Mythology and Folklore

Motivate So far into the semester, I am thrilled with how this class is going. It keeps me on a strict routine and has actually influenced the routine of my other classes. I am proud of the progress I have made in my writing and in the formation of my portfolio and blog site.  When I did the first week's assignments I was nervous that this class had so many deadlines and little components, like blog comments, that I was sure something would fall through the cracks. However, I have not missed a deadline. Not only am I proud of my dedication to the course, but I also have enjoyed creating a level of communication with Professor Gibbs as I truly respect and value her advise on revisions and my storytelling.  I have taken two writing courses each semester since I began college three years ago, but this class has had the largest impact on my written voice as it allows and encourages me to add detail and dialogue. Most of my other classes have a clear point, but in...

Feedback Honestly, I find the most effective feedback comes from the teacher. I know that may not put too much trust in my peers, but still think that the teacher has the strongest understanding of an assignments objective, thus offering invaluable feedback geared towards the overall objective. There have been a few comments that have proved to be quite helpful, as they typically point out structural issues that I have overlooked upon first publishing. That being said, in addition to structural comments, I have found the most helpful to be those that question the stories origin. Comments like these offer an insight into the audience's opinion of the story and point out if it left them feeling confused or if they understood the general takeaways. Nonetheless, I still feel that many of the comments on my posts are placeholders for people just finished the comment assignments on their end. Meaning, I do not fully trust some comments as they seem to be added hastily in order t...

Reflection As week 8 offers an opportunity for reflection, I look at my work as a glass half full. While this week allows me to look up, I notice just how much work we have done for this class. I am proud of meeting all deadlines, creating two web pages to display my work and growing in my ability to retell and recreate stories. At first, I truly thought that this class would be too big of a burden for me, however, as I went into week 4 I found myself in a routine of completing all my work. My reading notes used to take me two hours each story, but as I got into week 5 I was able to zone in on information I felt was relevant. I did not even gear my focus towards only relevant information, but rather writing trends that stories followed and how to use dialogue and narration effectively. Overall, I like both my blogs and my portfolios layout. They both follow different formats but keeps all each post clean thus making both web pages easy to operate. I have enjoyed l...

The Election of the King Bird Reading B: The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder Thunder is the mother, Lightning is the son Thunder is mother punishing the son for strikings things when angry Stories often give purpose to little things in life  The Bush Cow and the Elephant The theme of public battles to settle a dispute  Explains why they fight  Gives a reason to why you only see them in the bush and not near towns  The Cock Who Caused a Fight Between Two Towns Always a consequence for someone that meddles in other peoples business  mostly narration  The Affair of the Hippopotamus and the Tortoise The backstory to why hippos are mostly in the water  Hippo promised that if someone guessed his name he would spend his days in the water Why Dead People are Buried Dead people would have come back to life within 24 hours if a dog told the world how to properly bury us in accordance to what god said Put the b...

Group Project **The updated version of this story can be found on my portfolio ** It was that time of year again, group projects were being assigned. The weak were being separated from the strong within groups, as it is typical for the workload to fall heavily on one member. However, who would that member be? The whole class was buzzing as groups were assigned and designated a working area. Each group consisted of four members, and as Margot walked down the aisle of her advertising lecture she carefully summed up her three teammates.  The tallest of the three, Jim, had the most exhausted persona. His clothes were wrinkled beyond repair, hair was poking out of the top his baseball cap and had nothing but a pencil tucked into his flannel shirt pocket. Unbeknownst to Jim, a sheepish blonde girl, Julia, had just sat down to his left and was presumably the second member of their group. Julia looked nervous and confused like she scared to interact with any...

From "The Fish and the Leopards Wife"  As week 7 focuses on stories from Asian and African cultures, I finally decided to explore African tales. Both of these genres are wildly intriguing to me as both cultures are beautifully vibrant and unlike any other. After reading the vivid descriptions of Indian folk tales, I look forward to seeing the difference in how they present morals. So, as I begin week 7, I chose to read  Nigerian Folk Stories .  Reading A:  Of the Pretty Stranger Who Killed the King Only narration  Moral: Never marry a stranger, no matter how pretty she may be very random moral seems irrelevant  Easily written and to the point  Why the Bat Flies by Night Short Narration  Good idea to take common knowledge and make a fun story behind it  The Disobedient Daughter Who Married a Skull Again mentions not marrying a stranger must be a big custom to stay within the tribe  mostly all narra...

Telling a Story As I read EmpoWord's  Telling a Story  I learned invaluable information that will hopefully add a new dimension to my writing. Having taken countless writing classes throughout my academic career, I feel that I am a strong writer. Since high school, I have undoubtedly grown in my abilities, however, I have yet to have an opportunity to explore storytelling. I thought this chapter would only offer tips on how to propel a story, however, it went beyond storytelling and offered advice on how to expand the narrative of any work. I honestly thought I would only skim through the material, but overall I am glad that I chose to read this chapter for I found it majorly fascinating.  Notes:  "We're all stories, in the end. " - Steven Moffat, Doctor Who  I have never heard this but I truly appreciate it  What makes an interesting story:  Not only descriptions, but narration to create impactful and beautifu...

The Crow, the Jackal, the Wolf, and the Camel Fables of Bidpai Reading B: The Hare, the Fox, and the Wolf  Mostly Dialogue  Typically three characters  Two make a deal against the One One usually wins  Three Stories about Snakes  Mostly narration  Three characters again in each story The Camel Driver and the Addar  Always be grateful  Do not believe in vengeance  Never trust snakes  Two Tortoise Stories Be a good friend?  The Tortoise and the Geese has been apart of other tales  The Crain and the Crab The Crain and the Crab has been apart of other tales Told with a little more narration rather than dialogue  Was told to fish in a dried lake in the other fables  The Lean Cat and the Fat Cat Be happy with what you have  Do not get greedy  Three Stories about Birds  The theme of three again  Be secure with how you were born  Do not envy ...

Bidpai: The Ass, the Lion, and the Fox Fables of Bidpai Introduction  Bidpai was a famously brilliant philosopher King Dabschélim asked him to write his wisdom down for others to follow Thus the Bidpai tales filled with morals  The Rustic and the Nightingale  The Rustic loved his rose-tree but the Nightingale kept messing with the roses Rustic captured Nightingale  Nightingale appealed to his mercy and was let go  such a small sin, it was worse on him to kill a bird than for the bird to kill a rose Simple, mostly narrative only dialogue showed purpose  The King, the Falcon, and the Drinking Cup  Really liked this tale  You never know the full story, do not act ignorantly  Falcon saved the King twice from drinking poison  The Two Travelers  Mostly narrative  The brave are rewarded  Do not take the easy route, hard work gets you more  Poor Man,  Rich Man, Young Man...

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit There was once a foolishly naïve girl living along the Pacific coast. Each day, she would wake up, work out, grab brunch, get a massage, get dressed, go out, pass out and sleep, all to do the same thing over again the next day.  As Wednesday afternoon arrived, or hump day as she would call it, the girl, Cassie, waited in the lobby for her daily massage appointment. While taking the last crucial sips of her pumpkin spice latte, Cassie's name was called. Her ear's perked at the sound of her name and she eagerly jumped up to follow her usual massage therapist, Jolean.  Cassie went through the typical motions of getting a message: took off her clothes, got under the blanket face down and waited for Jolean to re-enter the room. Finally, she felt the warmed oil massaged throughout her body sending her into a conscious slumber. Still half awake, she felt her muscles relax one by one, feeling as if she had flipped to her side hours ago....

Jataka Tales: The Otters and the Wolf Jataka Tales, Reading B:  The Golden Goose  Greed often gets in the way of riches and success  Simple twist on the goose eggs  The Stupid Monkeys If you want something done right you have to do it yourself  The Cunning Wolf Gluttony, must like the Crane and the Fish  The Woodpecker and the Lion  Trusting Favor  Help thy neighbor  The Otters and the Wolf  Be thankful for what you have, you never know when it could be taken  Be generous/ weary  Trend of only three characters to keep the plot simple and not confusing  The third party is often leader to the moral of the story  How the Monkey Saved His Troop Respect sacrifice  Strong leader The Hawks and Their Friends  Be friends with the little guys too, they are often more sincere  The Foolhardy Wolf  Greed is often used a theme among these tails  The Stolen P...

From Jataka Tales: The Princes and the Water-Sprite Jataka Tales As I enter into week 5, I am still going to try and cut my note length. During week 4 I attempted to shorten my notes, however, I still found it difficult to take away main themes in the writing rather than story altering details. So, this week I am going to try and gear my focus towards writing technique rather than the story itself for the purpose of getting inspiration for my own writing efforts.  Jataka Tales, Reading A:  The Monkey and The Crocodile  Mostly dialogue driven  Straightforward with simple keen conflict   How the Turtle Saved His Own Life Simple tail, not much conflict  Ignorance runs the theme  The Turtle Who Can't Stop Talking  Most famous of the tails  Great imagery  Straightforward moral at the end of the story as part of the plot  The Ox Who Won the Forfeit  Kindness is the best motivator  All t...

Tales of Yesterday Head over to my portfolio to see newly updated stories written by me! 

Writers Write This week I chose to give my elementary story writing a break in order to go back to some basic fundamentals. In doing so I went to the website  Writers Write  and browsed through their articles until something stood out and related to me and my writing journey. Of all the articles offered by the site, I found only two that answered a few of my own questions, "Why You Need to Read More" and "3 Simple Ways to Kick-Start your Writing".  Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with reading. I either love a book or I lose interest about 1/3 of the way through, however, I have such a strong desire to read more because I feel that hearing stories told through someone else's voice can have the most influential impact on your writing style. That being said, number 1 on the list of 10 reasons why you should read is "You can't write if you don't read". However, I disagree with number 10 on the list, "You are less likely to...

Noah's Sacrifice It's horrifying that Eve had a child with another man to then eat the baby with Adam  Then deny it  I had never heard this story before in regards to the Torah  I am wondering if this was the first mention of it?  Why does the story go back to the beginning in far more detail rather than just doing it fluidly  I enjoy learning the answer to my questions though  The description of most animals and other residence accounted for offered great perspective to earlier claims  Noah was just as savage for not letting anyone else live, however, it was gods command Kind of ironic  Great illustrations on what went on inside of the boat during the flood  This part of the story if often untold  Thankfully the story explains the significance of the raven and the dove  I am surprised that Noah still had to make a sacrifice to be deemed ruler of the world after everything he had alr...

Noah's Ark As I begin my week 4 reading notes, my goal is to shorten my thoughts. Throughout the first few weeks, I seem to have made things more difficult for myself as I was describing the stories too in-depth. For this reason, I chose to read Noah's Ark because it is a tale familiar with most everyone as it was often told in our elementary school.  Now, I hadn't read Noah's Ark in its entirety prior to this post due to always of hearing the tale be told, however reading the story in its descriptive structure was far more illustrative.  I did not know that Noah lived to be so old and that the GOD planning his vengeance on man happened so quickly in the story considering its length I love the descriptions both god and Noah use to describe the boat and the plan   Two by Two is an infamous description that went far beyond the story of the ark  I would have enjoyed hearing how the boat was made before the journey on it The setting does ...

Art of Piracy While choosing a project topic I selfishly could not choose just one, but rather a mash-up between mermaids and women pirates. More specifically, Haun Christian Andersons "The Little Mermaid" . Ideally, I would like to use the beginning part of "The Little Mermaid" to then make the prince her enemy rather than her lover. Thus bringing the sorceress in to still give the Little Mermaid and her sisters legs so that they could steal a ship and attack the prince's fleet with their siren powers.  Secondly, I am interested in a fleet of pirates being taken down by the joint force of mermaids and pirates. For this particular twist, I will be basing my story on Homer's Odyssey  Passing the Sirens . More specifically I would love to build on the idea of having sailors and pirates pass by the island of the Sirens.  My final concept that I found quite interesting is based on  The Mermaid's Twin Sister . While reading this tale (pun int...

Venus' Vanity **The updated version can be found on my  porfolio !** Venus the goddess of beauty, love, sex and fertility, otherwise known as Aphrodite, embodied divine beauty unlike any other. Her unmatched grace was that of the gods, given to her as a symbol of power. Her head graced with golden locks, sparkling from the ocean's salty mist. The goddess of love's skin lacked any imperfections and retained the most dashing pink hue. Driven by her confidence she wed Vulcan, the god of fire and metalwork, but pledged her love to Mars the Roman god of war. Assuming her beauty allowed her countless admirers, Venus spent her days being waited on by the most rugged of soldiers, each under Mars' command. Being that her beauty was unmatched, Venus grew in her confidence. She knew that attracting men from all over was the greatest power of them all, as it allowed thousands of men to be at her disposal. Unaware of her husband and lovers watchful eye as she grew i...

Giving Feedback Giving feedback is much better than getting feedback, however, if we approach giving feedback more positively than it would limit the negativity surrounding feedback in general. This summer was my first glimpse into what it is like working with a team. Yes, we have done group work in class, but there is something far more meaningful when working with an actual companies team. My internship required large amounts of writing due to our online presence, so I was able to work with other writers giving and receiving feedback. Ultimately I thought we all worked well together and were able to fully communicate areas for improvement. When commentating on someone else's writing I typically posed each critique as a simple suggestion, as in "Maybe reword this". More often than not they received my suggestions respectfully and made changes accordingly. I learned that feedback is a gift, and if often meant for the success of others in addition to your own...

Psyche by John William Waterhouse Cupid and Psyche: Part B Venus and the Goddesses  Preface: Venus is Aphrodite  Husband to Vulcan the god of metalworking did not love him  Mars (Ares) the god of war was a lover of hers Cupid is hurt, a bird goes to tell Venus underwater tells Venus her household is basically a laughing stock not doing their duty  Told her he actually married Psyche  Venus rushed to Cupid, went off said she will have another son and will give him all of Cupid's gear Warns him he will regret going against her wishes  Venus left and saw Juno and Ceres who told her to let it go  her son is young and likes a pretty girl, do not make a bit deal Ignored them and went back tot he ocean Juno- wife of Zeus, queen of heaven Ceres- goddess of harvest  Psyche's Prayer  Psyche looking for Cupid still  Went to a shrine ended up bring Ceres, who found Psyche there cleaning her shrine Ceres...

Cupid and Psyche The Captive Woman:  Preface to Captive Women: The story is written from the perspective of an old woman who is the storyteller  The old woman is part of a band of robbers band of robbers had an ex-human donkey with them that is the hero of the story: Lucius  is told for the purpose of comforting a kidnapped young girl Tired donkey is eating in the middle of the night while robbers wake and leave to get goods  come back with nothing other than a girl from a known family robbers are holding the girl hostage and blame their proverty for this profession girl wept while old woman tried to comfort written in an easy tone but with many descriptive words girl begins to fall asleep but wakes up in a panic, mentions she has no hope of rescue illudes to wanting a sord to kill herself  this made the old woman angry thinking she could cheat the robbers of their ransom threatens her if she harms herself  Her Dream:...