Famous Last Words: No Motivation - Week 11

(No motivation; online source, www.presby.edu) 

     I can breathe again!!! I’m still not feeling terrific, but after my hospital visit last Sunday, I’m at least “better”. They gave me two steroid shots at the hospital and I’ve started a new prescription allergy medication along with a new nasal spray daily. I’m not really sure which things have really made the biggest difference, but I’m happy that I’m at least getting there. I’m still coughing a lot though, which is frustrating. I’ve been sick for somewhere around 2 and a half weeks from all of this. So I’ve requested a new allergy referral so I can get testing done and figure out what I’m having such a bad allergic reaction to this year. It is miserable though!

     I got a little behind again while I was so sick the last couple of weeks. For the first time this semester, I missed one of my reading assignments in this class. I promised myself that I would make it up later in the week, but I didn’t. I also ended up doing story planning for a couple of my story posts, which I told myself I wouldn’t do, because I wanted to write actual stories as much as possible throughout this course. I’m doing well on points though, so I shouldn’t be too upset about it. I’m just a little disappointed in myself is all… Going into week 12, I’m honestly not sure that I’m going to locate my motivation again before the end of the semester… For example, it’s technically Sunday of week 11 now and I haven’t finished my project assignment for this week yet. Which means I’ll be doing that tomorrow on the last day of the week. I’m hoping to prove myself wrong and try to get motivated again in the next few days. Other than that, I’m doing well in school. I think I’m behind by one homework / practice assignment in Spanish but I’ll get that caught up this week too, hopefully.

     On a slightly more somber note, it has not been a great week at work. As many of you probably remember, I’m a 9-1-1 dispatcher. So, when I say I’ve had a bad work week, you usually don’t want to ask questions. I’ll just say that sometimes my job is mentally taxing. Some of the things I’m exposed to regularly, people don’t want to see in their worst nightmares. I’m not complaining, because I really love what I do. I tend to keep a cool exterior and I think I deal well with the things I’m exposed to but occasionally, the emotions I’ve been blocking out force their way in and I’m forced to face them. This has been one of those week where I just have to face the reality of the horrific world we live in. I just have to remember to take care of my mental health first and foremost. I've found myself in a pretty dark place due to my job at some point in the past. So, I have to make sure and work through any negative emotions I'm feeling so I don't go back there again. =)

Week 11 Story Planning: Inner Beauty

Image coming soon...

     This week I read the "Canterbury Tales" set of stories. I noticed a romance theme throughout most of the stories involved in the first half of the reading and I thought this would be the perfect section for me to use for my storytelling this week. I love romance stories and I enjoy writing them, so it works out. I think I'm going to write a story based on "The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride" next week. I think there is a lot of potential for a more metaphorical style of writing and that tends to be something I like to do, so it fits. In the original story, a knight was condemned to his death because he treated a woman very poorly. However, for some reason all the women in the land particularly liked him and begged the King to spare the man. The King gave in and ended up leaving the man's fate to the Queen who determined that the knight could be spared IF he could come back to her in one year's time and tell her what it is woman wish for most. In the end, on the very last day of the year, the knight happened across an old lady that tells him the answer. Once he was freed from his death sentence, she announced that he would be in her debt since she saved his life. She wants him to take her as his wife and he's mortified because she is old and plain. He agrees to marry her, however, and in the end she turns into a beautiful woman. In my story next week, I'd like to rewrite this story in a unique way. I think my story will be more metaphorical than the original. The young man will probably just be a commoner and he won't be set to death or anything like that. He will just be searching for love in the wrong ways (looking for outward beauty) and will need to find his way to the right path eventually. I don't want to give too much away but it should be fun to write and hopefully fun for you all to read!

Characters
A young man, looking for love in all the wrong ways and a few love interests. I want to keep a fairly simple character set on this one. The love interests may even just be mentioned in passing, rather than actually described in any manner. I really want to focus in more on the young man and his journey to discovering what true inner beauty is and how much better it is to hold than outward appearances.

Plot
The young man will be looking for love by going after the most beautiful women he can find, but he will never feel satisfied with his romantic situation. He will eventually see that he's been looking for the wrong things all along and find his way to seeing his true love's inner beauty.

Setting
There probably won't be too clear of a setting with this one. Again, I just want to focus in on true inner beauty and how important that aspect is in life. I'd like to write this in a way that allows the reader to kind of place the story wherever they see fit. It could be in a small village or a big city or wherever the reader feels it fits best.

I’m hoping to use this story to exemplify all kinds of beauty and shine a light on the most important kind, the beauty we all hold within ourselves.

Source
"The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride" as retold by Eva March Tappan in "The Chaucer Story Book"

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part B

   

(Fool me twice, shame on me; Online source, www.whisper.sh)

     All I can really say about this section is that I'm honestly just really confused. I had a really hard time taking much from this reading of use for me in my own writing. Most of the stories I couldn't get one main point from and I had a hard time reading them.

     The one main thing I can pull from these is that we should be careful who we trust, because often times we are easily fooled.

     "The Prioress's Tale: Little Hugh" was beautiful and well written but I'm not sure that it's something I'd really use as inspiration in my own writing.

     "Nun's Priest's Tale: The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox" was one that I mostly just took "don't be easily fooled" from. I liked the idea of someone having premonitions in their dreams, so I could possibly use that in a story but most of this story just seemed really long and drawn out to me.

     Finally, "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale: The Priest as Philosopher" was really confusing for me to read. Again, I took that we're prone to easily be fooled but I honestly didn't take much from this reading. I'll definitely be using the first half of the reading for my story telling this week!

Source

"Canterbury Tales" as retold by Eva March Tappan in "The Chaucer Story Book"

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part A

(Love Is In the Air; Online source, www.goodmorningtextmessages.com)

     This week I chose to read the Canterbuy Tales section. I really enjoyed the stories and felt they were easy to read and provided a lot of good material to be used as inspiration for my writing.

     One thing I really liked in this section was that there seemed to be an overarching theme about the importance of love weaved into most of the stories. Some in particular really stand out to me, such as "The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride" and "The Franklin's Tale: The Promise of Dorigen".

     Some were more obvious than others but they all spoke to me in a similar way. I felt these stories were written in a way that makes them easy to read, which in turn makes them easier to understand and ultimately to write from reading. "The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride" was one I found particularly enjoyable and I really liked the moral of the story. If I were to use this story to write from, I'd probably use a very similar story-line without the mythical involvement. I think I'd like to just use a metaphorical style for this one, where the woman doesn't really change form at all.  The man would see her differently in the end, because he would finally see her inner beauty instead of her outward appearance.

     I also found "The Franklin's Tale: The promise of Dorigen" very inspiring and heart-touching. Love is shown in so many different ways in this story, Dorigen for her husband, he for her, Aurelius for Dorigen, and even in large part the magician for Aurelius when he frees him of his promise to pay for the magician's services.

     I also really liked the irony used in "The Pardoner's Tale: The Revelers". The young men went on search for Death, trying to kill him and in the end Death outsmarted them all and took each of their lives. I'm not really sure what I might be able to do with this one for my own writing but I did enjoy reading it and would like to find some way of incorporating the theme into my writing.

Source

"Canterbury Tales" as retold by Eva March Tappan in "The Chaucer Story Book"