An Introduction

As the time between posts increases, I become more agitated that I cannot think of anything to write about. There is not much going on in current events and I am often too tired, or don't have the time, to write anything original. I feel it is a cop-out to continue to post other people's poetry (not that I'm going to stop, mind you). So, I tried to think of a way to write and not have to be completely original. That's when I got an idea from The Decemberists.

As you will see in my review of their new album below, they wrote three songs based around the folk tale of The Crane Wife. This got me to thinking. I began reading folk tales on-line, which is an enjoyable practice in and of itself, and I decided to try my hand at re-telling some of them. Why do this? Three reasons: 1) I cannot seem to think of anything else to write lately, 2) I would like to bring some great old stories into the light and perhaps shed some new light with my own telling, and 3) it's an excellent writing exercise. So, if for no other reason than to force myself to write, it's worthwhile. And hopefully you'll enjoy the product.

I do not know how much I will change the stories. I plan to keep them true to the original as much as possible, but I may take creative license here and there. My main point is to add the flesh. Folk tales are mostly stories of morals, lessons, and values, and tend to be very minimal. They tell you what they want to tell you and leave out the rest. They are kind of a skeleton of a story and I would like to add in the details, and practice the rule of "show, don't tell", a basic tenant of craft that should be learned in Creative Writing 101. Hopefully I'll succeed. If not, well, all three of you that read this blog can deal with it.

And now my laziness catch...if this only happens once, oh well, it happened once, but hopefully this is something I can make a regular feature. We'll see. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.