How I wrote a Band 6 Creative about Hitler
I wrote an English Advanced creative about Hitler’s suicide that achieved a Band 6. In this post I will explain how I got a Band 6 despite writing about the taboo topics that English teachers warn you not to write about. I will also break down what I did so you too can write about whatever the hell you want and get a Band 6. There is a download link at the end for my Band 6 Hitler creative.
Like most students, I hated English with a passion. I loved reading and I loved deep ideas, but there was something so stifling about being to write in a forced and unnatural format, in an utterly unrealistically time-bound process that no real author would ever publish anything under. Most of the top students just memorised creatives and essays that they paid tutors to help them produce anyways. English felt like an unnecessarily torturous subject that ended up being pay-to-win and rote-memorise-to-win. The thought of beating the stupid game by breaking all the rules gave me a strange measure of satisfaction.
English teachers warn students against topics that we supposedly are incapable of writing well about: suicide, war, death, and trauma. I incorporated all of these into my creative and added a sprinkling of genocide. My creative was set during the last 5 minutes of Hitler’s life, as he stares at his gun in his bunker contemplating suicide. My creative outlines his internal reflection on his journey from an artist in Vienna, to rampaging anti-semite. My goal was to troll my teachers by writing so well that they would not only give me a Band 6, they would also feel empathy and connection with the world’s most hated villain.
How did I do this? Here are the three distinctive things I did:
I forced the reader to fit the puzzle pieces themselves. Rather than just reveal that it was Hitler from the outset, I titled the piece ‘The Artist from Vienna’ and slowly dip-fed hints about the identity of the main character as the creative went on. This is the principle of ‘show don’t tell’ on steroids. Use history, allusion, and figurative language to drop hints so that the marker draws the dots themselves. My piece does not have the word ‘Hitler’. When they draw the dots they feel smart. When they feel smart, they feel good and give you good marks.
I took the reader for an emotional ride. The creative largely follows the internal thought process of Hitler as he realises that maybe he shouldn’t have genocided the Jews. Initial triumph turns to reflection and shock as he realises that he made some bad moves. The piece ends with a sense of sorrow and regret combined with a vain hope that his legacy would be preserved as an artist. Fight back against English by using emotional manipulation.
I built meaning quickly through interweaving key repeated motifs. In keeping with the artistry theme of the creative, I repeatedly cast Hitler’s actions through art metaphors. Contrasting images of a black and white, approach versus the warm glow of candles and family dinners. Strands of desire and joy woven into a tapestry of life that Hitler burnt and reduced to ashes. Vibrant colours of diversity and monochrome shades of conformity. Repeated motifs and symbols are a powerful way of quickly building up meaning in a short creative, each repetition adding another ‘layer’ of meaning.
If you do these things, you too can beat the English game and get a Band 6 writing about whatever you want do write.
Download my Hitler creative here: isht.ink/4rUp9UuqF
