Commenting Review Week

This is my favorite part of the class, honestly. I love reading people's comments on whether or not they enjoyed my writing! I think all people that enjoy writing look forward to feedback, whether it's good or not, because it makes us better writers. 

I think I look forward to your (Laura's) comments the most on storybook posts. Does it suck to have so many mistakes pointed out? Kind of, yeah lol. But in the end it is all so we put forth the best content we can that's both interesting and engaging, and informative. It's a nice change of pace from traditional classes where if you get something wrong, it's just WRONG. With this class, we get the opportunity to improve on stuff. I think that's awesome. 

Sometimes, this is how I'm feeling reading comments.

Source: reactiongifsarchive

The commenting that helps us connect the most to each other is the introduction comments. It's nice to see if people share the same interests, or have been to similar places. It's a great way to connect with otherwise anonymous people (anonymous meaning you don't know who they are in real life). 

Writing Review Week

After 7 weeks, we've all written quite a bit, both for our Storybooks/Portfolios or just for the storytelling of each week in general. It hasn't been the easiest for me to keep up with everything on top of all my other classes, but I'm working my hardest on it for the most part!

I'd say my best writing so far was the first part of my storybook. I had the source material and info on Virgil and all that good stuff, but creating a new storyline for something so set in stone like Dante's Inferno was pretty difficult.

My biggest challenge that I face as a writer is switching between the different writing styles I work with on an every day basis. For this class, I use AP Style, but add so much more content. In most of my other classes, I have to use AP Style, but I have a time limit for each script that I write, meaning I have to write a coherent story that fits within ~40 seconds (sometimes ~1:30, depending on the format). So switching between concise and lower reading level stories and fancier works like with my storybook has been a bit of a challenge.

The journalist's most important resource, AP Stylebook

I don't really have any particular strategies for how to write a story, I kind of just make stuff up on the fly. I do usually like to have an ending in mind, mainly because I feel like it's easier to write up to a conclusion, rather than writing nonsense that kinda just ends. 

Also, I've enjoyed the ability to write in different levels of seriousness, if that makes sense. What I mean is that I like writing serious stories with serious characters and endings, but it's also a nice change of pace to be able to write goofy or sarcastic stories as well. 

Welp, I think that's about all I have to say about the writing so far!

Reading Review Week

So after 7 weeks in the course, I, and everyone else, have read lots of stories. There have been some that I really enjoyed, and some I was just kind of meh about!

I think my favorite units were Homer's Iliad unit and Ovid's Metamorphoses, mainly because I've always had a particular interest in Greek and Roman mythology, so it was great to read stuff that I was fairly familiar with.

Unfortunately for me, my Storybook topic won't be covered until later on in the semester! I'm really looking forward to the Dante's Inferno unit, though. I'm kind of interested to see how much I'll be able to change the story if I decide to do the reading diaries and storytelling for Inferno after doing so much work on my Storybook!

Screenshot from my Storybook

The other units that I read were all pretty good as well, I just wanted to specifically mention the ones that I enjoyed the most! 

In terms of note-taking, I haven't really taken any notes! I usually read the units as I do the storytelling and reading diaries, so really the diaries are kind of my way of keeping notes! It helps me comprehend the stories better because I give feedback to anyone that cares to read them. If I can't give clear and concise feedback in the diaries, then I haven't read the unit well enough! 

Overall, while this class is some of the most writing I've ever had to do so far, it's definitely been one of the more enjoyable ones just because of the creativity I can express through my writing and everything else.