Week 8 Progress

Looking Back

I would say I am moderately okay with the progress I have made so far. I feel as though I can make vast improvements on what I do to be more efficient and to come up with better story ideas. I do have a weekly routine now, but it took me a while to come up with it. I will start the routine next week doing all the notes one day and the story the next. I will then work on the project on Friday and Saturday submitting it on Sunday. I think I enjoy the readings the most but for assignments I would say the story. I like writing stories and would like to get better at it. I love reading and want to improve at putting my ideas on to paper. I have not used any of the extra credit options yet but will do so this week and the next. I will try to do one a weak to get my points up and finish the class faster. I think for the blog and website things are coming along smoothly. I am not really a tech genius, so it takes me a while to figure it all out. I am trying my best to make it look as cool as possible. I am currently trying to find a way to attach a link box on the introduction page that takes people to a playlist to listen to while they read my stories.

Looking Forward

I want to be more efficient and get things turned in well before they are due. I want to spend more time brainstorming ideas for stories to come up with good ones. I want to avoid doing things last minute. I live a very busy life, but I would like to be able to schedule time to do things for this class. I want to try to come at stories from a different angle each time other than simply retelling the story. I want to be able to find a way to have a moving background on my website and blog. I want to make it look interesting and eye catching. I don’t know if the websites I am using allow for that though. 

 

Motivation by Freepick

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I think a lot people have been very kind through out my posts commenting on the good things about my stories and about me. They also have been very constructive. On a couple of posts that I did I had pretty poor grammar and someone else was kind enough to let me know what I should change to fix that. They also gave me interesting ideas for the stories I wrote after by asking me what if this happened questions. The most useful comments are the ones that fix my poor grammar and sentence structure. I also have been noticing that writing stories is different than essays and there is a different way to do it. I think commenting on my posts with how I should change the structure to be helpful. It has always been something I have struggled with and help pointing out my mistakes is always nice. I think the comments I give back are more about praise and what if questions than anything else. I think I have found feedback that would allow the next story by the person to be a little bit better. I think I learn the most about story writing by reading other student’s stories. The students in this class are so talented and write such interesting stories. It has made me change the way I write stories and become more creative. I am not so sure that I am becoming familiar with the person behind the story. I need to change my blog to make it more friendly for those commenting. I believe I should go through and comment on the comments I receive. This way they will feel valued on my blog and I will continue to get constructive feedback. I would like to change the structure of the week to where I do all the readings on one day and then write the story the next day to have all the information fresh. I think I would like to leave the introduction the same but change the comment wall to look more interesting.

 

A Making Reflection

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking Back

I have to say that the reading and writing assignments are working out great for me. I had a bit of a learning curve at the beginning but got over it quickly. It does seem now to take me longer to think about which story I want to take notes on focusing on how I will incorporate it into my final story. As the class has gone on I would say it takes me longer to choose and the stories take longer to write. I think this is because I am focusing really hard at writing a better story than the last one. I am happy with how my blog and website project are looking. I have never been big into blogging before but after doing it for a bit I have to say it is really nice. The project is coming along smoothly at the moment. I am just finishing writing my first story because I want it to look really good and read smoothly. So far my story is progressing along I have just been picky of everything that touches the page. I think working on the story posts has helped me in preparing me through story writing. Each week I think my story posts get better or more creative. I have tried to get away from retelling and look at a different angle from which to write. This also comes from reading so many other peoples stories who seem to be leagues ahead of my own in creativity and imagination. I would say that my favorite reading so far was probably of the Mahabharata because of the heroes in it. Ramayana was also nice but with Ramayana I felt kind of tied down to just Rama, who event though was awesome seemed a little too godly to be able to connect with. In the Mahabharata the characters are a bit more relatable and I like their stories a bit more. I wouldn’t say the reading notes are incredibly helpful only because I feel as though they bind me to a certain way of writing. I want to be more creative and when I get bombarded with notes I took I feel as though I have to incorporate them into the story which kind of takes away from a different spin I can give the story. I think they are helpful if you can’t remember a story a specific story or want to do a retelling but anything more original it seems to hurt you a bit. I have discovered that I should read a story completely formulate what seems to be most central to the stories theme and characters then  write notes on that. This way I can think of an idea about the story I will write without being held back by what is in the original story.

 

God of Fire, Agni, of the Medicine Buddha Mandala by Unknown

I chose this image of the fire god Agni because it looks really cool and I thought he was really interesting.

Looking Forward

I want to actually complete both the reading sections and note sections together so that I can get a clear picture of the story or stories and be able to make a really good story out of both sections. Lately I have been writing a story with sprinkled in bits from both sections. I want to link both reading sections through a strong story that includes a lot from both the sections.