Week 13 Story: The Princess and the Robe

Week 13 Story:

The Princess and the Robe

Author's Note: I decided to write my story over The Princess and the Pea, which is about a princess who slept on multiple mattresses and sheets and still could not stop feeling the pea underneath it all. It is something so small and hard to notice but significantly disrupts her comfort. I decided to write a story similar about a princess who is wearing many undergarments and coats but cannot stop feeling a loose thread on the inner-lining of her robe. I'm sure everyone has had a moment of wearing an item of clothing that has a tag that will itch or poke out annoyingly. So I hope this is relatable enough, while also staying similar to a fairytale aspect!

Once upon a time, there was a young prince who ventured far and wide in search of a princess to marry. For his princess needed to be kind of heart, fair of face, and beautiful of dress. Many women would approach him in attempts to pique his interest, but all had false intentions of wanting to marry into royalty instead of sharing royalty. These efforts disheartened the prince, leaving him to feel hopeless in his journey for love and completion.

One evening, there was a cyclone of wind building up near the prince's kingdom. Following the cyclone was rain falling in a sideways fashion, lightening skipping around the grassy and cobble terrain, and thunder booming above every roof and tower. No one dared to go outdoors until the devilish weather had ceased. Abruptly, the storm was broken for a moment by a knocking at the city gate. A member of the palace guard ran to open it, only to discover a princess standing alone.


How did a princess end up in this state? Alone, in a storm, seeking shelter in a kingdom, not of her own. The weather got the best of her, and left her in a horrendous state! Dripping from all limbs and
having her hair stuck to her face and neck, she continued to state that she was a royal and needed immediate care and shelter.

“I'm not so sure about her being a princess. Her presence here doesn't make any sense,” thought the old queen when the guard brought her in. But she did not say a peep and went into a guest bedroom to lay out warm clothes for their guest. When laying out all the garments, she decided to take the last overcoat and tear out one of the inner seems of thick cord. With that, she exited the room and allowed the princess to dress into about 8 layers of clothing for warmth and rest.

These were the garments that the princess had slept in all night. She had kept them on the following morning and was then asked how she had felt.

“Oh, I feel so horrible!” said she. “Stolen was my ability to close my eyes through the night. I tossed and turned and tried every position to make myself comfortable, only to be left unsatisfied. I even moved to the floor, thinking it was my bedding, only to continue to feel discomfort in the same way. Even now I cannot shake this pinching feeling. It’s awful!”

The old queen could now tell that she was a royalty because only a royal would know if beautiful silk clothing was not up to its standard. Even through all the layers she had to wear, she could feel the free cord that had been cut and left to dangle within.

Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.

They allowed the prince to meet with her and take her as his wife because there was no doubt that she was a real princess.

Image: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain (Wikipedia)
Bibliography:  The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (Un-Textbook)

Week 13 Reading: Literary Works Hans Christian Andersen Part B

Week 13 Reading:

Literary Works Hans Christian Andersen Part B

This reading unit was focused only on the story of the Little Mermaid. Out of all the stories I've read that had Disney adaptations, this is the only one that has had so many parts to it. This story also is the least like its Disney counterpart than any other I've encountered as well. I love that this version included a female influence she could look to and an actual reason for her surface dwelling and initial emergence to looking at the world above. The imagery in this work was fantastic. I loved the word choice that separated the details of the sea when comparing it to the open land. There was also a bit of personification done to the water which helped in re-signifying the importance of it to the plot of the story. The author also chose to give as many instances of emotion for each character involved in a scene. He would recount when the Little Mermaid was excited or thought things were fun, while typically surface walkers and humans are mortified or aloof. This story is focused on the separation between a sea creature and a human being, so this method of describing everything helped to clearly paint out that divide. To include this much imagery, it makes sense for this story to be as long as it was. Each sentence had a beautiful style of writing; each having breaks by commas when needed and nothing became a run-on. This is something that I need to work on myself; specifically comma splices. The work is told in past tense form, and I wish that I looked into this before I started my project! I'm working on the same method, and I wasn't aware of the difficulty in keeping tense in a story that you'd want to be interactive. This is my last reading post for the semester, and I think I got to end it on a good note!

Image: The Little Mermaid (Wikimedia Commons)
Bibliography: Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (Un-Textbook)

Week 13 Reading: Literary Works Hans Christian Andersen Part A

Week 13 Reading:

Literary Works Hans Christian Andersen Part A

So I decided to read the Hans Christian Andersen version of some of the European fairytales. I think this experience in reading went better for me than the last unit ended because it had endings that made sense! Based on the actions of the main character and their outcomes, they got the endings they deserved. I loved that everything led to one point and it felt like I got closure from each story. I was elated. I really like the European versions of these stories over the Disney ones I believe. It seems a bit more "relatable" while still being abnormal and fairytale-like. I was invested and excited as I kept reading and that's what I hope to do to people who read my works in this class! The sentence structure seemed so proper to me as it went forward. I'm a stickler for finding character dialogue when I'm reading, and so far, I didn't really see a different separation between the characters and the narration. That was utterly okay though for this! I didn't need quoted dialogue to build out the elements further for me; each member of the tale was given just enough personality to paint a picture in my mind. Most of the wording is picked in a method that traces out the characters and the scenery enough to get the mood and imagery of each make. I know that it's probably cheating to think this only because I've seen adaptations of these works before and might already have a hint of a visual. The stories are mostly different though! That's another fantastic thing for me. The way these stories are told is very mature and more adult than the current child adaptations. I've very excited to get into the Little Mermaid stories next for my second reading and see how the differences add to the story!

Image: Princess and the Pea (Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography: Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (Un-Textbook)

Week 12 Reading: Grimm (Librivox) Part B

Week 12 Reading:

Grimm (Librivox) Part B

For the second half of the reading, I continued to listen to the Librivox Grim Fairytales and came to a sad conclusion about myself. Something that I realized I love in a story, specifically a fairytale, is when those of good heart and intention prosper. If the lovely individuals are given their deserved opportunities, then it only makes sense that the villainous characters are given what they deserve. At least to me, this is how I feel the story should go. Outside of my opinion, most of the scripts in this second half had a good ending for everyone character. It felt as though they took one instance to provide a consequence that someone could learn from, then instantly made everything better. The meaning behind rewarding those who treat others with love and respect gets diminished a little bit by this for me. With that, I'd change the writing style to put more emphasis on the downfall of the characters who have poor intentions from the start or just rude behaviors drawn to life. The endings over the second half were also very abrupt to me. There was an ascend in the plot that put grand emphasis on the "final task" that most protagonists in these stories endured; it was sad to see their success feel lack-luster because there would be a summation of the aftermath and every character was given a happy ending. I think if they added more of a brooding opening as well, it would emphasize the harsh reality of the cruel intentions of man that they like to touch on in these works. I do like the method of task creation that each story uses though. The adventure is the best part of these tales, and it really paints a picture to follow as you read or listen through.


Image: Grimm Illustration (Wikimedia Commons)
Bibliography:  Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm (Un-Textbook)

Week 12 Reading: Grimm (Librivox) Part A

Week 12 Reading

Grimm (Librivox) Part A

I was thrilled to learn we had the option to skip over to European stories during these weeks! It's sad that we're getting close and close to being done here, and I'd love to go back and read all the stories, but Grimm Fairytales were specific to my inspiration in my project so, I thought it would be appropriate to jump on the opportunity to do complete readings on them. I want to do another Brother's Grimm story for next week as well, but for now, we'll go with the Librivox one! I plan to read Crane for next week, and I might as use these endings to help influence how I end my story for the class project. I loved the snippets of dialogue they used to cut throw the narrations of the story. It was light and whimsical, so you felt the vibe of a fairytale. I love that because these are similar to the Disney related tales that children grow up to know, I think the dramatic endings and twists give more emotion and depth to the passages. Don't get me wrong, not all of these accounts have sad endings. Most of them actually have decent ends with maybe a few traumatic consequences scatter throughout the work.  I know that the word "grim" can create this complex of thinking that the stories will end in death, sadness, maybe the villain getting what they want. That isn't necessarily the case for these stories. They can have excellent alternatives, but the way they decide to get there makes these fairytales, not as child-friendly or seem delicate anymore. That's my favorite part of these types of tales and what I want to take away to use in my endings for my project this semester.


Image: Grimm Fairytale (Wikimedia Commons)
Bibliography:  Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm (Un-Textbook)

Story Lab Week 12: Twine story software (Tech Tip)

Story Lab Week 12:

Twine story software 

This week, I decided to do the Twine Story Software reading because of my project this semester. I definitely looked into using Twine to make my choose your own adventure story, but because my choices weren't as elaborate as this software would have preferred, I just went ahead and used the button options on google sites. I do regret not using Twine, and if I had more time, I would have put more into my adventure story! So I might pick up on using this software even after the class ends and start just making fun stories on the side that my friends could read if they choose to. I could also use this to accompany my Dungeons and Dragons campaigns with some of my groups! I love how easy it is to use this application. You can also connect more options to different things, and it just helps to keep everything organized. It's also great at loading in options and providing an "undo" so you can backtrack if you change your mind later. Something I added to my story was that some outcomes brought you back to a fork. Making this return fork was harder on the google sites option than it was on Twine! I highly recommend using this site if you'd like to make an adventure. I regret not working with it, but I do think that my story wouldn't have had as many essentials to use this application to its full potential.


Image: Adventure Tag (Flickr)
Twine Info: Twine Tech Tip

Week 11 Story: My Grandmother's Stories

Week 11 Story:

My Grandmother's Stories

Author's Notes: My story inspiration this week is from Iagoo, the Storyteller. This story is meant to introduce the character of Iagoo, as wise and wonderful storyteller. He has a way of winning the hearts of all those he comes across through his storytelling, specifically children. I wanted to follow a format similar by describing the amazing way someone could portray stories but with using a family member instead. This isn't particularly about my own grandmother but, this is just a general idea of a grandparent. Being idolized by her grandchildren for the way she tells them stories and does things for them. It will be told through the perspective of one of her grandchildren who is of a pretty decent age (maybe 17-24?) and recounting the moments they were invested in the tales their grandmother would tell to them.

My eyes never lit up as bright for anyone as they did for my Grandmother. My siblings and I never dismissed the ideas of any of the stories she wanted to tell. She seemed to know the mysteries that lurked in the forests, and could interpret the meanings from all creatures from land and sea. Her emotional understanding was only matched by her brilliant ability to captivate an audience even just by one sentence. All my life, I knew she had a strong connection to the outdoors, the spiritual ties to the world, and all the weird things you'd expect crazy old women to be passionate about. She never taught us to be prim and proper adults, but more so the fact that she taught us moral lessons that shaped who we are today.

Her favorite way to teach us was through storytelling. She had a vast variety of stories to tell and I honestly don't remember ever hearing the same one twice. She knew fairy tales from what seemed to be all regions, and had learned most of what she knows through her parents passing the stories down to her and generations of the same trend taking place. If there was on take away you could get from my grandmother, it was that the world was a mysterious and mystic place that was full of beauty advice if you ever desired it.

We all loved my grandmother. Every single one of us. It was like a floodgate would open when my parents announced that we'd go to visit for the weekend. I remember running to the car as soon as the doors opened and jumping around in my seat waiting until I could see even the roof of her home. She had this rug that sat out by a leather recliner that she loved to sit in. Around that rug sat myself and all of my siblings, eagerly waiting to see our grandmother. She would walk out with a tray of chocolate chip cookies that to this day, no one has been able to master the way she did it. It was like she had a magic spell on us because we almost lost all train of thought on anything else but her.

Visits to our grandmother's mostly occurred during the holiday season. Whether it was snowy glaze coating the cracked pavement or crisp orange leaves falling from the trees, she was always inspired to tell a tale. My favorite times were when we could bundle up in warm blankets and sip on hot cocoa while listening to fairy tales of heroes, princesses, magicians, and even pirates. I felt connected to all parts of the world when I got to hear stories from my grandmother. She never failed at rallying us up to her while giving my parents the break they definitely deserved.

Years have passed since I was able to meet with my grandmother for stories. As that time passed, she left us to float amongst the breeze by nature. She was free to swim with the dolphins and soar the skies with the eagles now. My heart still yearns to hear those stories once more, but I knew that I had to allow them to live on through me. I will pass down her legacy as a brilliant, wise storyteller who is loved by her family. I will instill deep relationships with the earth and sky to the people who give my tales a chance. To the people who are open to getting a feel for my grandmother, I wish for them to accept me with open arms and buckle up for a new insight on life.

Image: Grandma (Pixabay)
Bibliography: American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae (Un-Textbook)