Sunday, February 14, 2016

Matty's Portfolio: A Search for Love

There once was a poor village boy named Ron. Ron lived with his two parents and worked on his family farm for a living. In order to make money, Ron milked the cows, watered the plants, cared for the horses and fed the pigs and chickens every single day.

When Ron accomplished his daily duties, he would go back to his barn and enjoy a home-cooked meal prepared by his mother. Every night, his mother would tuck him into bed, say "I love you" and turn off the lights. Ron had the same routine every day, but was very content with his life on the farm.



One night, before his mother turned off the lights, Ron asked, “Mom, what does the word love mean?”

His mother smiled and responded, “Ron, love is indescribable. One day, when the time is right, you will discover the magical powers of love on your own.”

After hearing the word “magical,” Ron was determined to find love as soon as he could. The poor village boy fell asleep that night knowing he would start his journey for love the next morning.

Ron rose early, mounted his favorite horse and headed straight towards the magical forest.  Ron thought he could surely find the powers of love within the magical forest!

On his way there, he got very thirsty and stopped at a small pond to fill his can up with water. The second he reached into the water, a fish-fairy flew out to greet him.



“Who are you and what are you doing at my pond?” said the fish-fairy.

“My name is Ron and I am searching for love. Do you know where I can find it and its magical powers?” asked Ron.

Laughing to herself, the fish-fairy knew this would be the perfect opportunity to pull a prank on the young, foolish farm boy.

“Yes, I do!” said the fish-fairy. “You must keep traveling north until find the genius genie.”

(What Ron didn’t know was that there was no such thing as a genius genie. Genies were very dumb creatures that were only good at cleaning lamps.)

Excited and ready to keep searching, clueless Ron hopped on his horse and headed north. On his journey, Ron began to feel hungry. Ron saw large, colorful trees in the near distance and thought that surely one of them would bear fruit.

Once Ron got closer, he saw that they were massive apple trees. The second Ron reached up to pluck an apple, a large wizard appeared out of nowhere.


“Do you think you can just walk around and pluck anyone’s precious apples, boy?” said the wizard.

“I’m sorry,” said Ron. “I have been on a journey searching for love and got hungry on the way.”

Laughing to himself, the wizard felt bad for the boy and let him eat an apple.  Just like the fairy-fish, the wizard also saw the perfect opportunity to play a trick on the boy.

“In order to find love, you must climb the magical mountain and wait for the witch to find you. The witch will cast a spell and will then show you the magical powers of love,” said the wizard.

Tricked once again, Ron set off for the magical mountain. On his journey to see the witch, he heard a strange noise. Ron turned around to see a young girl trapped in a weeping willow's branches.  The young farmer boy jumped off his horse and untangled the girl from the tree.

“What are you doing in the magical forest alone?” asked Ron.

“I am on a search for love,” said the young girl.

“I am on my way to the magical mountain right now to find the love spell,” explained Ron. “Come with me and we can experience the magical powers together!”

The next moment, the two were mounted on the horse riding at lightning speed towards the magical mountain. They were almost to the mountain when the horse stopped suddenly in his tracks. There was a massive drop off only a few feet ahead of them.



Feeling determined, the two decided that they were going to have to finish their journey by foot. They jumped off the horse and made their way to the drop off. Slowly and carefully the two started rock-climbing down the cliff.

All of a sudden, the young girl’s foot slipped on a loose rock and she was dangling by only her fingertips. Without thinking twice, Ron released his hand to pull her back up. It was too late and the girl started to fall.


Ron opened his eyes, shot out of bed and was drenched in sweat. In that moment, he knew that love was like a dream. Love was indescribable, exciting and dangerous all at the same time.



Author's Note: My story is based off of a famous Turkish Fairy Tale called "Fear." In this Turkish fairy tale, the main character is searching for "fear." In the end, he realizes that you cant explain fear, but you must experience fear yourself in order to understand it. I took this theme and applied it to my story by having my character search for love. I made my character, Ron, go on many tasks and journeys in order to experience love for himself.

I also took some of the magical creatures and difficult tasks from the Turkish fairy tales that I read and applied them to my own story. In the story "Fear," the main character meets many unusual creatures on his search for fear. I applied this to my story by having Ron meet a fish-fairy and a tree wizard in the magical forest.

At the end of my story, Ron wakes up and realizes that everything was just a dream. This idea came from the Turkish fairy tale called "Kunterburnt." In this fairy tale, the text is written as though the events were actually happening. At the very end of the story, the last line says "it was just a dream." I loved how the author drew me into the story and then ended it suddenly in the last paragraph. I decided to add this element to my story to provide an exciting "plot twist" for my readers. 

Bibliography: My story idea came from the Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales written by Ignacz Kunos in 1913.
The two stories I referenced in my Author's Note can be found here:
Fear
Kunterbunt

6 comments:

  1. I really liked your story about love and I think Ron was smart to go searching in the magical forest, which is where I would have looked first as well. Your story definitely kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, I wish the story could have kept going and Ron could have spent more time with the girl. It stinks when good dreams are ended before you want them to. I really liked this writing style too because I was not expecting it to be all a dream in the end. I can tell you are a good writer because of how surprised I was when I found out it was all a dream. The pictures you used in the s tory were perfect and the tree wizard made me laugh. It kind of made me think of the trees from the Lord of the Rings and I liked those guys. The picture of Ron's family farm was gorgeous and I can see why they would want to live there with sunsets like that.

    I apologize if this is a little forward but would you be interested in going on a date with me? I know that it is kind of a weird place to ask a girl out on a date but you seem like someone who would be fun to get to know and have dinner with.

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  2. This was a great story Matty! I am a huge fan of pictures and love all the pictures you used in your story. I like how you go back and forth with a mix of dialog and narrative. You break up the story well so its not just big paragraphs which can sometimes be boring to read. This layout makes it entertaining and gives the writing a good flow. It was also really interesting that the story ended and we find out it was all a dream. I liked that you combined two of the Turkish fairytales and took ideas form each of them to make this story. I did this for one of my stories also and though it was fun. The main story you used as inspiration for this one was based on the idea of fear. I like that instead of fear you changed it to the theme of love.

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  3. Your story about Ron finding love is great! I love that he started out by asking his mom what love was and that her answer made him want to go out and search for it right away. It was cool that he talked to different characters throughout the story to figure out what love was, but didn't truly get his answer until the very end. My favorite part of the story was definitely the end when he woke up from the dream and realized what love meant to him. I think it would interesting if you kind of expanded the ending and ended it with whether or not Ron ever found love in real life and if his meaning of love ever changed, simply because there are so many different types of love to be had, like for his children. I really enjoyed reading your story overall and the meaning behind it was so great! Great job!

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  4. I read this story along with The Lost Princess. I choose this story because I made a better connection with it. Along with Ron I grew up in a small place. I also raised pigs, sheep and had chickens and horses. I am sure it was much more modern day then compared to Ron. I liked this story because everyone on Earth is in search for love. It is something like nothing else. Just like in your story when Ron asked his mom what does love mean, Love is indescribable." I would have to agree with this 100%. I really like how you answered that question. As I read through your story I really thought the little girl Ron met was going to be the one. I though they would fall in love and be together. I was wrong though! In a way I am glad, because I love it when the unexpected happens in a story. Good job!

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  5. Hi Matty! This is a great story. I really enjoyed reading it.it is so interesting. I like how you used two of the Turkish fairy tales to write your story. Instead of fear you changed it to the theme of love which is something I really liked in your story. It was so interesting that the story ended and we just find out that the whole story was just a dream but I still curious to know how this story ended. You did a great job with choosing the pictures for your story I really liked them. Your paragraphs were not too big, you also did good job with spacing them. Having the tasks and journeys that Ron went through in order to experience the love for himself made the story powerful and interesting. The moral of the story was so great. Overall I really enjoyed reading the story. Great work!

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  6. Hey Matty!
    I chose this story from your portfolio because I liked your story title. This reminded me how important titles and pictures being used are. It helps to tell the story and get the reader excited about reading. This was the case for me. I like the idea of surrounding the story around finding love. That concept is really cute and makes for a great mission for your character to go on.
    I loved the cute interactions between Ron and the wizard. Then I was surprised when Ron met a girl who was on the same mission as Ron. I thought this was a great way to introduce her into the storyline and fulfill both their missions.
    The best part for me was when Ron woke up from his dream and realized what love truly was. The way it was explained and expressed was perfect! I really enjoyed this story! Awesome job!

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