Week 8 Reading and Writing

Hello!

Thus far I have really enjoyed the reading and assignments for this class. Having something new to read each week has kept me interested, and the writing assignments are an enjoyable way for me to exercise a part of my brain that I don’t get to use much. Although I always feel pressed for time in completing these assignments, I look forward to the time I get to spend on them more than the work for any other class. I think the things I am the proudest of right now would be the look of my blog and the introduction to my story book.

As for my introduction, I don’t know how long I spent just staring at a blank word document before I got up the courage to write it. Creative writing like that, specifically storytelling, was never something that was emphasized in any curriculum I have had. It has all been centered more towards technical writing or academic writing. So, this was new territory for me, and anyone that knows me well at all knows I hate being bad at things and that I am not a huge fan of new things. So, the introduction was intimidating. There was no longer a base story to go off. No proven formula to write by, per say. However, after gritting my teeth and making myself do a first draft it wasn’t as bad as I expected. It needed tweaked, but it was more than I had thought I could do, and that was a great feeling.

My blog started out looking very armature. Thinking this was just how blogs looked I left it alone for a while, until I had seen other students’ blogs that I really liked the look of. After seeing those I thought about what aspects I liked about them the most and then tried to implement those in both my blog and my storybook website. Now I am extremely happy with the look of both. Speaking of which, here is a picture from my storybook that I really like.

It is of the Brocéliande Forest in France which is where legend says the Merlin was trapped in a tower, or a tree depending on who you ask, by Vivienne and still resides today. I think I like the picture because to me it is exactly what a magical forest would look like, beautiful and strange all at once.

For the future I am going to try to do more research into the legends about Merlin, so I can really create a story that laces them together and tells a new but familiar narrative. I may even try to use that research as extra credit readings so I can also catch up on some lost points.

Photo Credit

Brocéliande Forest in Brittany France by mll, from Flickr. Here is the link.

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