This week I chose to focus on a few of the Jataka Tales. I really enjoyed reading these. Since they were written for children they were simple and easy to comprehend. Each involved a different set of animals and each taught a lesson about life. I feel like using the Jataka Tales as a guideline for my story could be very helpful. Maybe I could choose a specific life lesson and then pick my animals accordingly. I want to challenge myself to pick an animal that wasn't already used i the Jataka Tales.
For this next story I want to challenge myself also to focus more on punctuation. I have been struggling with it in previous weeks. I also want to become better at editing my own stories. I think skill is extremely important to a writer.
I think I would like to use a sea turtle as one of my animals in my story. Maybe a sea turtle and a dolphin? Or maybe a whale? I think setting my story in the sea would make for a ton of vibrant imagery. Maybe it could give it a Finding Nemo kind of feel.
For the lesson maybe I could focus on "follow your passion". Not sure what the passions will be for the dolphin and sea turtle yet but I'm sure I can come up with something really cute. I love being able to personify these creatures. Stories always seem to be more intriguing when talking animals are involved.
I am eager to write this story because I feel like I can really dig deep into my imagination. I'm excited to develop a unique, feel-good story. I also feel like I can pack more emotion into this story which I always love. I primarily write poetry in my free time so emotion is usually what I use to propel myself.
Bibliography:
Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt
I read another Jataka tale tonight. I really like these because they have to do with animals and animals are one of my biggest passions. I read "The Elephant and The Dog" this time. This was about the friendship built between an elephant and a dog. In life there seems to be many interesting animal friendships. I feel that the human race could learn a lot from nature. An elephant and a dog could not be more different but that doesn't stop them from loving one another. Once they are separated both are devastated. The elephant won't even eat or bathe. In the end once the dog returns to the elephant they are both elated. In life sometimes we think if someone is drastically different from us we won't be able to get along. But we are all living and breathing beings, on the same earth. When it comes down to it we aren't that different at all. We are all capable of love, every single being. I fully believe that. I really loved this short little tale and feel that I will be able to write a great story this week based off the Jataka Tales.
Bibliography:
Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt
This week I decided to read the Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. I read the tale of "The Foolhardy Wolf". I liked this tale because I feel like there is a huge underlying lesson to it. In life I feel that often we become too confident in our ability to do things on our own. This kind of reminds me a bit of the relationship between a child and their parent. Children are always so eager to go out and do things on their own, until they really get thrown into the real world. I know this happened to me once I went to college. Being an adult definitely isn't easy. In this story the lion was making all the kills for the wolf as long as the wolf would look out for prey and notify the lion of them. They had the perfect dynamic going on until the wolf grew bigger and took on too big a task. He wanted to take down his own elephant and in ignoring the lions warnings that he wouldn't be able to do it, was killed by the elephant. I am so eager to read more of these tales and hopefully compile them into a story of my own about life lessons!
Bibliography:
Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt
