Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking Back

Overall I have really liked the reading and writing assignments. Time management has still been my problem (unfortunately), but something I didn't really think would be a problem has been my story length. I tend to write way too much! I think it's because I really, truly love creative story-telling, and I get carried away fairly easily. Editing and cutting word counts back has been a pretty big time consumer for me.

My favorite reading so far has been Cupid and Psyche. I liked how the readings for Part A and Part B were part of a larger story, and I have always had a soft spot for Greek mythology. This story gave me a lot to think about as far as storytelling goes.

I think my reading notes have been helping me with my writing, mostly because I write out details I want to remember when it comes time to re-tell the story. I definitely could go deeper with them, I am just not sure what I would include.

My favorite re-telling that I have done is definitely retelling the story of Callisto. In Ursa Major, I got to explore a completely alternative ending to a story that didn't sit well with me. I kind of felt a little empowered writing the story, too. It felt like a way for me to stand up and take back something and turn it into something a little inspiring (at least to me).

As far as my Project goes, I have a lot on my plate. I've been playing with ideas about how to tackle the branching aspect, and I'm not sure I've gotten it down yet. For Story 1, I made it so you could follow three different characters, but only one had the meat of the story. I think when I revise it I might change a lot and make it so you only follow Erwin, but there are more branches within his story. Then, moving forward, each story will focus on one character and different paths they can take.

I'm still pretty satisfied with my overall website, especially considering I had no clue how to operate OU Create or Wordpress before starting. Maybe in the future I can delve deeper into customizing it. For my story's appearance, I have been slowly learning some HTML so I can (hopefully) put in some pictures in the future!

Images

(Patch for The Golden Arrow, designed by me, ft. arc archery arrow)

I think this is my favorite image I have used so far, mostly because I made it. I did use a transparent bow and arrow from somewhere else, but everything else I did in Word! Ideally, I would have been able to use Photoshop or something similar in quality, but Microsoft Word is all I have for the moment, haha! I love creating things, whether its stories, art, music, ect. So creating a patch to fit in with my Ursa Major story was really fun for me. I know it's not the nicest looking, but I am still proud. 

Looking Forward

So I talked a bit about this in my looking back section, but I'd like to find a good strategy for my reading notes that would help me go a little deeper into the notes. I feel like I just skim the surface and remember a lot on my own later, but I'd like to write more of it out. 

For my project, I also talked about a different set up for my branching stories moving forward, and I can't wait to start implementing that. Possibly as soon as this week's project revisions! 

I am also just looking forward to the rest of the semester in general. I am excited to have my story finalized, or at least to the point that I'm just making small revisions/adding cool new things like pictures. I think by the end, I will have something amazing that I can really be proud to show off!