I didn't get a chance to finish last week's reading, so I figured I'd do it now. This time I want to focus on The Arrival of the Dragon from Beowulf, written by Strafford Riggs . This part of the story comes after a gap in Beowulf's timeline, where we don't know much of what happens to him. He lives safely in Geatsland and his uncle, Hygelac, welcomed him in the court. However, Hygelac soon died in battle and his son became king. His son did not live long, and then Beowulf became king. Geatsland was prosperous in this time, and Beowulf aged well. He was famous among his people and feared by his rivals. One night, a dirty visitor entered the dining hall. They almost threw him out on appearance alone, but one man thought he should stay. He took the visitor to Beowulf. The visitor explained that he was an escaped slave who came across a dragon, and the dragon was surrounded by gold and jewels. When Beowulf angrily questioned him, the slave showed a golden je...
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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 )
Today I'm taking notes on The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation from Myths and Legends of Alaska by Katharine Berry Judson . This is a creation story, where man comes out of a pod and wanders the earth for a bit. Eventually, Raven comes from the sky and turns into a human. He had planted the pea pod but did not expect man to come from it. Raven brought food, showed the man to water, and collaborated with him to keep creating aspects of life from clay. Eventually, Raven made a companion similar to man to accompany him, a girl. The aspect I like most about the story is the accidental creation, and then how the Raven is inspired by his creation to keep creating. (Illustration from Judson's book)
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...