Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking at my blog and website, I am happy with the design of both. I spent some time customizing this blog when I first set it up- I changed the font and colors to reflect my personality. I think the layout is easy for visitors to follow. On my storybook website, I have chosen to use images for each story from the same illustrator so there is consistency in the design. Again, I think the website is easy to navigate, which I am happy about.

So far in my readings, I have focused mainly on the plan when I write my blog post. Typically in my retelling of the stories I choose to write about, I have kept the main plot the same but choose to change other details to give it my own style. Writing about the plot helps me remember the major details of the story so I can remember the plot for my own writing. I chose written about the style and dialogue, or other details I have liked in the readings, but have found that I do not usually use these details when I go to write my own story.

I am happy so far with my writing for my storybook; I think I found a topic that will be interesting to continue. It has been fun to write from Perseus's perspective so far.

This picture is from my Storybook introduction. I am using images from Sidney Hall's Urania's Mirror throughout my website; there are images for each of the constellations I am writing about. I really like the style of the drawings and think they will help tie my Storybook together.

Going forward, I think I can focus more on what I ideas I have for my writing when I do my blog posts on the readings. I will continue to write about the plot of the reading because this is what has helped me the most, but I would like to add in more of the ideas about what I can do in my own writing that come into my head while I am reading the story.

Image: Perseus carrying the head of Medusa the Gorgon by Sidney Hall

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Reading Notes: Nursery Rhymes, Part B

In the "Jingles" section of the Nursery Rhymes unit, there are several well-known tales. The first is "Hey Diddle Diddle." HEY! diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laugh'd To see the sport, While the dish ran after the spoon. The next is "Tweedledum and Tweedledee." TWEEDLE-DUM and Tweedle-dee Resolved to have a battle For Tweedle-dum said Tweedle-dee Had spoiled his nice new rattle. Just then flew by a monstrous crow As big as a tar-barrel, Which frightened both the heroes so They quite forgot their quarrel. Another is "Rub-a-dub-dub." RUB a dub dub, Three men in a tub: And who do you think they be? The butcher, the baker, The candlestick-maker; Turn 'em out, knaves all three! As I said in the other reading post about the Nursery Rhymes unit, I think it would be difficult to write my own jingles inspired by these. They are all fairly short and follow a similar rhyme scheme. Th...

Story Lab: Writers Write

I chose to look around the Writers Write website. It offers advise to writers, writing courses, and writing motivation. One of the articles I most enjoyed was " 45 Ways to Avoid Using the Word 'Very.' " I thought the quote it started with was very funny: "Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to use the word 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." -Mark Twain The article then gives a chart with adjectives commonly used after the word "very" and then gives a word that means "very (insert adjective)." Sometimes when I am writing, one of the harder parts is picking strong adjectives; this chart gives me a go-to list. I also liked the article " 20 Myths to Use as Writing Prompts ." The articles does not give specific stories to base your writing off, like I usually do for this class, but rather gives general myths to use as a starting point. A few of the id...

Story Lab: TED Talk Videos

For this Story Lab, I watched Ted Talks about stories and storytelling . The first video is the TED Talk of a woman named Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria. From a young age, she has been a storyteller. She read foreign books for much of her childhood and based the stories she wrote based on what she read in these books. She eventually discovered books and she learned that writers could look like her. When she came to university in the United States, her roommate was surprised to learn Nigeria has English as an official language and that she was familiar with many of the comforts of American life. She believes people like her roommate have a view of Africans because of writing that portrays them as living in a dark place. When Chimamanda wrote a book, her professor told her the book was not "African enough" because the characters were similar to him, a middle-class man, and they drove cars. When she visited Mexico, she realized she saw the people there as poor immigran...

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