Week 8 Reflections

(Woman reflecting, looking back over the water)

Reading
In terms of reading, there are aspects I have done well and others I would do well to improve. I will start by focusing on some of the details about my reading habits I could stand to improve.

Firstly, I need to be more consistent about doing all my reading and doing it on time. In order to help me achieve this task, I've resolved to do some of my reading work over Spring Break to help me get ahead. It doesn't need to be much, maybe just 1 or 2 weeks worth of stories, but doing so could take a load off of my back and enable me to keep pace and maybe even do some extra credit without much stress.

Secondly, although for the most part my notes were helpful, I believe I did a better job of keeping an organized record of my thoughts at the beginning of the semester. I think that organizing the notes by story and section made it much easier to go through them and utilize them for storytelling.

Finally, in terms of improvements, I need to put more thought into how I intend to use the stories I am reading to create my own story. Although I think I have done a good job of using my notes to help recreate the characters in different situations, I have seen other people's stories that go more creative routes by seizing small details from the source work and building off that rather than adopting whole characters and going from there. I should attempt this in some of my work during the latter half of the semester.

In terms of what I have done well in note taking, I think I have done a phenomenal job of focusing on the characters I want to capture or rebuild. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Narayan's Ramayana and learning more about Lakshmana and who he was as a man. I look forward to continuing to watch the Epified Mahabharata in the coming weeks. I think I would like to try the method of note taking that focuses on details that can be grown into compelling stories.

Writing
I am very happy with most of the writing I have done so far this semester. I feel like I have done a good job of stretching myself as a writer while still staying true to my core style and producing quality works for people to read. I also can't wait to see how my Storybook turns out.

One thing I have realized about my project is that I will need to do more research on Ganga in order for it to be a successful book. I would also like to think about how the stories would sound different from Ganga's perspective. What details will be altered? Which characters will be considered more heroic and which more villainous?

As I've covered a bit in the previous section, I would also like to try out a couple of the different things I've seen my classmates do in their writing such as basing their story off a specific detail they caught from the source material. Additionally, I would like to try a style of storytelling where I focus on something other than the characters. I think that characters are my strong suit, and I would like to work my weaker points.

Connecting
I need to be more careful to complete all my assignments so that my classmates get all the feedback they deserve. When I have completed all my assignments, though, I feel that my feedback has been good. Ideally, I would be a little more succinct in giving commentary so that I can fit more feedback into each comment.

Overall
In summary, I believe that the best thing I can do for my work in the second half of this semester is to improve my organization and consistency. I have put forth good work so far, but there is certainly always room for improvement.