Commenting Review Week 8

I have a love/hate relationship with the commenting process. I’m great with giving positive feedback and moral support, but I’m horrible with giving constructive criticism. I myself am really sensitive to critique, so I worry when I’m trying to give constructive advice on somebody else’s project or blog post that I’ll come off as too harsh.

I suppose I’m not used to commenting on other people’s work in the way we do it in this class because most of the time, if I’m commenting on someone else’s work in my field, it’s because they did something wrong or I’m critiquing them as part of an assignment. It’s pretty cut-and-dry that way.

When I leave comments of any kind I try really hard to focus on a particular writing strength that person has. I think it’s important that people know their strengths in writing because if you struggle with it, you know there’s at least one thing you’re good at. It could be their style of writing, the way they describe the scenes and people, or just simply how they write dialogue. Everyone struggles with writing in one way or another, so in those ‘blocked’ moments I want that person to think about their writing strength to push through it.

Concerning the comments I get, I get really happy and excited when I see that someone enjoyed my story, particularly the descriptions. I thrive off describing the scenery, the smells, the texture of whatever is the focus of my writing at that point. I like for my stories to be immersive, a short vacation.

I have gotten a few negative comments (not as in rude - more constructive than anything else), and sometimes I struggle with reading them just because it sounds like the person didn’t enjoy the story. That’s not necessarily the case, but regardless… it still bugs me.

I’m glad that commenting is available though, because it enables we students to grow as authors through the help of our peers.

In the end, we all help each other out.

Image Credit: Roger H. Goun

Writing Review Week 8

I’ve always been told my writing was good, but I don’t usually write for fun. I did for a little while, but school kicked into high gear and I lost all time to expand on it.

Doing storytellings for this class is therapeutic for me in that aspect - it seems like my brain is always in the realm of science and sometimes it’s nice to get out of that world for a while to spend time in another.

I think my greatest writing success this semester (so far) has been retelling the myth of Persephone. I’ve always thought about what the story would be like if told from her point of view and I’ve heard of other myths explaining how Hades was one of the most ‘chill’ gods and his marriage to Persephone was likely not as forced as the myth perceives. My other stories have been ‘ok’ in comparison (in my opinion, anyway).

A writing goal for myself the second half of the semester is to OBEY THE WORD COUNT while still cramming in as much detail and description as possible. I love describing everything in my stories because I feel it immerses the reader. Little details like the softness of someone’s hands or the yeasty aroma of freshly baked bread make the story come alive. Unfortunately, they also take up a lot of words. I also need to work on spacing out my dialogue. I’ve had many complaints that my stories read like one big paragraph. That’s not due to my ignorance of storytelling format - that’s just me being lazy.

Here's the iconic image of Hades and Persephone that was featured in my most favorite story retelling. 

Image: Puistopulu

Reading Review Week 8

Overall I am very pleased with the reading selections offered in this class. I knew Myth and Folklore was a good choice for my last upper division elective (and heck, I probably would have taken it anyway for the fun of it). As far as feedback goes, there are a few suggestions I have and a few complaints.

Readings thus far

Favorite: Honestly, I have to say my favorite readings (so far) were those from Ancient Egypt. I really enjoyed reading the raw mythos of the strange Egyptian animal gods and even some other stories that didn’t relate to their stories at all. I’m looking forward to the Native American unit because I’ve always wanted to read Native folk tales and stories but could never find a good enough source.

Least Favorite: The Biblical stories were a trek. There’s a reason I never really wanted to go to church as a child, and it’s because the stories were either too confusing or too boring. Trying to wade through the prose these stories were written in was probably the hardest part. I guess Biblical stories just aren’t for me.

What I would like to see: Honestly, I was surprised that no tales from the Norse sagas or Epics were featured here, especially with all the popularity the ‘Thor’ movies have been getting! I saw that the Kalevala is an optional reading, but I was really hoping to re-read some of the Norse myths. Oh well - it’s probably best they aren’t available in this class because it forces me to try something new.

Concerning the storytellings, I don’t often use my notes for the retellings. My notes are usually just summaries of the stories, because when I take actual notes (like I did early on in the semester), nobody understands what I’m talking about unless they read the story themselves.

The layout of the Un-textbook is great! It’s really comprehensive and easy to locate stories. I particularly like that each storybook section has a little summary of the stories included - whether or not there are monsters and wizards, dragons and jewels. The set-up and accumulation of all of these amazing stories is truly impressive and I am more than pleased with the easy-to-follow layout (especially since I consider myself technologically challenged).

The picture I'm using is one of my personal favorites. It's from my notes on 'Urashima Taro and the Sea Turtle' and I just love how elegant Urashima and the Sea Princess look. The colors are astounding and everything looks so peaceful.

Urashima Taro by Edmund Dulac