Week 8 Reflections

After looking over my reading notes, I realized that some stories I have a harder time analyzing than others. If I get lost in the story or if I'm just genuinely uninterested I have a harder time brainstorming ways that I can use some of the writing strategies and styles in my own post. Most of the time if I am having issues following a story, I try to read slower and just get through it. This method has obviously not been beneficial to me in my reading notes. A better choice would be if I get a few sections in to the story and am still uninterested, I may be better off just cutting it short and picking a different story to read. Otherwise, I'm really not getting anything out of the story and I'm just wasting my time.

As far as my stories, I think they reflect the same as my reading notes. If the stories are hard to read or if I find them uninteresting, then my story telling suffers. By not understanding the story I read, I have less to go off of when it comes time for me to write my own story. Additionally, I need to get better at detailing out more of my thoughts as I progress through my stories. I tend to know how I want the story to go but I fail to add transitions in my thoughts. The storyline will make sense to me, but my audience will not understand why I am making the connections that I am or they will become lost as I jump through time in my stories. Slowing down and making sure I add in the necessary transitions and details will make the stories I write easier for my audience to read.

Reading other people's stories, I've noticed that I like when they use language and tone similar to the original story. There are a few modern re-tellings that I like more than the original because they are easier to read and make more sense. Overall, I like when the language sounds more ancient and formal compared to the modern way we talk in this century. I also really pay attention to the stories people write where it seems like they are following the story verbatim but then they change a detail or two which consequentially changes the plot of the story. This peaks my interest and throws me for a loop which in turn makes me want to read on. I pay more attention in these types of stories because I can't be sure what minor detail the author may change and how the overall story will change because of that.

I call this my writing fuel