Week 8 Progress

 I would say the thing I am most proud of is the stories I have written. Every story I have written I have tried to make it distinct from any of the other stories I have written. Additionally, I have tried to only loosely rely on the epics I have written to influence my stories. What I mean is I use the epics to determine my overarching plot and the characters, but I always try to make the endings to the stories I write different from that of the epic I am basing it on.

I would say the thing I need to work on is my time management. I have not done a good job following the schedule I set for myself at the beginning of the week. Often I will just work on this class when I have an hour or two of free time. This has worked so far, but I would like to follow a set schedule.

I would say the hardest part of this semester has been finding inspiration for my writing. Often times I will sit and think for a while about what to write about. However, I have found that when I begin to write I am able to figure something out and end up writing an enjoyable story.

HTB

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

 For the most part I have found people's comments to be helpful in my own writing. And the comments that I find the most helpful are the ones that name specific ways I can improve either my writing or the layout of my blog/portfolio. For example, someone gave me the idea to add a dividing line between my story and my author's notes/bibliography. 

I have also found that my comments have improved throughout the semester. At first I was not really sure what to comment, but as I have given comments and received comments I have learned how to be specific and how to add good details to my comments. I still somewhat struggle with giving constructive criticism, because it feels kind of rude even though it is helpful in the long run and I enjoy receiving it myself.

I have enjoyed writing comments on people's introduction posts, because it helps me to get to know the people in the class. Being an online class, it is easy to feel detached from one's classmates, but the introduction posts and the commenting portion of the class helps foster a connection.

For my image I selected the below picture, because constructive criticism is something I need to work on giving.

Constructive criticism cats

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Throughout this class I would say that my favorite reading so far has been The Mahabharata, This is because I felt like the battle between the two families felt so much more personal. I also really enjoyed the battle at the end as it truly felt like a battle where both sides experienced loss. 

What I noticed from my writing as the semester has progressed is that my best stories are the ones where I really feel inspired by what epic I read that week. My best stories are also the ones that I feel like I can relate to the most. For example, I really liked the story about deadlifting, because that is something I related to. On the other hand the story about the meat shop felt kind of rushed and there was not really a lot of inspiration behind that one, so I felt it was not that good.

I also noticed that I enjoy writing stories that are not very serious and have a lot of ironic humor in them. For example, I enjoyed writing the one about the time traveler giving a peasant a lottery ticket for answering his riddles, because it was somewhat satirical and funny. On the other hand, the story about the poker night was not too funny and had a more serious tone. As a result, I did not enjoy writing that one as much. 

I have included the picture from the deadlifting story I wrote for week 3, because it was the one I enjoyed the most. This is because it combines something I have an interest in and some comedy due to it being over the top.

Deadlifting

Finally, I look forward to writing more over the top somewhat comedic stories for the rest of the semester as I feel like this is what I enjoy doing the most.