Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Storytelling: The 5 Dogs

Bea Lewis
March 29, 2017
Creative Writing 2325
The 5 Dogs

5 Puppies Source
              Once upon a time there was a village settled in current day Oklahoma. This was a very special and strange village named Kayak.  In Kayak lived many families, however one in particular contained a nice family of a mom, dad, and daughter, this family had a very beautiful dog as well. This dog was very attached to the daughter, whose name was Jenna. Jenna and the dog, Jake, were the best of friends and every night they slept together. Now every night, this dog would transform into a man      (told you this village was strange) and once Jenna became of age, the human Jake and Jenna would sleep together at night to which she fell pregnant. Poor Jenna began to show a bump and her father was outraged. Even worse, her father found out who the true father was. He was so angry he decided to kill the beloved dog/human, Jake. Even worse than killing Jenna's lover, her parents abandoned her and burned everything down so she was left with nothing.
             
 An old neighbor who always had a soft spot for Jenna gave her a match and told her where to find a place to build a fire. This old woman led her to a nice barn and months later Jenna gave birth to 5 lovely puppies. These puppies, while cute, were rambunctious and since Jenna had 4 boys and 1 girl she barely had a hold on them. It is hard to raise 5 children, let alone 5 children of a different species so Jenna worked multiple jobs to support them all. Everyday Jenna would hear giggling and laughter as she left the house! So one day she hid and peered through a window once the puppies believed she was gone. What she saw blew her away; her 5 puppies were now 5 small children! Jenna stormed back in, yelling at the children for hiding this from their mother for so long. Rather than use this anger as a reason to be angry, she channeled it into teaching the young boys how to hunt. 

Many years later and the boys were the best whale hunters she had every encountered. They would drag in the whales to the little town they had built for themselves and have feasts. Jenna's only daughter learned how to sew from her mother and would create beautiful dresses. After a while the old woman came back to see how the family was doing and saw all of the whale meat available. The new town that everyone ran too after Jenna became pregnant was struggling. So the old lady went back to her town and told everyone of the prosperous Kayak and convinced everyone to move back. Everyone was so impressed with the boys hunting talents that they made them all chiefs and made the only daughter a princess. The town went back to normal, the parents apologized for their behavior and they lived happily ever after.

Bibliography: This story is The Dog-Husband  by Stith Thompson, originally from Tales of the Northern American Indians.

Authors Note: This story was originally about a young girl who fell pregnant by a dog/human and an old crow led her to the place to make a fire. I found it a little too weird for all of the neighbors to be part animals so I made it an old woman! I chose to write it as if it was written for another class and put a heading on top!

             

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Reading Notes: Native Americans Part B

This week I chose to read Myths and Legends of Alaska told by Inuit storytellers.

I chose to read the story The Orgins of the Wind
Walrus Source
-A man and his wife had no children
-the man carved a doll out of wood he found from a beautiful lonely tree
-the man made fur clothes for this doll
-they honored the doll and took care of it
-the doll came alive and they saw his eyes move
-the doll went missing
-the doll went towards the light that led the man to the tree
-the doll cut holes in the sky to create wind
-after the doll continued to cut holes to make the wind he went back to the village

Monday, March 27, 2017

Reading Notes: Native American Part A

This week I chose to read Myths and Legends of Alaska told by Inuit storytellers.
Funny polar bear Source

I chose to take notes over the first story: The creation of the Raven

-it sounds like a man basically cracked from an egg?
-His egg was hanging from a Beach Pea vine
-He drank water?
-A raven came and flew to him
- PLOT TWIST THE RAVEN CHANGED INTO A MAN
-The raven is confused as he has never seen someone like him before
-He repeatedly asks where the man just came from
-the raven is the one who planted the beach vine or so he says
-The raven leaves for 4 days and comes back with 4 berries he has made.
-The man eats them!
The raven then makes some mountain sheep along with some reindeer
-The raven then makes some wild reindeer
-The raven then decides that the man will be lonely and makes for him out of clay a beautiful girl.


Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Week 9 Storyplanning: The 5 Dogs


This story is The Dog-Husband  by Stith Thompson, originally from Tales of the Northern American Indians.



For planning out this story I have an idea to write it from the parents point of view, or maybe write it from the one female puppy point of view!
I originally chose this story because it revolves around a dog and I pictured my cute pup as the character! After reading the story not so much LOL!

My dog Jake. Personal Photo 2013
-Girl has a dog best friend that sleeps with her
This is weird, I may change it to a human that the parents just do not like! And the kids look like the dad so the parents leave
-In the night the dog turns into a man and sleeps with her
Equally weird and illegal...
-She falls pregnant
-Her father kills the dog:(
I would change this to the father just bans his daughter from seeing the bad boy again as killing him is a little intense
-Her family abandoned her out of shame and left her to die
I was confused as to why she would die...like does she not know how to care for herself? In any case I will make this happen
-A crow took pity and gave her coals between a clam
I will make Crow and old nice neighbor who lives next door!
-When they crackled they led her to a fire
Again I wasn't sure why this was so vital, maybe the neighbor gave her cash for a motel for a little bit?
-She gave birth to 5 puppies
She will give birth but to human children, they will just look like their dad
-She kept hearing singing so she investigated and found that the puppies turned into humans when she went to work
Oh this could be tricky, maybe when their mother is not around they will turn into nice proper young kids and they are very difficult for their mother
-She scolded the puppies and forced them to stay human
-She raised them as human children and taught them to hunt
The good kids could be amazing hunters and this is their secret talent!
-The boys hunted whales and were really good at it
-Crow came back and saw the whales and told the village
The old woman neighbor was coming back to check on the kids as she always wondered what happened to them. OH! I could do the story from the neighbors point of view!
-The village moved back and the boys were made Chiefs
I would keep this but I would include the only girl and make her the tribe princess!

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Reading Notes: Native American Part B

For part B I read The Rolling Head by Stith Thompson.
Holding a pet snake Personal Photo
-A man lived with his wife and 2 kids
-Every morning he would draw her
-She went to fetch water because a snake told her too
-The paint washed off as she went to the lake day after day
-The man stayed back one day and killed the snake and the wife
-He fed her meat to the children
-The wife's head rolled toward the children
-The head told the kids what they did
-the kids went off but were protected by animals
I was not a fan of this story as I was honestly just creeped out by it! I will not write my story off of this one, I will do it off of the story from Monday!


Monday, March 20, 2017

Reading Notes: NAtive American Part A

This story is The Dog-Husband  by Stith Thompson, originally from Tales of the Northern American Indians.


I originally chose this story because it revolves around a dog and I pictured my cute pup as the character! After reading the story not so much LOL!
My dog Jake. Personal Photo 2013
-Girl has a dog best friend that sleeps with her
-In the night the dog turns into a man and sleeps with her
-She falls pregnant
-Her father kills the dog:(
-Her family abandoned her out of shame and left her to die
-A crow took pity and gave her coals between a clam
-When they crackled they led her to a fire
-She gave birth to 5 puppies
-She kept hearing singing so she investigated and found that the puppies turned into humans when she went to work
-She scolded the puppies and forced them to stay human
-She raised them as human children and taught them to hunt
-The boys hunted whales and were really good at it
-Crow came back and saw the whales and told the village
-The village moved back and the boys were made Chiefs

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Week 8 Growth Mindset

Inspiration Source
Through this class I have definitely found out some strengths and weaknesses in myself. Although I have also found myself growing and maturing already through not only this class, but through life in general! I used to be so defensive about my mistakes and I think through both maturity and time I have found myself okay with my mistakes. I also find it much easier to take responsibility and apologize. One thing I am still needing to work on it doing the bare minimum for not just class, but in my sorority and other aspects of life. I have started to workout and let's just say I am not the athletic type. I have a fairly slender build naturally, but I could not run more than a mile to save my life. I always figured since I never have before, I couldn't now. How wrong I was! I have only been working out for a few weeks and already I can run a few miles without stopping! This is just a testament to how changing your view can seriously change your outcomes!

Week 8 Reflections

My favorite flower, Rannuculus Source
When reading back through my reading notes, I was happy with them as even though they may be short, they work perfectly for me! I would however like to work on my stories as I would like to work on conversations in them. I have a hard time writing out conversations with all of the grammar rules that go with it. I would also like to try a timeline or diary- like entry for my story as I have seen many people do this and I love reading them!

I am super happy I chose to do a storybook for my project! I love my idea and think that I could make it really fun and  personal as I can explore different ways of writing! I feel pretty good about my feedback, although everyone does such a great job there is not much for me to critique! I love getting feedback as well so I always enjoy going back and reading through my own comments!