Feedback Thoughts

I'm pretty okay with getting feedback. I'm much better at receiving it on papers and other academic assignments because people usually give nicer and more constructive criticism. In real life, I feel like more people just tell you that what you did was wrong and that you suck but don't actually tell you how to fix it. That's not helpful at all and so I don't take personal feedback too well. I have a habit of taking things too personally but again that's in my personal life. I just like feedback that is constructive and can help me get better as a writer.

I read both of the articles on being a perfectionist because I am one but the article I liked the best of the two was Recalibrating the Perfectionist Mind. While the other article was helpful in a sense that it pointed out some of my perfectionist tendencies and made me realize that these are common things, it didn't give me a way to fix them. Recalibrating the Perfectionist Mind really hit the nail on the head with some of the issues that I face when I'm doing school work and then it told me how to stop myself from falling into those traps. It didn't really talk about receiving criticism or feedback, per say, but it will be a great reference for times when I feel myself getting bogged down by trying to not make mistakes.

I don't like rejection at all, but really who does? I mentioned before I can handle feedback on academic stuff and that includes rejection because that's part of school and grading is to get feedback so that you can do better. I was drawn to the article Why Rejection Hurts and What to Do About It mostly because of my fear of social rejection. I thought it was super helpful because it flat out said stop self-criticizing and start self-loving. I know that's much easier in theory but it can be done. I find myself constantly flip-flopping between tearing myself down and building myself up because I don't want people to think I'm vain but the truth is I'm pretty awesome. 

(Photo from blogspot)

Topic Brainstorm

Greek Gods and Goddesses

Lets just start with the obvious here, I have mentioned multiple times that I really like Greek Mythology and I think so much can be done with the gods and goddesses. Most of my knowledge about Greek Mythology is from the Percy Jackson series but because of my love for it I managed to do some projects in high school about the subject. The only problem I see myself having while doing this project is coming up with a an original concept because there are already a lot of storybooks about them. I would like to learn more about some of the goddesses and maybe some about the lesser known gods and goddesses.

One of my favorite myths is about how the constellation Orion came to be and how that affected the goddess, Artemis. I would like to do something with that story because it is a really beautiful story and it shows a softer side of the gods. I know that a lot of the Olympians had lovers and I could turn those stories into gossip at a sleepover or into some kind of dating game show. Also there was this really good idea I found on Tumblr that I posted a picture of below that I think would be fun to try!
(Information found at Theoi.com)

(Photo from Tumblr)

Aesop's Fables

One of the storybooks I liked was about Aesop's Fables. I like that they end all nice and wrapped up with a message at the end giving you endless possibilities to tell them how you wish. I want to learn more about the messages of the fables and how certain elements of them were chosen. I want to know why a lion was chosen for so many stories and I guess just why animals, in general, are more prevalent. I like that they read like children's books and if I were artsy in anyway I would try to make a storybook that involved my own illustrations (feel free to steal that idea artsy people). I think a good way to tell these stories would be like a friend who only gives advice in fables, then the people he was giving the advice to would end up reliving the fable causing them to figure out the message of the advice. It could end up being really funny because you could have people actively avoid him when they need advice but he finds them anyways or some more genre savvy people would seek him out just to get things over with. 
(Information found at Aesop's Books)

Moon Stories

There is something very intriguing to me about the moon stories. I like that every culture has stories about the moon whether they be about how it came to be or their specific moon worship. A lot of cultures are on a lunar calendar rather than a calendar based on the sun. It also seems like most cultures have a female deity for the moon which I want to know more about. Is the moon just inherently more female? According to Wikipedia, the sun and moon deities are usually opposite genders, so if a culture has a male lunar god then they have a female sun goddess. Those could be interesting stories to tell, kind of a battle of the sexes type thing. Maybe the female solar and lunar deities hang out and talk about their male counter part and how each culture treats them. 
(Information found at Wikipedia)

(photo from imgur)

Weather Gods

Continuing with the common theme here of gods, I've taken an interest in the weather gods. Like the lunar deities, every culture seems to have their own weather deities and I would like to find out how they came to be. I think it would be fun to have a weather report done by the gods and they talk about old myths in passing. For example, if Greece was experiencing a big heat wave then the new caster could reference the last time Apollo did this and it happens to be a classic myth. Each story would be about a different culture and their weather gods.

(Information from Wikipedia)

Week 2 Story: Pygmalion's Guide to the Perfect Woman

Are you a hero who has been unlucky in love because all the women in your town are terrible?

Do you also happen to be able to sculpt life-like statues of women?

Then Pygmalion’s Guide to the Perfect Woman is for you!

Hi I’m Pygmalion and I was once like you- a hero to all of Rome who to the outside world, seemed to have it all, but I had no one to share it with. Then I followed these simple steps to create the woman of my dreams and now I have everything!

Step 1: Be a Hero

For this to have a happy ending, you must be a well-established hero to the people of Rome.  when you marry your perfect woman at the end of the process, you won’t be total a total creep for falling in love with a statue. Instead, it’s charming and humanizes you to the public.

Step 2: Be in the Gods’ Good Graces

If you have made any of the gods mad at any time in your life, things may not turn out exactly the way you plan. These mishaps may include: your bride turning back into a statue occasionally, her rejecting you, or any number of things Venus thinks up. If you have angered Venus in anyway please close this book now and either accept that you will be alone for the rest of your life or marry one of those terrible girls in your town. Venus must be happy with you for this process not to end in complete tragedy.

Step 3: Sculpt Your Ivory Girl

Yes, you must be able to carve a statue of your most beautiful and perfect woman. She will be so perfect to you that you can’t tell if you are touching flesh or ivory when you stroke her cheek. You will kiss her lips and believe that hers are returning the kiss with twice the passion. You will hold her so tightly that you will be afraid to leave bruises on her flawless skin. You will compliment her and bring her the kind of gifts women love. You will dress her in the most beautiful clothes and adorn her in the most luxurious jewelry. You will share your bed with her at night and you will treat her like a queen because you love her so.

Step 4: Make Your Offering to Golden Venus

When the time is right, and you know that you just cannot live without your perfect girl any longer, attend Venus’s festival. After you have thrown your offering to Venus into the fire, pray that if the gods are pleased with you, then they will give you your ivory girl. If Venus deems you worthy, the fire will flare three times. When you return home that night, your girl of ivory will have become a real girl.

Step 5: Marry Her

For the final step, wife that girl up! Don't forget to invite Venus to the wedding to let her know how much you appreciate all she has done for you and your bride. 

I really hope all you heroes can now find the woman of your dreams! And once you've completed all five steps and are ready to take things to the next level, check out my next book: Pygmalion's Guide to Raising a Son So Great That Islands Will Be Named After Him.

Author's Note: This story is based off of the Roman myth of Pygmalion. In the myth, Pygmalion, a hero, lives the life of a bachelor but longs for love. He carves a statue of a beautiful woman and falls in love with it. Eventually, he prays to the Goddess of Love, Venus, that she will allow him to be with his "ivory girl." To show the gods' gratitude toward him and all that he has done for Cyprus, Venus grants his request by turning his statue into a real woman. Pygmalion immediately marries her and they soon have a son, Paphos, who the island is eventually named after. I really liked this story and felt it was one of the only myths to have a happy ending. I originally thought about changing the happy ending to a tragic one but then decided that was too cynical and instead decided to expand the happiness to other heroes in the myths. I thought that creating a guide for other people to follow made the whole statue love thing a little less creepy and really I just wanted people to get a good laugh out of it.


Bibliography. Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000). Web Source.

Image Information. Pygmalion Seeing His Statue Come to Life by François Le Moine (1729).

Reading Notes: Anthology

I thought all of the stories were a great introduction to storytelling! I liked that we got a little taste of the ways different cultures tell their stories and learned about what is important to them when it comes to myths. It was also nice to know that all cultures have origin stories and stories about the supernatural and tricksters. Even though some of these cultures never interacted with one another, there are still common themes and events found in their legends and myths.

Out of all of the stories, my least favorite was The Indian Who Wrestled with a Ghost. Maybe it's because I'm not a huge fan of ghost stories in general because when I think ghost, I think horror and I don't do the horror genre. I also think it could have been that it didn't make much sense to me. I wanted answers about the old woman in the beginning and this skeleton man he battled. Was there supposed to be a message? If so I couldn't find it. I was also expecting it to be creepy or ominous which it was neither of. I don't know if I could fix the story to make it something I liked because I don't think I could stay true to the message of the story when I don't really understand it.

The story I liked the most was Pygmalion because I have a couple of ideas already on how I would tell it. While it was a little creepy, it had great detail and made you sort of understand how he could fall in love with a statue. A lot of Greek and Roman myths end in tragedy and misfortune so I wasn't expecting the happy ending at all! I kept thinking the statue was going to reject him or she wasn't going to turn fully human or Pygmalion would suffer public humiliation.  I could definitely rewrite the ending to be sad instead of happy. You never really know what the gods are going to do and I think exploring another god's reaction to Venus' decision to bring the statue to life would be cool. Another interesting concept would be seeing the story from the perspective of the statue and learning her feelings about all of this.

Pygmalion and his statue

Image Information: Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Léon Gérôme  (1824–1904)

Reading Options

Brothers Grimm (Crane)

I was interested in this unit because I was drawn to the classic fairytales. The stories described in this unit seem very different from what I was expecting, but in a good way. I was expecting to get princesses and all that goes along with that but instead apparently there are not safe for children fairytales and I kind of want to know what they are about. All the fairytales in this Unit seem very different from one another and I'm excited to read them.
(Source)

Tejas Legends

I was originally looking for some Indonesian stories because that's where I grew up but since it's mostly a Muslim country I wasn't sure if they would be influenced by the Middle East or Asia. Then I noticed the Texas stories in the Native American unit and figured if I wanted to do something about where I was from this would work! I'm interested in the storytelling style because they were described as charming and good for children so I'm excited to see how that comes to together

(Source)

Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 1-4)

As I have mentioned before I love the Percy Jackson series and Greek Mythology so I really sought this unit out. I read Homer's The Odyssey in high school, and while it was interesting, I'm for something new and with a wide range of stories. I like to learn about all the different gods and goddesses and their interactions with people. 
(Source)

(Photo from WikiaCommons)