Creating my own myth was definitely a unique experience that I hadn’t done before. It was an assignment I never really gave much thought to. I’m familiar with myths and studying them, but actually writing one was something new. After taking the time to develop my own, I gained a stronger appreciation for the creativity and thought that goes into making a myth. When studying myths, it’s easy to focus on analyzing their themes, symbols, or lessons. However, writing one made me realize how much effort it takes to build a story that explains something larger.
This experience also taught me that while myths are creative, they still follow a clear structure. I had the freedom to come up with my own story, but I needed to include certain elements to make it feel believable. One thing I focused on was using vocabulary and phrasing that sounded more traditional, similar to the language in older myths. This helped make my story feel more authentic and was, in a sense, challenging.
In the future, I can use this experience in my teaching by having students create their own myths. This would help them connect personally with the genre and better understand common mythological themes. It could also make studying myths more engaging and creative. Plus, it would give students a chance to practice their storytelling skills while exploring deeper ideas. Overall, this was a fun and meaningful experience that gave me a new perspective on myths and how they are created.
Here is my myth website if anyone wants to check it out!!
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Hi Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteI am not very familiar with studying mythology or at least all the schools I went to never really touched base on this subject. So going into both presenting a myth and creating my own I found to be a bit of a challenge. Luckily, I know that with learning comes research and after doing some on my own I was able to understand and have a deeper appreciation for mythology. It is a fascinating world that I never got to experience before. I loved creating my own myth because it gave me a chance to be creative and write my own story. Coming up with the myth was the hardest part for me, but once I had an idea I just let the thoughts flow and the story came right out of me. I think this is a really good activity for students to learn more about themes and storytelling. This is great practice for writing stories or just writing in general. While expanding their knowledge they also get to engage in a fun activity which I think most students would be very pleased with. I agreed with all that you had to say in this weeks blog and look forward to other blogs to come.
Hi Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting that you bring up the use of language when creating a myth. I also noticed myself trying to emulate a more “traditional” style by using certain words over others when I was writing my own myth. Although we had a lot of freedom when choosing a topic for our individual myths, I think this made it challenging to write because we had to include elements like symbolism that still made the myth believable in terms of explaining phenomena. I love the idea of having students create their own myths as a way to expand on their creative writing skills and connect with myths on a personal level. Myths, like any other story or text, follow a structure and it’s important students understand how literary devices/elements contribute to the myth’s central message. Moreover, I think reading and creating myths are a great way for students to learn about themselves.
Hello Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you have stated with this project being something you've never done before. I myself never did a project so creatively in a previous class, and I think that it was a great learning experience for when we're teaching and have to find a way to engage our students. I think that English majors are more used to dissecting what things are instead of actually producing something as creative and uniquely our own myth. That’s what we’ve been doing in most of our classes. You mention that creating one is much more difficult and I completely agree. Coming up with an idea was really hard for me but once it kind of came to me, I was able to start developing it more. Doing assignments like these just help us remember what our students are going to be going through and how we can make the process easier for them when we give them the assignments that, including their own, take on things and allow them to be creative.
Hi Rose!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the process of writing a myth made me more conscious of what it takes to write something that has its own symbolism, underlying message, and complex archetypes. I think that following a typical myth format helped me to refine my ideas and plot choices, and that focused me. I think that this assignment really helps students connect with the writing process and the deep thought that (should) come before putting words on paper and developing a full plot with characters and certain events.