher about the specifics then they should be able to advise.

Thanks - she’s decided best to create new story using characters as inspiration as prob more chance for marks that way. Thanks for your advice, much appreciated 😊