As the Story Will Tell Itself: To Become the Mouth Which Holds the Universe

Starting out in this class was a little difficult. By that I mean all of the blogging was a bit draining on me. I am not used to writing so much in so little time, especially on an online medium. Even being creative for writing stories was a bit of a struggle. But now it is the end of week 3, and I can say that I am now getting into the groove of it all. Thank goodness. Now that I have been working out my brain in getting my thoughts and ideas out onto both paper and word processors, the whole processes have been flowing out with greater ease. I look back and think that writing the first two stories so far has been a blast! The ideas I was able to churn out and use just left me giddy and laughing for days. For anyone interested, here are links to my stories from Week 2 and Week 3 . My other classes amazingly are still quite slow in terms of everything. Given that they are all only two days a week, I suppose this is understandable. I will admit that I am a bit behind in the readings ...

The first article I read was Be a Mirror . One thing I found significant about this article was the mention of taking one's self out of feedback. I agree with the notion that by saying to someone "I think..." or "I like..." takes away from growth and thinking how to improve upon one's work. By saying this, a person is more likely in the future to direct his or her work towards meeting people's standards and approval more than anything else. Another significant point was to focus on what is there or how it got to that point rather than what is not there. By looking at some aspect that is missing, it may just be another way to discourage improvement or cause the person to work towards the approval of the one commenting. The second article I read was Presence, Not Praise . As many of these like to take from Carol Dweck, one thing to from this article is essentially not to praise based on an aesthetic quality, like intelligent or beauty, but rather hard wo...

First Story Idea : Saraswati must face off against the demon king Ravana for a yet to be determined reason. Instead of battling with brute strength, this is a battle through musical prowess. This could either be the first or the last story in the storybook, and this may take place in a time before the events of the Ramayana or in a different universe. Second Story Idea : Saraswati must gather together a band made up of some of other goddesses, like Durga (Parvati), Kali , maybe Lakshmi , and so on. Along with this, they would need to convince their husbands to allow them to use their associated instruments like Vishnu's conch ( shankha ) and Shiva's damaru . This could be either the first or second story. Third Story Idea : The band faces off against a group of demons consisting of Mahishasura , the brothers Sumbha and Nisumbha , Raktabija , and maybe Ravana in a battle of the bands kind of situation. This could be either the second or last story. For whichever story ...

It was a bright, new a day at Panchavati High School. In the distance, a trio was approaching the school: Rama, our good-looking Marty Stu ; his sweetheart, Sita; and his faithful, anger-prone brother, Lakshmana. Previously, they had been attending the Adyodhya School for Incredible Individuals, but unfortunate circumstances forced Rama's father, Principal Dasaratha, to transfer Rama and his companions to Panchavati. This day was their first day there. Immediately, Rama and Sita became heartthrobs for everyone at the school. This was not a problem, as the two were used to this from their previous school, and it made adjustment for the trio a bit easier. However, there was Kamavalli, the queen bee of the school, who was beyond smitten with Rama. One should note that while Kamavalli was outwardly sweet and reasonable, she had a tendency to be devilishly vicious and destructive like her even more fearsome brother, Ravana. This earned her the nickname Shurpanakha. She was alone the...

Chapter 4 : Imagine an alternate story where Kamavalli/Soorpanaka actually managed to trick and steal away Rama by some spell (or maybe in a way along the lines of a succubus in a dream?), and Sita must brave through (maybe with help from Lakshmana) to break the spell and save Rama Perhaps the before mentioned scenario but where Lakshmana is the victim (or both he and Rama)? Re-imagine the whole scenario as a petty high school drama: Hot bad-boy Rama is new to the block with his super sweet wife/girlfriend Sita and his brother Kamavalli/Soorpanaka vies for his attention (Ra-rama-senpai...) With no luck she tries to sobotage/humiliate Sita, but Lakshmana discovers this and turns the tables Being humiliated instead, Soorpanaka sics the jocks and other jerks in her posse on the trio, but Rama beats them up Chapter 5 : Why is anyone who comes across someone who is beautiful, attractive, or something along those lines reduced to a state of either hopeless moping or outward...

Chapter 1 : The sage Viswamitha comes to King Dasaratha to ask to take Rama to help him with a yagna (Rama nor his brother are present) What if Dasaratha was adamant about not letting Rama go (maybe have Rama be there during the exchange), and Rama and his brother sneak out on their own or with the help of the sage instead? The scenes are vividly described; painted like pictures come back to desert description on page 11 (location 461) for example  What if the sage could be some crazy but powerful/smart old man along the lines of Rick from Rick and Morty He could sneak Rama out by way of strange or unreasonable mean s He could help Rama and his brother deal with the desert first by insulting them for not being able to tolerate the heat and drought and then "reluctantly" giving them aid  In reference to Rama being iffy about killing the female demon, Thataka: "She's a bureaucrat, Rama! She's not a person!" (really just a demon) Rama figh...