Week 8 Reflections

1) READING. 

I believe that all my reading choices have been good choices. I enjoy every story I read, except for a snake one. The reading I enjoyed the most was from the Asia unit titled, The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck.

(Twin Dragons, Source: Luck)

I usually do my reading before I go to bed on a Tuesday night. It helps me to focus better and it's more like a nighttime, reading-for-pleasure more than for homework time. I also am able to sleep on my ideas that pop into my head. 

At first my reading notes weren't helpful, because I was taking ideas from a couple of lines and thinking about ways I could change it for a story I created. But now when I take notes, I tend to make up a story on the spot and then go with it as long as my imagination will take me. So I usually take those notes and expand for the story post that week. 

2) WRITING. 

I am very happy with all the stories I've written. I've learned that I'm a fast writer when it comes to writing fiction. Being a journalism major, I wrote only nonfiction stories. But thus far, I've really enjoyed going back to creating stories in my head and typing out whatever comes to mind. I find it more entertaining and fulfilling. 

Looking ahead, I don't see any storytelling experiments that I would necessarily want to try. As for writing skills, I think I just want to be able to write in different styles and make it entertaining for the reader.

3) CONNECTING.
When I look at other people's stories, I admire the details. Again, with my background in journalism and nonfiction writing, I have lost my creative mind, in my opinion. I don't feel like I have gotten back into touch with a way to create vivid details. I could do it with nonfiction/journalism, but it took a while to master that because I had to create vivid words (not details) using the actual details the source had given me. So there wasn't much leeway given to me. So I truly enjoy seeing the creativity of the students and hopefully I can force my brain into letting it be more creative. The only thing I will always try to avoid in stories is grammatical errors. Not typos. Grammatical errors. I hate them. Also, I don't consider passive voice to be a grammatical errors, but some might. Feedback has been good. I enjoy getting feedback more than I enjoy giving it in this class. I think if I was editing for a publication, I might enjoy it more, but I hate to edit a story online only and not being able to edit pen to paper. That's how I edit best. In the latter half of the semester, I think I can give better feedback by just staying focused on each story I read.