Story Lab: EmpoWord

There were many sections in the chapter I read from this article but if you read below you will see that I pick and chose the ones that I found most applicable to bettering my writing ability and ones that I thought were particularly thought-provoking.

Scope

• refers to the boundaries of your story and plot
• I felt like some of my stories contain too broad of a scope and that makes them have a lot of general information instead of good detailed information about the scenarios.
• This made me think of using the phrase "a mile wide and an inch deep" to describe some of my stories
• they contained a lot of information but lacked a good level of depth

Sequence and Pacing

• refers to the order of events of your story and how quickly different situations progress
• This section talked about a story line pattern called In Medias Res
• this is the style where the beginning of your story starts in the middle of the action of the plot then later circles around to explain why all of the action was happening in the first place
• I thought this would be a great technique to try since I don't believe I have used it for any stories all semester
• This may help with my Scope problem because it allows me to begin with the exciting parts without having to trudge through the set-up information where I feel readers may lose a lot of interest

Building Characters

• this section talks about characterization which is something I would like to improve on
• I feel like I do well with directly describing a character but what I want to work on is indirect descriptions
• ask questions like: How do their actions reflect their traits? What's on their mind that they won't share with the world? What is the tone, inflection, and timbre of their voice?
• I usually have my characters hold a dialogue but I rarely describe the way their voice sounds of their inflection or tone.

Dialogue

• one of the most intriguing ideas I read in this section was that dialogue should be telling more than one thing
• it should convey more than one kind of information such as body language in addition to words
• I think my stories are missing a lot of non-verbal dialogue
• I seem to not think about adding more indirect forms of communication such as body language and that causes me to miss out on a very human aspect of communication

Bibliography

EmpoWord: Telling a Story -- found here

Image Information

Photo of an ancient book -- found on flickr

Reading Notes: Brother's Grimm Hunt (Part B)

Bearskin

• A soldier returning from war has no trade skill and needs to find work
• meets a mysterious man in the woods who tests his courage and resolve
• soldier must never bathe and must always wear a bearskin and a coat for if he does this for 7 years he will always have all the money he would need
• the man who made the deal turns out to be the devil and is referenced as Greencoat
• Bearksin as the soldier became known, always gave money to the poor and helped those in need as he wandered for 7 years
• he helped an old man whose estate had dwindled and the man promised him a wife of his daughters
• only the youngest conceded to marry Bearskin and the two older ones taunted her about the appearance of her husband
• he gave her half a ring while he kept the other half
• Finally after 7 years the devil returned, dismayed that the soldier had held out, and washed and groomed him and returned his cloak
• Soldier returned to the village to seek out the wife he hadn't seen for 3 years
• he was much more handsome than before and appeared to be a prestige general
• the two older sisters who had rejected him were trying hard to earn his favor, and the youngest averted her eyes still clothed in black like the day he left
• the soldier placed his half of the ring in a glass of wine to give to her and she noticed it after she drank it and saw that it matched her piece
• the sisters ran out of the home in rage and one drowned while the other hung herself
• devil comes back to taunt soldier saying he got two souls instead of one

Hans the Hedgehog

• a boy was born half hedgehog half man
• his family didn't want him but he never complained and left them to make a life for himself in the forest tending a herd of pigs
• 2 Kings travel through the forest lost and ask for directions
• he helps them if they promise to give him the first thing that approaches them when they reach the palace
• both times it was a king's daughter
• first King orders everyone to kill a man resembling Hans if they appear at his castle for he didn't want to give up his daughter
• the second one welcomed him and his daughter committed to Hans
• Hans shed his hedgehog skin and became a handsome man and they lived happily ever after

Bibliography

Bearskin from the Brothers Grimm (Hunt) Unit

Hans the Hedgehog from the Brothers Grimm (Hunt) Unit

Image Information

Image 1: Illustration of Bearskin - wikimedia

Image 2: The Devil grooms Bearskin after 7 years - wikimedia

Reading Notes: Brother's Grimm Hunt (Part A)

This unit contains fewer but longer stories. I thought this was much easier to read because the stories had more time for development.

Hansel and Grethel

• Hansel and Grethel live in a very poor family with their good-hearted father and mean step-mother
• the stories never mention anything about the children's real mother
• consider writing a story about their real mother and why she either died or left the family
• since the family is poor they have very little food so the stepmother sends the children out into the woods in hopes that they would get lost and eaten by animals so that the adults would have enough to eat
• the first time they are led into the woods, Hansel uses white pebbles to find his way back
• the second time he uses bread crumbs to leave a trail but birds ate all of the crumbs
• why did the mother wish to light a bonfire every time she took the children to the forest to be abandoned? 
• to attract wild animals, to create comfort so that the kids would sleep, other reasons...
• they find a house made of cakes, sugar, and bread in the forest that is occupied by an evil witch
• witches have red eyes and cannot see far but smell very well
• Grethel pushes the witch into the oven and burns her alive to save Hansel
• they grab treasure from the witches house and take it home to their father 
• the step-mother is dead at this point but the story never mentions how
• only been 3-4 days since the children had left the house this second time

Hansel is trapped in the cage by the evil witch.

Allerleirauh

• a King plans to marry his daughter because she looks strikingly similar to his wife
• to delay this and hopefully prevent the marriage from happening the daughter requests to have 3 dresses and a mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur and hair sewn together
• she thought this to be an impossible task but the King had it completed
• the girl runs away with the mantle and wears it as she falls asleep in the woods
• the King's guards find her while out hunting and initially believed her to be some rare animal because of the coat
• it would be interesting to give the girl the power to change into the different animals of the mantle at will 
• Story Idea: Hansel and Grethel were left in the same forest Allerleirauh escaped to. The bonfire attracts Allerleirauh to the area that Hansel and Grethel were in. She uses the powers she has and her mantle to help them defeat the witch and goes home with them to marry their father.

Bibliography

Hansel and Grethel from the Brothers Grimm (Hunt) Unit

Allerleirauh from the Brothers Grimm (Hunt) Unit

Image Information: Hansel in a cage. Found on publicdomainpictures.