Week 14 Review

For this final blog post, I wanted to check up and review everything. I feel like I have learned a lot in this semester, about myself as well as my writing. I think this image below is a great depiction of not only the semester and life in general. Life really is like a camera. We should focus on what is most important to us and learn from our mistakes as well. It is also important to not give up after something goes wrong. This semester has had a lot of ups and downs, so this was a good reminder to push through and that there are other opportunities out there.  

(Sylvia Duckworth Image)

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

I added a cool weather widget to my blog! Norman weather has been crazy lately so I thought this would be a fun thing to add. It's at the top of my blog if you want to check it out.

Heres the link on how to add it.

(My blog) 

Class Improvements

I have really enjoyed having this class this semester. I feel that it has allowed me to expand my writing skills I felt that I was alway learning new information. After reviewing the future planning suggestions, I really liked most of the ideas!

Change Review Weeks to Planning Weeks: 
I liked this idea! I think a bit of both review and planning would be good. I feel that a planning week would involve another week of changes being made, but that might be thinking about it wrong? I think when I first started this course, it would have been very helpful to see more of the overlay for the course and actually set my schedule to follow it.

Expand on the Story Planning Option: 
I also liked this idea of being able to plan my story options. I think it would be better so I could maybe get some feedback before even beginning to write.

Create more audio recordings: 
I didn't mind this idea. I think sometimes it is better to listen to stories out loud rather than read them all the time.

Create Writing Tutorial Videos: 
This would have to be my favorite idea! I am not the best at writing, so I think it would be helpful to actually see someone explain things. Sometimes I get lost following a bunch of written directions and things can be better translated by video in my opinion.

Creating Thematic Reading Units: 
I thought this was clever! I like it because I feel like it would help to organize things a little better. Jumping from story to story, it would be fun to see what kind of mysteries people write one week or another theme for another week. It would give people a set type of idea to follow.

Story Week 14: The Frog Kiss

Long ago there was a Princess named Hannah wandering through the tangled woods. She was a free spirit and loved to go off on her own. She always felt lonely and longed for something more in her life. One day, when she was playing with her ball in the woods, she accidentally dropped it into the murky waters down below. Devastated, she sat there and cried thinking about if she would ever get it back. The ball was expensive, and she had taken it from the King, her father. Worried what he would do, she cried for help. Maybe someone would come to her rescue..

Splashing the waters to look for signs of life she yelled, "HELLOOO is anyone out there?"

After waiting for a few minutes, Hannah hadn't heard anything from down below. She thought maybe she had frightened all the creatures... That was until all of the sudden a frog hopped up and sat beside her.

"What's wrong? You seem so sad my dear", the Frog exclaimed.

"Wretched creature I have lost a precious treasure that I took from my father."

*Hannah was grossed out at the sight of the ugly and slimy frog, but she was desperate*

"Oh my! Well, you are just in luck. I can help you solve your problem if you can help me solve mine.."

"I'm begging you Frog! You are my only hope. I will give you whatever you want."

Remembering this, the frog dove deep down into the waters to fetch the ball and return it to the beautiful Princess. Ever so thankful, she jumped with joy with all of her excitement. As she thanked the frog and was about to leave the frog began to speak.

"Princess, will you kiss thy lips of mine?"

Hannah thought about how gross the frog kiss would be, but was very thankful for what he had done. She lets her fears go past her and leaned in for a kiss.

*boom*

Long story short, after the kiss, the frog turned into a handsome young man. The Princess was in disbelief. She had never seen anything like him in all of her life. Falling head over heals for him, she asked him how he had become a man. Before this, she was grossed out at the thought of him.

"With your kiss I have come back to my human life. I was a human long ago until a spell cast me into an ugly frog. All I needed was the kiss of a beautiful Princess to grant my wish."

Princess Hannah was starstruck. She wanted to bring back the handsome man back to meet her family and thank him for what he had done for her. Although the man had wanted to go back with the girl, he had to tell her some bad new.

"Princess I must not go with you. For I am bound to the woods by the spell. You have restored my humanity, and I wish more than ever that you would stay with me here."

Not sure what to do, the Princess looked for signs all around her. She knew that if she stayed with the man she might not ever see her family again. She also knew that if she left, she might lose the love of her life...

(The Frog) 

Author's Note: The original story that I got my inspiration from was called "The Frog Prince".  I kept some of the storyline about the princess losing her ball, but changed the outcome for the most part. I added some dialogue as well just because I wanted to try something new. I changed the ending to where all it took was a kiss to change the frog back into a handsome man.


Bibliography: Brothers Grimm LibriVox

Tech Tip: Google Timer

For this Tech Tip I thought I would try out the Google Timer! I am a very big procrastinator, so I thought that I would time myself for writing my stories and notes this week. I also get off track very easily, so if I know I am in a crunch to get things done then that might help me. I have never really used a timer before for my work, but I usually know how long that I have

(Google Timer) 

What I enjoyed most about this timer is that I was able to set however long I wanted to go for and that it could either be a timer or a stopwatch. It was also easy access to get to as well. I think it is a lot more simple than setting a timer on my phone, just because my phone can be a distraction too. 

I would recommend this to other students trying to stay on task and get things done in a timely manner! 

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm; Part B

"The Queen Bee" was an interesting story. From the title of the story, I expected something completely different than what it turned out to be. The story had to do with three brothers, one of which was picked on, but he stopped the other brothers from doing some horrible things to creatures. The older two brothers ended up turning into stone after they couldn't complete a task, while the other brother was able to receive help from the creatures that he had saved. I like how the ending tied everything together and the bee was able to tell which had the honey. I think if I was to make changes to this story I would maybe make it about three girls on an adventure, just because of the title. I also think the two brothers should have stayed into stone. That would have been funny.

"The Fox and the Horse" was another  story that from Part B that I enjoyed. It made me mad in the beginning, however, when the owner stopped feeding the horse after all the horse did for the owner. The owner, in my opinion, deserved to have something bad happen to him. Maybe I would have had the lion come back to eat him after the horse rounded him up. I also like the unexpected friendship that was formed with the fox and the horse. Maybe I could also go further into detail about the friendship that they did have. The story didn't elaborate much as to why the fox decided to help the horse out.

(The Fox and the Horse) 

"The Willow-Wren and the Bear" was the last story I wanted to mention in my notes. I like the idea that these animals were part of some type of royalty. I think it is funny that there were Queens and Kings and that the bear had to respect the birds. As the story continued, I liked that the battle was with the animals in the air and the animals on the ground. I was expecting the larger animals to win, but thought it was clever that the animals that flew were able to outsmart the larger animals to get what they wanted.


Bibliography: Brothers Grimm LibriVox

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm; Part A

"The Frog Prince" was a very cute story to read. I thought there were so many changes that could be made to personalize the story. The whole story deals with a princess that loses her ball in the water. She asks a frog to help her retrieve it. The frog does so, asking the princess for a favor and she agrees thinking it was a silly request of the frog. After the frog does as he is asked, he goes to the princess expecting to get what he asked for. At first, the princess is hesitant, but soon agrees to what the frog asked. After a few days of living with the frog, he then turns into a handsome prince one morning and they live happily ever after. I thought about a few changes that I could make to the story. The whole story I was thinking of how the prince actually turned into the frog? Maybe I could do a little back history on what happened to him. I also thought about making the princess a frog instead of them living happily ever after. Not all stories have happy endings for everyone.

 (The Frog Prince) 

Rapunzel was the next story that I read from Part A. I hadn't read the story in a while so it wasn't super familiar with the beginning of it. I thought that the story was a bit different than I had remembered. There are a few different changes that could be made to the story after reading it. I wish I had heard more of what happened to the parents and maybe even about Rapunzel's childhood. That would be different and new aspect. I also would have liked to go more in depth to what made the person want to keep Rapunzel trapped and what they did with the hair. 

"The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean"was another story from the Brothers Grimm section I enjoyed. It was about three completely different items that escape "death", but not being cooked or used to cook something. The three set out on a journey to another country to repair themselves, but ultimately were not too successful when they tried to cross a bridge. The straw and coal were injured as well as the bean. The story ends, however, with the bean being repaired. I think I could make the story continue with another adventure and them somehow meeting up again. 

Bibliography: Brothers Grimm LibriVox