Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Week 5 Storytelling: The Voyages of Sinclair

With my time on the seas I have learned many lessons. I have been fortunate enough to stay in one piece but have numerous loyal friends die by my side. We do not have much time but I will tell you about some of my biggest Adventures.
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After being home for many months I started to miss the open seas and all their wonder. I embarked on this journey not 6 months before my last one had ended, which had almost killed me. I set forth with some loyal companions for the south to go explore new lands. The first few days were uneventful but on the fifth day a terrible storm had broken our sail to where we could not fix it on the open sea. After drifting for three more days we came across an Island that looked uninhabited but plentiful. Once we got to the island we did run into people and thought they were here to help us. They were friendly at first and gave us lots of food but I had noticed they were not eating any of it.  I pretended to eat but all my other companions were too famished to notice. Once they had fed us they took the fattest and ate him! They had put drugs in the food to make us unaware of what was happening. Each day they fed us rice and coconut oil to fatten us up. I made sure to only eat the bare minimum so I would not gain any weight. They continued eating us until only I and one other was left. One day all the locals had left except for one of the elders which they had left to watch over us. I saw that this was my chance to go. I overpowered the local and brought my last comrade with me. We quickly lost sight of the elder and could not have picked a better time to escape because once we got to the beach where our ship was there was another one that had just stopped to see if there was anyone alive since the ship looked badly damaged. We got on board and grabbed as many bales of goods as we could from our ship and then left the island before the locals could do anything to us.
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The next voyage I had was only three months after where we ended up having our ship destroyed in a storm and I survived by holding on tight enough to some drift wood and being washed up to a mystical land. I was lucky enough to come in on a small beach between two large cliffs. After walking between these cliffs, I noticed that there were diamonds everywhere! I had not seen so many fine cut stones in my life. I was worried when night fall came what would come with it. I had found some food and water and just as I was finishing up my shelter a giant Roc (their legs look like tree trunks) comes down and grabs a snake (big enough to eat an elephant) coming from right around the ridge of the cliff.  I knew at that point if I was going to survive I needed to use the Roc. That whole night I could hardly sleep because I could hear the snakes outside slithering by, I just prayed that my shelter could hold till morning.


By morning I had devised a plan on how to leave that land. I collected as many diamonds as I could and set a trap for a snake. Once I had caught it, it was only a matter of time to a Roc came down and grabbed it, which I tied myself to. The Roc had landed on it nest and I was surprised to see that there were merchants at the nest hoping that the Roc had picked up some diamonds during its trip. After they saw me I told them my story and they welcomed me to their city and helped on my way after I gave a few of my diamonds to them. The rest of the trip was uneventful and now I sit here waiting for the ship to dock before I start my next voyage.

Authors Note: I started with " The Voyages of Sinbad " drawn from Lang's Arabian Nights' Entertainments and changed it to have a female heroine.  Written in first person, she talks about her run ins with mysterious creatures and  near death experiences.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Reading Notes: Voyages of Sinbad, part B

The stories follow the same pattern as the first part. The very last story breaks the pattern making me think he is going to die but returns home. I definitely want to incorporate the last story into my rewritten story.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sinbad, Part A


I loved the stories even more the I thought I would! I love how he says a few times things like " I won't bore you with the details". I like how he says the reason he goes on each voyage, usually along the lines of  being bored of the quiet life. It's nice that he says what he does when he gets home to ( and always donating some of his goods) I would love to change up the story so that it is a woman instead of Sinbad.