Rache Writes

This week I decided to read about feedback by reading How to Mentor a Perfectionist by W. Brad Johnson and David G. Smith . As a recovering perfectionist who both is mentored and mentors, the headline of this really pulled me in. The article covered really good points about how to manage your own perfectionism and how to identify their harmful perfectionistic traits without closing off the relationship. I think particularly the points about sharing your own missteps and using humor thoughtfully were really helpful. I'm definitely going to think more on how to encourage my mentees to embrace imperfection, and how I can help support them in that. I also need to look at my own life and see where I can embrace that same principle as well. (Image source: The Dangers of Perfectionism )

At the beginning of the semester, I thought I'd easily work ahead in this class and that I could use my free time on Mondays to knock out my work for the week. Boy was I wrong. I've tended to work day-to-day on the assignments, as this semester has been busier than I anticipated. In addition, most of my work meetings are on Mondays, allowing little focus for school. And on Fridays, I tend to be too tired to want to do the rest of my work. So, for this upcoming week, I'm wanting to use my free time on Tuesday to work ahead on the weekly assignments, and my free time on Thursday to work on the weekend assignments. That way, my weekend is free for rest and my Monday is free for my job. If I have extra time, this will also allow me to work ahead this weekend on next week's assignments. ( Hello Weekend by Glynnis Owen )

For this week's Story Lab, I read chapter two from EmpoWord. Here are some loose notes I took over it: Rather than telling a story purely linearly, including each detail, you should limit your scope to make sure you keep your reader engaged Make sure the details all reflect the bigger picture and that you keep in mind what you're representing You can start your story in medias , or in the middle of the action, rather than spending time on exposition I don't have any notes on the POV portion except that I'm very excited to see Dear White People used as an example The one note I do have is that stream-of-consciousness is listed as a POV, which I think is interesting and it'd be fun to write a story from that perspective. Covered some good points about dialogue and how mediums change the limits of the story you can tell ( A Netflix poster for Dear White People )

I am going to take notes on the beginning of Beowulf, the section titled King Hygelac of Geatsland, by Strafford Riggs . In Europe, Hygelac was the ruler of a country called Geatsland. The people who lived there were brave and warlike. The land was also surrounded by monsters. For the most part, people stayed away from the caves with monsters, preferring to keep to themselves unless they had to avenge a death. The king and queen had a great number of lords who had all proven themselves in battle. Despite their ferocity, they treated each other as brothers. Occasionally the queen would ask one of them to tell a war story, and the younger men would listen. Among these young warriors was Beowulf. I enjoyed this passage because it did a great job of worldbuilding in such a short amount of space, and also provided a good introduction to the main character. ( Illustration of the lords at war by Henry Pitz )