Week 4: Famous Last Words

During this week I was able to finish Narayan's Ramayana. I enjoyed the book thoroughly because of the mythology that was constantly being highlighted throughout the story. Rama is constantly developing relationships with mythical creatures and gods who are often engaged in very "human" tragedies such as familial betrayal and broken hearts. Fantasy stories such as these provide great flexibility for storytelling because the writer can decide how much of the fantasy world and how much realistic drama he/she wants to include in the story.
I am very satisfied with my latest storytelling post. It is an origin story for the king Dasaratha, set in a time when we was just a child. Like I mentioned before, creating a children's tale about surviving a monster's cruelty is just one example of the many interpretations that can be made from the original narrative.

(Jatayu, one of the main characters in my storytelling post, battling Ravana)

One other major milestone for me was my decision to go with the Portfolio project. After considering why exactly I enjoyed writing stories for the readings, it became apparent that the portfolio would give me the creative freedom to produce stories that are less focus on connected plots and more focused on originality.

I have already posted my first story to the portfolio after editing the author’s note. Getting feedback on my stories is something that I look forward to for my storytelling posts so I think that this assignment will fit nicely with my strategy for writing these stories.

Missing so much work in Week 2 was definitely an unfortunate event for me but I am optimistic for the remainder of the semester especially since I am more confident about what my project should be for the remainder of the academic year. After looking at other people’s storybooks and portfolios in the making, the whole process seems a lot more exciting when I think about everything improving and breathing life into their own characters and narratives.