Week 8 Growth Mindset

        I have definitely been pushed to be more creative in this class, which is not always comfortable to me. I have such a fear of putting myself and my work out in the open, and creative stories seem so much more personal than an ordinary analytical essay. By reading other students' stories, it has definitely made me want to write better and to be more creative. I am still very reserved when it comes to taking risks. I love trying new things, however I am always scared of failure. I still have to keep in mind Carol Dweck's mindset of learning and growing rather than succeeding. This class has definitely helped me want to hear criticism, as it is what will make me better. Positive feedback is great to hear and very encouraging, but it doesn't grow you. When I take that criticism and use it to better my work, it will help make me a better writer in the end. I certainly still have problems pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and this class has helped me to put myself out in the open.
        I've considered for so long to become a writer, and while I am definitely have a lot of growing to do, I do hope this class will help in improving my writing ability and pushing me to do things I would not normally do. I hope to continue focusing on learning and to never give up. If I cease trying, I will never achieve what I want. I also hope to put into practice this mindset in other classes and in life itself to become the best I can. I can certainly work on accepting criticism better in my other classes and in life. 

Image information: "Criticism" posted by Saunder G. on a Wikipedia page for his high school honors course. Web source: WHS Honors 

Week 8 Reflections

        So far, this class has been such an enjoyable experience for me. It is a class I can be creative in and I really enjoy that. When looking back on my readings for this semester, I have read so many great stories and I have enjoyed every one of them so far. Some of them have been very odd, while some have been very funny, and others just enjoyable. I really enjoyed the stories in Arabian Nights. They are so creative and I loved how the stories are interconnected. I also enjoyed the uniqueness of Nigerian Folk Tales and how much thought was put into them. My reading notes have been so helpful in helping me decide on a story. I still do not think I read like a writer completely, as I tend to miss a lot of details about the stories I read. However, in terms of noting what kinds of stories I could write from my readings, my reading notes have been helpful in making note of those and keeping track of my ideas. In looking at the readings to come, for weeks 9-10, one unit which could be very interesting is the Marriage Tales from Native American stories. One unit which I definitely want to do in weeks 13-14 is King Arthur. I also may choose a Celtic tale to read as well. For weeks 13-14, any of the Brothers Grimm units could be very interesting and fun to read. Reading Italian or Russian fairy tales as well would be so enjoyable, so I may have a hard time choosing from the European units. 

        So far in this course, I am happy with the stories I have written. Most of them, however, are not as good as I would like them to be. I am still mastering the art of writing short stories, as I feel I could go on and on with my stories. I have learned that I have more ideas and creativity than I had previously thought, though I can definitely grow as a writer. For this last half of the semester, I want to work even harder on my stories and make them even better and more enjoyable. For my storybook, even though I've only written the introduction so far, I am really happy with how it turned out. This is a story which I have been playing with in my mind for years now. It was only after I learned about the stories of changelings that I decided that this would be such a fun story to tell. The story I had been playing with is much longer, and so I will have to shorten it a great deal, however I am excited to write it and see where the story goes. I want to be able to use fairy stories in order to help create my story, while still making it my own. I definitely want to be able to focus on writing more descriptively and clearly. Many times my writing can make total sense to me, but not to my reader, so I would like to work on that. I want to be able to write diversely. I have already written in first person and third person, and I would love to expand that to even more storytelling techniques. I have loved trying different retelling techniques for my stories. They are not all the same; some of my stories have a twist at the end, some use a theme from a myth, and some expand on a story. I would love to try even more techniques in creating my stories. Any resources this course offers are very helpful, and when I need help, I often look at Pinterest, which contains so many articles on different ways to write and how to make a story better. 

        I so admire the creativity of so many of the other students in this class. I am blown away by how they have written their stories and how they have made them their own. I do notice that some only retell a story without making it their own, and that is something I do not want to do. I would hope that I give good feedback. When commenting on people's blog stories, I try to focus on things that I enjoyed, while commenting on anything they could improve on. For portfolios and storybooks, I try very hard to focus on how the writer can improve his or her story and anything he or she can expand on. I think for the storybooks and portfolios, I do a fairly good job, however I know I can go deeper in my comments on blog posts, so I would like to work on that more. All in all, when I enrolled in this course, I was not expecting to be writing so much, but as someone who grew up writing stories and creating, this has been such an enjoyable experience for me. I look forward to the rest of the semester.

Image information: "Writer" taken by Fathromi Ramdlon, 2015. Web source: Pixabay