Rache Writes

This week, although I enjoyed the Native American unit, I actually enjoyed my extra credit reading more. I'm not sure if it's because of the HEART post I did with it that required me to read it aloud, or if it was the subject matter. The moral dilemma of the Chinese story of the fake sacrifices to the river god is really sticking with me. I'll probably end up doing my story retelling this upcoming week over it. I didn't really do any writing for this class this week, as I did a StoryLab and revisions instead. I have to say, I feel a lot better about my story after completing revisions and looking at comments from classmates on what I have so far. I'm thinking I might try to get the next two completed in one go before my other classes pick up too much speed, and while I'm feeling good about the story as a whole. I feel like I've read some really excellent writing this week in class, and most of them had to do with choosing unexpected narrators. While I ca...

For this week's H.E.A.R.T. challenge, I decided to combine this and my extra credit reading and read it out loud. I read about a Chinese civilization's sacrifices to the river god . I happened to be with a friend, and she said it was okay for me to read it out to her. I noticed that as I read, I definitely took longer since I felt more like an active storyteller than a passive reader. I felt I was contributing to the experience of the story. I also noticed more details and I remembered more of the story once I had finished. A couple of downsides were that it took longer, and also that if I got caught up on a word or phrasing it was hard to refocus back on the story, whereas if I was reading it I likely would've glanced over it. Overall, it was fun and having an actual audience made it even more fun. ( Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac )

( Moon cat ) I chose this one because I like how inspirational it is! I would consider myself a very creative person and sometimes I think it's beneficial to remind ourselves where thinking outside of the box can get us. ( Meandering kitten ) I chose this one because I think it's easy to fill our time up with things that are "important" or serves some sort of defined purpose, when oftentimes the breaks and detours are what we need most. ( You can do it ) Honestly, I just thought this one was really cute.

I never did Part B of the Chinese Fairytales unit because I was sick that week, so I decided to make it up this week! I'm focusing on How the River God's Wedding Was Broken Off from The Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhelm . For those who lived by the Yellow River, it was custom for the people to sacrifice a girl once a year to be a bride for the river god. When a girl would come of age in a wealthy family, sorcerers would claim it was her. Her parents would bribe them to spare her, and the sorcerers would accept the money. This continued until a family either would not or could not pay, and their daughter would be sacrificed. When a man named Si-Men Bau came into office, he was appalled by this, and said that the next year he wanted to be present for the ceremony. The day came and the girl was about to be thrown into the river with the bridal riches when Si-Men stopped them. He said that someone must first go to the river god and tell him to come get his bride himself. He fi...

For this week's StoryLab, I decided to explore Jon Winokur's Advice to Writers site. Below is a list of some of the advice that stuck out to me: "I tell my students one of the most important things they need to know is when they are at their best, creatively. They need to ask themselves, What does the ideal room look like? Is there music? Is there silence? Is there chaos outside or is there serenity outside? What do I need in order to release my imagination?" - Toni Morrison "A character should explore the world and herself. And I'm only following her. I ask a lot of questions. A character gets up in the morning and looks at herself in the mirror. What does she see? Herself or someone else? When you put characters into these moments that are extremely private, they will show you something." - Yiyun Li "I had a teacher who would say, 'Keep it on the body.' For him that meant every sensation should stay tied to the corporeal experience, ...

Today my favorite story from this section is An Indian's Vow to the Thunder Gods, from Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Katharine Berry Judson . An Indian woman promised to give Thunder her first-born child. She forgot her promise until the first Thunder of spring came. She could not give up her son. It came the two years following and she still didn't give up her son. One day, the boy was playing out in the woods when a storm suddenly appeared and the boy was struck dead by lightning before his mother could get to him. The story ends with a mother singing a song each spring about Thunder and her loss. ( Lightning at Petrified Forest National Park )

The story I liked from this section was another origin story; this time it was How Silver-Fox Created the World, found in Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Katharine Berry Judson. In this story, nothing existed at first except Coyote and Silver-Fox, but Coyote did not want to create anything more. So, Silver-Fox kept sending Coyote away and created a hole and an island he one day escaped to. Coyote was sorry and went to join Silver-Fox on the island, but there was little space or food. Every day, Silver-Fox made the island a bit bigger and created things like sunflower seeds and a sweat house. Coyote would run around the island every day to see how it had grown. Coyote wanted a winter 10 moons long, but Silver-Fox said it was too long. They argued for a long time until Silver-Fox made winter 2 moons long, spring one moon, and autumn one moon. ( An adult silver fox )