Week 8 Progress

I'm pretty happy with how my story writing has been. I'm especially proud of the progress with my Cupid and Psyche, Girl and the Basilisk and Alladin Prequel retellings. The assignments I most enjoy for this class are the readings as they go by pretty quickly. I find the writing task most fulfilling, but it is a painful process to get the right words out.

I've used the extra credit opportunities a couple of times, but I find it hard to find the motivation to do it. I have a constant amount of required work for my other classes, so I feel that I need to focus on those other assignments instead. At first, my weekly routine was according to the daily due dates but with one week ahead. However, with midterm preparation, I don't complete this class's assignments until Friday or Saturday.

The blog and website creation process in this class was tricky to handle at first, but now I'm very comfortable with posting and changing content on both of them. I'm pleased with how my blog and website look.

Looking forward, I want to manage my time better with studying, so I don't cram all this class's assignments. For some week, I want to retell a story with an alternate setting to add more of my creativity instead of just changes plot points of the original story.

Personal Photo of Puppies Rosie (Sitting) and Rebel (Stretching).

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Image (3/19/17) from the Feedback Cats Page

I chose this image because I've learned that each time a person revises their story, it becomes harder to see problems because they are too familiar with their story and in what they want to convey. Because of this, external feedback is useful because it shows a person where they need to elaborate and clarify the story for fresh eyes.

The feedback I've been receiving has varied. The most helpful feedback I've received have been the ones with questions asking about plot holes or for extra details. It's useful for me to know what parts of my writing grabbed readers' attention and where I need to clarify my story. Other times, the feedback I've received has been very positive, where the reviewer doesn't see anything that needs to change. They describe ways my storytelling was good with broad descriptions. However, this is also not very helpful as I don't know what I did precisely that was good storytelling to them.

I feel that I've given good feedback to my classmates. When I liked a specific writing technique, I brought a particular sentence that was particularly enjoyable, and I tried to explain why I thought that sentence improved the writing. When I found something confusing or wanted to know more details, I asked questions, which I know was the most helpful feedback I received.

While looking through stories, I've noticed storytelling styles, such as a journal or letter format that I later used in one of my own stories. I also saw some alternate universe stories that I am interested in trying out for a future writing assignment.

While reading people's blogs, I do feel like I know more about the person behind the writing. When I looked back at my introduction, I thought it was too formal compared to what others did. However, the comments for my introduction show that they understood the part of myself I was trying to get across, so I am more comfortable with it.

Something that I've noticed more with writing experience is that it's harder to revise every time you go back to it. One reason for this is that as the author, you have all the background information in your head, so you don't realize when you need to clarify that information in a story. I've tried to help others with this problem by adding questions and bringing up specific quotes in my feedback.Through looking through my given feedback, I've seen improvement in a lot of improvement. One goal I have is to become specific with every feedback assignment, no matter the length.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

I looked back over the theme for my blog, and I didn't really like how light the words were compared to the page. I adjusted it, and I'm happy with my blog. I'm pretty proud of how nice my project website looks. I italicized the author's note and bibliography so people could see the beginning and end of the story more clearly.

My reading assignments work great for me and I don't have any trouble coming up with ideas for my retelling without the need to reread the source material. The writing for this class has been a breeze on some weeks but other times I have the right idea, but I can't make the words flow. I've changed my strategy to finish the reading early so I have time to go through the writing process over multiple days. So far, my favorite reading is "Arabian Nights" Unit. I had such a hard time deciding what part of the story I wanted to retell because it inspired so many ideas. Both Arabian Nights and Cupid and Psyche readings have allowed me to create my favorite retellings of this class so far. 

I'm Finished, so here's a Fin

Basking Shark, off the Isle of Skye by Photographer Antony Stanley. Source.