Thoughts About Comments

I think the most helpful comments that I get are on my storytelling posts. It's good to hear that people like my stories, but more specifically what they liked about my story. That way I can focus on providing that in future stories.

A lot of people were impressed/intimidated by the fact that I'm writing a novel this semester. It was helpful for me to take a step back and realize what a massive project I'm starting. Being around writers all the time, it's easy to forget what I'm doing is a pretty undertaking.

It would be helpful if more people gave critical comments so I could know what I need to improve in my writing. Besides that I have liked reading and learning from the comments that people have posted on my blog. I think that a good comment on storytelling posts is equal parts encouraging and critical. If all you do in a comment is encourage, then you're really doing the storyteller a disservice because it gives them nothing to improve upon in their next story.

I think that my comments on other people's blogs have been going well. I'm used to editing for my writing classes and this is another extension of that. I like reading people's stories and giving them feedback.

Extra Reading Diary: American Indian Fairy Tales

Extra Reading: American Indian Fairy Tales

I decided to read the Native American fairy tales this week because some of the characters in my book are based off of Native American culture. Since werewolves are pack creatures, Native American tribes were the perfect society to model them after. I thought that having my werewolves have a rich history that readers could relate too would enhance the authenticity of my story. I also thought I could get some plot ideas from these Native American fairy tales.

(Native American Camp
Source: Wikipedia Commons)

The Boy Who Snared The Sun:

This is the story that really stood out to me in the unit. I really enjoy reading stories that have an oral tradition element to them. The story teller, Iagoo was really able to catch my attention with his story. I also liked how Morning Glory and her brother, Eagle Feather, would interrupt and ask question during the story telling. It provided more detail for readers. The story also incorporates my favorite legend/tale element: when they use stories to explain the way the world operates today. I liked the reimagined Adam and Eve of the story. I also like when stories describe animals with certain inherent qualities. My favorite in this story was the coyote, who was smart enough to convince the dormouse to sacrifice himself to save the sun. It's interesting to see how many of the same story elements appear in all different cultures.

Story source: American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae (1921).

Reading Diary A: Folklore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian, and Jewish

Reading A: Folklore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish

I chose this unit because I think it's interesting how the stories of these three religions weave together. There are similar stories from each tradition, but they are slightly different. It's kind of like how we read these stories and create a new story for our storytelling assignments. 

David: Before I read this story I knew story of David (Daûd) and Bathsheba from the Bible. However, this story went into a lot more and a lot less detail. It described David a lot more and gave life to his character. But Bathsheba is not even mentioned in this story, only her husband. I think it would be interesting to see the story from Bathsheba's POV. I might do that for my story this week. 

Dome of the Rock
Source: Wikipedia Commons

Solomon: Before I read this unit all I really knew about Solomon is that he was a very wise king. Solomon, or Suleymân in this text, still retains his wise nature. But it what I hadn't read before was that he kept watch over evil spirits and that when he died they were released into the world. I think that could be an interesting story concept to follow. It was only a nugget of the story, not really the main plot, but I think I might follow it.

I thought it was interesting to read about Bible characters that I already knew and see how they were presented in different stories. It seemed to me that while there were some differences, none of the differences were very major. The stories still retained their meaning and the characters were basically the same.