Story Lab - Empoword

Once upon a time (image source from pixabay)

Reading this college manual about writing, made me realize we are all story tellers. We tell stories everyday in our own life. We are stories. The way we identify ourselves, our ambitions, our life, our passion composes many stories of ourselves. We end up being stories in the end of our life when we pass away.

A good story should have well written narration. Your story has to at least be descriptive, creative, impactful, and entertaining to the audience. For example, scope refers to boundaries of the plot. I need to focus on the background of the stories and build it up. People will have different perceptions of my story if I am not detailed and concise about it. And when I write my stories, I need to pace out my plots and sequence. I tend to usually jump into a dramatic scene without building it up. 

The few mistakes I have in my story is not building characters, adding enough dialogue to show their emotions or mood, or being detailed enough about my plot. I feel like reading this made me notice more of my mistakes and I could fix it in my next stories or revision. In my stories, I usually just jump to the plot because I know how the story starts and how it ends- which I shouldn't be doing that. Not everyone will see what I see or understand what I understand. 

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Reading Notes: PDE Jataka, The Horse That Held Out to the End- Part B

Seven Headed Flying Horse (image source from Wikipedia)

In this life, the Buddha came to life in the form of a horse that was a thoroughbred small horse. The horse was the King's Destrier who was surrounded by pomp and state. He was well fed with exquisite three-year-old rice that was served in a gold dish worth thousand pieces of money. The ground in his stalls were perfumed with four odors. His stall also have crimson curtains while a canopy studded with golden stars. He had fragrant flowers and a lamp with scented oil.

All the seven kings envied the kingdom of Benares. They told the king of Benares to give up his kingdom or to battle them. 

The king of Benares sent for the Knight to fight the seven kings. The Knight responded, "Give me but your noble Destrier, and then I could fight not only seven kings but all the Kings in India." He provided the Knight with his horse and went into battle.

As they went into battle, they abducted six kings and brought them back as prisoners. The horse was wounded and bleeding which caused him so much pain. The knight made the horse lay down but he refused. Destrier knew that no horse will help catch the seventh king and he would lose. He was so close to accomplishing on capturing the seventh king that he did not give up. 

The horse got up and captured the seventh king. The horse went back to the King's gate and saw the King again. He gave the king orders to not slay the seven kings. Do honor for them both, exercise charity, and rule the kingdom in righteousness and justice. As the took off the armour of the horse, he passed away. 

The king buried the horse with respect and great honors. He send the kings to their homes after giving an other to never war upon them again. 

Marie L. Shedlock, The Horse That Held Out to the End, Link

Reading Notes: PDE Jataka Tales, The Hare That Ran Away- Part A

Little Hare (image source from Wikipedia)

Buddas came and go, but this Budda reborn into a Lion- he spends his life helping others. There was this nervous little Hare that was always nervous and worried that something dreadful was going to happen to her. She always repeats this saying, "Suppose the Earth were to fall in, what would happen to me?" She said this phrase so often that she thought it was going to happen one day. It was like she believed it was going to happen too. One day, she heard the slightest noise and it was a heavy fruit that had fallen upon a rustling leaf, which made her believe that the earth was falling in. The hare ran away so fast and told the older brother hare, "the earth is falling in, and I am running away." 

When the brother hare heard it, he told his other brother hare which his brother hare told others. It was a telephone game where everyone knew the earth was falling in. The deer heard it, the sheep, the wild boar, the buffalo, the camel, the tiger, and then the elephant. 

The wise Lion heard all this noise and asked what the big fuss was. There were no signs of the earth falling in so he had to get to the bottom of it. The source of the problem came from the Little Hare. He asked what made her think the earth was falling in? She explained how she saw it by the tree. The Lion took her back to prove to her that the earth was not falling in. He explained how the fruit fell and made a frightening noise, but it does not mean the earth was falling. 

Marie L. Shedlock, The Hare That Ran Away, Link