Microfiction: Christmas Eve and Other Stories

Christmas Eve

Pop. The flames rise in the fireplace. With every new crack my smile grows. I take a deep breath and the smell of pine fills my nose, compelling me to turn to the well-lit tree, almost bursting with decorations. I take a long drink from the liquid cheer in my hand and my head fills with memories, each one now represented by an ornament. Purrrr. The sound brings me back to the little ball of fur in my lap. While I gently pet her, I look to the window just in time to see the first snowflake hit the glass. 

I love this photo and it is exactly the vibe I am going for in the first story!

(Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay)

8 Years Old

"How can she ever expect me to not be so excited," I wonder as I sift through the pile and pick up every box. She knows she got me the thing and I have to find it right now or else I will die!

Author's Note:
Hello! I wanted to do a little holiday special for my microfiction writing this week because I am just so excited about Christmas! We all know this year has been a tragedy and I wanted to make sure to spread a little cheer to us all. The first story is a snapshot of what a perfect Christmas Eve is to me. I wanted to really put you in the moment with me and make you reminisce on the best holiday memories you have. For the second story I want to do a classic tale of what Christmas is like when you are a kid but in the two-sentence format, so that's why I titled it the way I did! Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Oh and if you understood the reference of my post title, good job! That is my favorite Christmas album of all time!

Famous Last Words: Pushing through!

I don't know why I like this image so much but I do. The end is in sight!

(Image found here)

Your reading for this week
The reading went well for me this week! I had time to do both portions and I actually enjoyed the spookier element to the whole week. I remember the tale of the warlock killing his daughters-in-law because they were not protected by the cross, which I thought was an interesting element of religion to bring into a story. I definitely want to try to find more stories like this!

Your best writing for this week

I thought the writing I did in my Research II class was my best writing. It was not any sort of creative writing, but a quantitative research analysis. While this isn't exciting, it is something I will use more in my career and can implement the same strategies I use for creative writing. I have found that when I put my phone across the room and just sit down and write then I do my best work!

Other people's writing

This week I really enjoyed Natalie's re-telling of the classic tale of Cinderella. I wrote comments for her and in them I expressed how much I loved the modernization she did. It felt very much like the film titled "A Cinderella Story," which is a film I dearly love, so I truly enjoyed her tale. I think modernization is definitely something I can try to implement! Read it here!

Your other classes

My other classes are crazy this week. I have major assignments due this coming weekend that I have to work on all week. It won't be fun but we're almost to the end! As I mentioned, I think the writing tips I have learned in this course definitely transfer to all my other work in other classes. Creative writing to the rescue!

Outside of school 

I don't have a super exciting topic this week, but I am going to see some Christmas lights with a few friends on Wednesday so I am excited about that! I love Christmas the most and this year it feels like we need it just a little bit more.

Next week

This week I am pushing through to the end of school. I am going to try to finish up my classes by Friday so I can relax over the weekend. Other than that, it's just pushing through to the end of the semester!

Learning Challenge: Get moving!

For this learning by H.E.A.R.T challenge I chose to try the "Health" challenges. I have been on a personal health journey and have been trying to lose weight for a few months now. I have been successful, but I am always looking for more ways to do my whole body good. I know that good computer posture is important and I also know the statistics about how sitting at a desk impacts our bodies, but it cannot be avoided in school. So, I chose to learn how to exercise at my desk with this article titled "6 Yoga Exercises You Won't be Embarrassed to do at Your Desk." I actually really love yoga so I was super interested in what this article had to say. My favorite was this open chest stretch. 

This is the demonstration image from the article, found here

You take your hands and clasp them behind you, your palms facing your back. You then raise your arms slightly to deepen the stretch and hold it for ten to fifteen breaths. It felt great because I always slump when I am sitting, so intentionally opening my chest and re-aligning my posture was so helpful! I am definitely going to try to incorporate the rest of these exercises, such as the neck stretches and the chair twists, into my daily life as well!

Week 14 Story Lab: Overview of Mythology

Since the semester is almost over, I wanted to do something a little different for this week. I generally write stories, but I wanted to try a story lab. I chose to do the Crash Course videos for a few reasons, the first of which is that I just genuinely love Crash Course. The second is that I thought it would be fun to take the knowledge I have absorbed throughout the semester and apply it to the three videos I watched. I wanted to see what broad knowledge about myths and mythology in general I could apply to my own writings, as well as the stories I have read through the semester. 

Persephone being taken to the underworld by Hades, as referenced in the first video.

(Wikimedia Commons)

What Is Myth?

• Some myths are crazy old and exist in many different forms
• There are many different interpretations of myths
• The line between myth and religion can be blurry
• Myth: a special kind of story that that has two primary characteristics- significance and staying power
• Subject is about something important
• Stories that have survived centuries
• Myth of Persephone- Etiological Narrative
• Daughter of Zeus and Demeter, and wife of Hades
• Primitive science
• Types of Myths
• Creation
• Pantheons
• Apocalyptic
• Heroes
• Objects

Theories of Myth

• Mythology: the systematic study of myth
• Plato was among the first to equate myths with lying, but if they were philosophical myths they were rational
• Euhemerism: interpreting myths as primitive explanations of the natural world or as time-distorted accounts of long-past historical events
• Tertullian and Clement- myth as falsehood and influenced by demons
• Mythos vs Logos
• Myths as falsehood vs myths as transcended truth (base for western mythology)
• Theologies
• James Frasier and The Golden Bow
• concept of myths as primitive science
• Bronislaw Malinowski
• myth is not symbolic but it is a narrative resurrection of primeval reality 
• Freud (ugh)
• we make terrible realities palatable with myths
• collective human consciousness
• Joseph Campbell- "The Power of Myth" in the 1980s
• Mythology is a vehicle through which the individual finds a sense of identity and place in the world
• Monomyth
• Claude Levi-Strauss
• Structuralism: myths betray a complicated and underlying structuralism
• Mircea Eliade
• Sacred vs Profane
• Archaic vs Modern

The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth

• Heroes: tell us something about ourselves and a goal to find our place in society
• The Hero's Journey: Momomyth
• 3 Main parts
• Separation from the world
• Call to destiny/adventure
• Refusal of call
• Supernatural Aid
• Crossing the threshold
• Belly of the Whale
• Trials and Victories of Initiation
• The road of trials
• The meeting with the goddess
• Woman as temptress
• Atonement with father
• Apotheosis
• The ultimate boon
• Return and Reintegration into Society
• Refusal of the return
• the magic flight
• Rescue from without
• Crossing back over the threshold
• Master of the two worlds
• Freedom to live

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales, Part B

The Warlock

This is apparently the "Grand Warlock of Wikipedia," but I like to imagine that the warlock in the story looked somewhat like this.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Observations:

• The language used here is very old-timey. Not all the language is necessarily like that, but there are certain parts that I would not know without looking them up
• Okay but why did he have to be watched over after he was dead? I feel like there is more cultural context needed here
• Also, why was it the wives that had to watch over him?
• So were warlocks not part of the Christian faith? It is an oddly specific request to not want a cross near or around you at all, especially after you are already long dead
• Um, why is he speaking to the daughter's from the grave? Also, why did she answer?
• I do like the dialogue tactics used here though. The ways the dialogue is repeated throughout the story is something I know I have noted before, but I truly do want to try to emulate in this week's writing.
• I do enjoy the slightly spooky element that is happening here. It seems like these are common themes in Russian folktales that I enjoy
• I would like to try to use the subtle spookiness present in this story in my own writing
• I tend to be overt in all my writing, so trying to be subtle would be a welcomed challenge
• Oh no. Again, I do not think I have ever written about a character dying, although I am surprised that I have not. I would like to try to do this I think!
• I like the idea that the writer introduced something that just seemed a bit odd in the beginning, like the fact that he did not want to be near a cross or have his daughters in law sport one. This element ended up being a key part in the story. I think that is something good writers do often. I would like to try to sneak something in my stories like this and then have it be extremely important in the end. It feels fun.

Overall I enjoyed this story a lot! It was spooky and fun while still being short. I thought the writer did a good job bringing in subtle elements that were super needed for the ending. I think I will re-tell this story this week!

Bibliography:
Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887)

The Warlock

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales, Part A

The Treasure

This goat mask is supremely creepy and I imagine the pope looked somewhat like this.

(Jullbock from wikimedia commons)

Observations:

• There is a certain lack of information given in the beginning. The story just starts off strong and keeps going with almost no context
• It seems a bit odd that the old man could not get anyone to lend him money, not even the pope. It seems like the pope should be generous? I wonder if this is a little theme in Russian fairytales
  
• I feel bad for the old man. All of the people in his town seem terrible and greedy
• What kind of town does this man live in where he feels like he has to dig his own wife's grave?
• Okay the money seems like the least of this man's problems to be honest
• I love that the second the pope gets the money he decides to be a good pope
• The story is written with small spurts of dialogue, which I enjoy. It feels like a very basic storytelling technique but it works well. I think I could emulate this. 
• Somehow the story has escalated such that there is now a man dressed in a goat skin. What is actually happening?
• Maybe it's just me, but it feels sacrilegious for the literal pope to put on a devil costume and to scare an old man who just buried his wife. Also I am supremely grossed out. 
• I like the idea of adding a slightly gross element to a story, though. I have already talked about trying to write something scary, but I have never thought about writing a bit of gore. I think I could come up with something as weird as this story!
• It is poetic justice that the goat skin fused with the greedy pope. I can not say that I enjoy the ending, but it is somewhat satisfying.

Overall, this story was weird, but it gave me a good sense of the Russian storytelling technique. It reminded me of the Brothers Grimm storytelling style with the dark twists at the end and the overall dark themes. I enjoy this type of story, but it still makes me feel odd inside. 

Bibliography:

The Treasure

Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887)