Famous Last Words: Week 6

This week I reached the third milestone for my novel. I got an 83 on my first milestone and a 96 on the second. (I haven't got the third one back yet) I'm up to a whopping 12,000 words (60 pages). I knew it was going to be hard, but I feel like I'm running out of words to say. Between this class and my internship writing blogs, I have been writing non-stop! The good thing about writing non-stop is that knocking out a 1000 words is nothing now.

I have the entire novel mapped out, but once you delve into each scene it becomes more and more complex. I'm excited about the next scene of my story because my characters are finally exiting their home and encountering the outside world. The most difficult part for me has been finding my characters voices. It's easy to have your characters react just like you would, but that doesn't create interesting and dynamic characters.

I have 4,000 words due every Wednesday and one 6,000 word assignment. I've turned in all of my assignments so far, but I need to spend more time on them so that I'm actually satisfied with their content. I like my story idea, but the deadline has decreased the quality of my work, which frustrates me.

This week I also finally got payed at my new job. I work in the OU library in the ILL department. I work four days a week and it hasn't really occurred to me that I've been earning actual money. It's nice to see that all my hard work actually earns me something. I went out to eat at Pad Thai on Boyd St. to celebrate! They have amazing chicken pad thai.

I'll keep you guys updated on my continued novel progress. Hopefully I'll publish it on Kindle and you guys can buy it! :)

Extra Reading Diary: Folklore Of Laos

Extra Reading Diary: Folklore Of Laos

I chose to read about the Folklore of Laos for my extra reading. I don't know much about Laos, other than that it's a small country in Asia. I picked the photograph below because it relates to my first story and gives a setting to the little-known country.

Luang Prabang Mountain Range
Source: Wikipedia Commons

A Child Of The Woods: There is something soft and innocent about this story that I really enjoyed. I too have felt that it'd be a relief to get away from society and live only with nature. (Honestly though I don't think I'd survive very long) I liked that this story was more rooted in nature than in magic. I think that sometimes magic can lessen the meaning of stories because it explains things away easily. The author of this story did a good job of describing the jungle and made me feel as if I was on the journey with the main character.

The Man In The Moon: My favorite part of this story was the moral: everyone wants what they don't have. I think it's easy to see all the bad things in our life rather than appreciating where we're at and all the blessings we've been given. The main character is constantly complaining of his place. He's not content to be a stone, the sun, or a blacksmith. If one is not content with themselves, they won't be content with anything they do. The ending was a little disappointing, but I understand that it needed to end the way it did to make a point.

Reading Diary B: Chinese Fairy Tales

Reading Diary B: Chinese Fairy Tales

I was most interested in reading about the foxes in this unit. There were two stories in particular that caught my attention. (I mean, foxes and wolves are closely related so I had to be interested)

Fire-Fox: I enjoyed the story of the fire-fox. I knew a little bit about the creature from Naruto, but besides that I had no context for what was going to happen. I like that although the fox was angry, he allowed the man to keep and use his powers for a while. It's easy to write characters that see black and white rather than the grey in-between. The fox left the man better off than he found him, even though the man stole from him. It had a happy ending, which I always prefer.

Nine-Tailed Fox
Source: Wikipedia

The Talking Silver Foxes: The character of the fox is very interesting to read about. I like that they are sly and like to play tricks on humans. The foxes in this story weren't treated very kindly. They were killed for the tricks they played. I like the idea of animals interacting with humans more than they normally do. The foxes in this story could talk like men, which I think would be an interesting storyline to explore. The ending was sad because the fox-spirit decided not to show itself anymore, but I liked the story overall and found it entertaining.

Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

Reading A: Chinese Fairy Tales

Through my different readings I've decided that I prefer reading different cultures' fairy tales. I've read American Indian and Persian tales and I decided to continue the trend with Chinese fairy tales this week.

The Lady Of The Moon: I really like the author's description of the moon castle. It was an interesting place to explore. I like the idea of the moon being some type of alternate reality. It was kind of like heaven because it was so other-worldly and foreign.

I also liked the beginning of the story where it described the hero, Hou I. According to the story, he is the reason we only have one sun now. He shot down the other eight. As I've said before, I like stories that explain why the world operates the way it does today.

The Cassia Tree
Source: The Chinese Fairy Book

Why Dog And Cat Are Enemies: The title of this story immediately drew me in. I have wondered why cats are dogs don't get along and I hoped to gain a little bit of knowledge from this story. I was honestly not surprised that it was the cat's fault that the two are enemies today. The writer of the story captured the nature of both animals in their characters and provided an entertaining reason as to why cats and dogs are enemies. I think that the way the author also included the mouse into the story was very clever. It added an extra dynamic and made me laugh.