Week 8 Reflections

I have definitely been enjoying this class so far. I think that part of it is that the reading is over things that I want to read. I want to be well informed about culture and folk stories from around the world! That being said, when I was looking ahead to what reading I was going to do in the coming weeks, I was definitely thinking, “I’m going to have to read a bunch extra of these.” Maybe I’ll read some extra British or Celtic stories to try and find more stories involving someone named Jack, for my storybook. That would probably be good.

I think that perhaps I haven’t learned a ton about myself as a writer, but I have been reminded of some things I used to know. For example, I had forgotten how much I enjoy and find it fairly easy to write fiction. What a relief to not be writing essays! I’m quite happy with my storybook choice. What I’m going to do is continue to find Jack stories and rewrite them. I don’t plan on changing or modernizing them or anything like that very much. The exception would be if I choose to use a short source, such as a nursery rhyme, I’ll make it longer and add my own twist, like I did on the first story based on a nursery rhyme.

I think the thing that I admire most in other people’s stories is simple readability. I enjoy it when the story flows smoothly and naturally, so I can be engaged without worrying about trying too hard to understand it. The thing that I would like to improve for my own story’s readability is to grow in knowing when to incorporate dialogue and how much to do so naturally.

(Fountain Pen, from Pixabay)