Fanfic Writers...

So earlier I was reading a thread about Fanfic writers abandoning their fics, or deleting their accounts when they were no longer interested in writing anymore, because they felt the need to move on to other things (other types of writing, or life is lifing, etc), and I have to say this...don't delete your fics.

You never know wo needs to read that story (completed or not) years from now after you have forgotten/abandoned them.

Lemme give you an example.

Years ago, after the new Star Trek reboot came out in 2009 I was busy working a difficult job and struggling to write anything and just make a living. I'd always been a Star Trek fan since I was little. LIke seriously, I had a Klingon language handbook in highschool, I own a Star Trek cocktail dress, a messenger, bag, and a tiny replica of the Enterprise (that used to light up). I hadn't read or written fanifics in years, so I was out of touch with the fandom. When the reboot movie came out, I loved it, but I had hit a rough patch in a long term relationship, a lot of my friends were moving away to different cities and countries, and I was feeling depressed and not really finding much happiness.

About six years after the first reboot movie came out, I tried to find and old livejournal account I had that I used to write Blade, X Files, Star Trek, & other fics with. Perusing fandoms I dipped back into looking at new Star Trek content on other fanfiction websites and stumbled across some great new Star Trek fics that were amazing (My thing was the Spock/Uhura pairing). Baybee, when I tell you those stories from various writers lifted my spirits and gave me something to look forward to at the end of a hard day or week of draining work! I laughed, cried, fell in love, felt enraged, surprised, and so many emotions reading made up stories from strangers all over the world. A lot of these fics had been abandoned or the writers had left the fandom and weren't writing anymore by the time I found them...but I still had their stories. One particular writer had a 4 book Star Trek series that was better than the studio sanctioned movie book adapatations I bought at SF/F conventions or online. Just A+ writing and wordbuilding.

Reading those fics bolstered my confidence (and dopamine) to go back to living life again as best I could, and also writing my own fanfics again. I took time to write this particular writer to tell her thank you. I never heard from her (didn't expect to), but I was grateful to be able to read their work over and over again when I was feeling low, or needed to revisit old familiar friends.

All this to say, pleadingly so, don't delete your stories. Someone years from now, someone like me, may find your work and latch onto it as their lifeline to keep on getting up in the morning...have something to come home to. Or need that story you made up on the fly to give them a new way of looking at the world that will help them cope and keeping trying to make it out here.

Your stories are needed, your unique voices are needed on here, even if you no longer write anything for fandoms.

Le Fin.

I dislike posting on TikTok, because of voice dysphoria & the effort of having to film, but my book reviews do so much better there. So. Much. Better.

Alternatively, I love posting on Tumblr, even though I hardly get any interactions, because seven months later a random book review will take off & get a flurry of folks excited about my favorite authors.

btw for my bookish beloved besties i found this book tracking site storylace yesterday which uses quests in addition to your regular reading challenges. it’s in open beta still and has quite a few glitches but it looks like it could grow into something fun

*post-fic feelings up the whazoo*

if the new goodreads design has 1,000,000,000 haters i am one of them. if the new goodreads design has 10,000 haters i am one of them. if the new goodreads design has 1000 haters i am one of them. if the new goodreads design has 100 haters i am one of them. if the new goodreads design has 10 haters i am one of them. if the new goodreads design has 1 hater i am that hater. if the new goodreads design has 0 haters i am no longer on this earth.

So earnest. So well-meaning. So dumb.

No, no that is not concerning. People ship things because they like how some fictional characters interact or something. Or they're working through something. Or maybe they're trolling you. Or maybe they watch some El Chavo del Ocho-ass series with crazy casting.

Regardless, what people like in fiction is not a reliable predictor of whether they're ~dangerous~ or what morals they hold outside of fiction.

Thinking fiction can be used this way, however, is a massive red flag for indoctrination by conservative religious bullshit.

If you hold this dangerously stupid view, what other ones might be lurking?

You will get no sympathy on my blog for "wah, wah, romaaaanticize" discourse.

Not only is fiction fiction, but many depictions romanticize vs. not only due to 1. your readerly preconceptions or 2. the author's hamfisted skill that turned out a piece that wasn't as nuanced as they'd hoped.

And for the record, "stuff that would get you into jail irl" is anything gay in a lot of jurisdictions and nothing at all where I live... well... barring bomb threats or something.

Books of 2023. NOTHING BUT THE RAIN by Naomi Salman. I picked this up last night because I wanted to annihilate something in one sitting (it’s a whopping 91 pages), thinking the premise was Neat and it looked Very Readable, based on the opening paragraph, but I didn’t actually have any expectations for it going in.

Dear reader: I absolutely loved it.

What a weird, funny, fucked up book, which hits *checks notes* exactly all of my readerly buttons!! I love our narrator, 63-year-old retired doctor Laverne, trapped by memory-erasing rain in her exceedingly rainy childhood hometown (and, y’know, by shady mysterious lethal border guards, about whom we know absolutely nothing), and I love her voice and the format and the ambiguity and how this little book felt like exactly the right length and gave us actually no answers but guess what!! I’m not even mad!!

The tension conveyed through the broken up diary entries is absolutely masterful, and Laverne is hilarious and completely relatable, and there are completely horrifying things going on and it’s just. So Good. (but also content warnings under the cut, if that’s a thing you’re interested in!)

cw for gaslighting not just by the rain, child (and adult) death/mercy killing (not on page but described), and animal death (kitten, accidental, described as aftermath)

can i just say i love anytime you drag romance readers? i literally have trauma from reading goodreads reviews. if i don't see a henry cavill or david gandy fancast ever again in my life i'll die happy.

HAHA thanks. I have a lot of friends and people I follow whose opinions I value even when I don't agree with them, and there are a lot of people who I think give good takes on romance novels, but like. I really dislike the "we as a united romancelandia stand together" perspective, because no. I don't stand with homophobic and racist readers, and I don't agree with reductive perspectives on the genre.

Plus, there's this inherent problem with a readership that does often take a "for women, by women" POV, when a) no, anyone can and should (if they wish) read it regardless of their gender, romance isn't just for women b) what they actually mean is "for [cis] women by [cis] women anyway c) they also mean for [white] women by [white] women.

Idk, I think it's important to enjoy things, but for me enjoying something usually comes with critiquing it and wanting better from it. I feel the same way about tons of other things. Because I love and respect it, I expect better of it. And I don't think you have to consume romance that way. I think you can just love it. But if I think a like... readerly pressure, I suppose... contributes to a drop in quality, I'll comment on it.

And on a shallower level, I think so many GR reviews are so ugly and I'm so tired of seeing the same white guys fancast for heroes every. Single. Time. And like, it's always pics of these dudes from 10 years ago anyway. FIND NEW HOT GUYS.

This is not related to FnF, it's just that I'm reading it again and Exciter and I thought to ask: do you know the seinen manga Innocent and Innocent Rouge by Shin'ichi Sakamoto?

It's about two siblings from a family of Royal executioners set in France pre and during the French Revolution. Charles-Henri is the real life inventor of the guillotine and Marie-Josèphe is fictional but quite the revolutionary, to say the least. It's based on historical figures and events but highly stylized and with many artistic liberties. To give a very very very broad description of where the characters start/motivations, Charles-Henri doesn't want to be Royal executioner and dreams of abolishing the death penalty, and Marie-Josèphe dreams of there being no restrictions to do what you want regardless of status or gender, aka wants to be an executioner herself.

It has the most cruel and traumatic scenes I've read, the type that you don't forget, and for that alone I think it's interesting, but on top of it it's all presented brutally and beautifully. The plot has its handicaps in my opinion, partially due in my opinion to the very long timespan - over 30 years, which makes certain characters do contraditory things for instance, but then again there is a very big time frame and people are complex - but there's something that is undisputably stellar: the art is magnificent and if not for anything else worth checking panels and covers (cover 5 of Innocent and 2 of Rouge for instance, or some panels here https://www.tumblr.com/nanaheartshachi/725994601187590144/shoutout-to-shinichi-sakamoto-for-inventing-gay?source=share)

I think the dark themes would be of your liking, if but the historical inaccuracies and very visual kei visuals later on might be an acquired taste/accepted as style and drama. If not for anything else, it's worth seeing the stellar art.

If you already know it, well, sorry for the ramble! And if not, hopefully my ramble intrigues you. I'm in that phase of wanting to just spread the joy (ah, that night be the wrong word), you know, so, yeah 😅

Oh sweet lord - Innocent + Innocent Rouge. This brings back so many memories lmao!

But yes, I am extremely familiar with the manga, and found the art style extremely sumptuous and gritty as befits that era. In a way, it's almost like a Francophile version of Berserk in terms of its existential themes - but also in itself so philosophically French in its fatalism. And it's got that underlying punk rock flavor that revs my little readerly motor every time.

I fell out of following the updates on Shounen Jump after RL got busy, but now I'm all nostalgic. May pick it up again at some point just to see what that band of ghouls and hooligans are up to.

<3

Me looking up old fanfics I loved reading in my favorite older fandoms late last night instead of writing my own:

I really have to learn how to bookmark stuff. I swear I’ll remember a specific fic I loved just by the tags. I’m terrible at remembering names to stuff. I was goofing off looking for old Star Trek, SleepyHollow, Into The Badlands, and Outsiders stuff just to revisit old fandom faves and went down a rabbit hole until 3 a.m.

Didn’t find a lot of stuff and I’m sad if writers deleted them.

10.28 [ ghosts ]

Halloween is just 'round the corner, so this final Friday of fic recs means it's time for the list to expire, and to join the sheeted dead: it seems appropriate, then, to give over week 4 to ghosts. Sending out wishes to one and all for a splendid All Hallows' Eve, snug in the knowledge that the ghostly presence of 1895 continues to reappear in so many variations across the future, and, most compellingly of all, due to the fabulousness of fic writers and the gifts they bestow. 👻

previous weeks 10.21: most spine-chilling adversaries 10.14: occult transformations 10.7: tricks to treats ......................................................................................... ~in order of word length~ The Haunting of 221B Baker Street by earlgreytea68 (2012), rated M, 10388 words. We know from the start that: Sherlock hasn't survived the Reichenbach Fall; is very much a (spectral) presence; and is surreptitiously resident at 221B. Unaware of the latter two facts, John has decamped from Baker Street, but when Mrs. Hudson has trouble keeping tenants because they report the flat is haunted, he comes back to investigate. Experiencing a moment of emphatic ghostly dramatics convinces him that "if anyone was going to figure out how to be a ghost just to be a pain in everybody’s arse, it would be you" -- and he promptly moves back in. 221B is something like a deserted island in which two shipwrecked flatmates -- one alive and one not -- negotiate the perplexing terrain engendered by that great divide. The bittersweet premise starts out weighted more toward the bitter, although their journey through various forms of emotion (reminding me quite a bit of the film Inside Out) eventually delivers them with a never-to-be-forgotten rightness to the other end of the spectrum. A stunningly-executed love story that takes you on a deep dive into John's and Sherlock's personalities as revealed through their interpersonal dynamics -- which is why we read Johnlock fic, yeah? -- this is a fic that is supernaturally good, in all senses of the good word good.

podfic by magiccranberries

A Thousand Kisses Deep by Susan (2017), rated E, 12689 words. This fic is such an exquisitely cut gem that it is thrilling (I guarantee that sentence will make perfect sense once you read the fic). A soul-satisfyingly second chances reversal of time narrative, in which a Sherlock who is old in body and spirit is informed by a ghostly visitor one sleepless night that a wish by John is being granted -- that is, if a Sherlock returned to 2010 can set things right. The incredible amount of readerly fun that results from following Sherlock's high-spirited romp as he makes his way through his gob-smacked deductions (about his reinstated younger body, about the perfection of his only consultant in the world London life, and in aid of his race to outwit the fates), brings about an equally incredible amount of heart-melting readerly rapture at the romantic entanglement that ensues. The different bits of call-and-response literary flourishes evoked in the text lend an already deeply-layered story an extra-dimensionality that goes beyond the temporal paradoxes. The epigraph to the story is from Leonard Cohen, and is a perfect distillation of the story that unfolds: And fragrant is the thought of you / The file on you complete / Except what we forgot to do / A thousand kisses deep.

podfic by podfixx

He's Coming To Us Dead by Vulgarweed (2014), rated E, 13397 words. Part of the Bone Fiddle universe (but can be read alone), set in 1970s Appalachia, a place where enigmatic trouble-magnet Sherlock Holmes has drifted to, and to which Vietnam war vet John Watson has returned home. The two have semi-secretly taken up with each other in ways undeniably mutually satisfying, although the strain that possible apparitions place on their connection turns out to be scarier than the 'haints' themselves. This is a classic ghost story, steeped in local and Doylean lore (tragic love for the first, Baskervillean unease for the second). A fic full of questions answered and unanswered, in which Sherlock observes, "when we've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable -- is still fucking impossible." Like everything in the BF universe, this is a totally absorbing ride through the ways in which Sherlock and John reveal themselves to each other and to us, indelibly inscribed in smart, funny, captivating prose that gives us an addictively realized picture of them.

De profundis by darcylindbergh (2017), rated M, 32036 words. This is a charmer of a tale, sprung from the premise that since the age of 12 Sherlock has been able to see ghosts, and which uses that fact to ingeniously repurpose the elements of A Study in Pink in all kinds of clever ways. The ins-and-outs of what seems to be his singular ability to attract the attention of ghosts upends Sherlock's life, accompanied as he often is by the the dearly-departed-although-not-yet-gone, and the fic's depiction of his inventive interactions with them -- exasperated, yet tolerant and kind and gentle -- has a winning sui generis tone that is sweetly absurdist. The chief plot point hinges on Sherlock's uncertainty when he meets John Watson as to whether or not he's alive or dead, a question that is stubbornly resistant to resolution over the course of the next day as he and John become increasingly enamored with each other as they team up to tackle the serial suicides, leaving the reader with an enticing puzzle to try and solve before Sherlock does.

The Cost of a Wish by slashscribe (2015), rated E, 102493 words. Since John Watson was a boy, he's had to contend with the terror that grips him due to the "formless spirits and ghosts that it seems only he can see," which press against him in threatening ways as a darkly massed cloud, chilling him to the bone, whenever he dares to venture outdoors. The desperation he feels one day suddenly lifts as he flees down a familiar street and ends up at the door of a building he's never seen there before. He tells the woman who opens the door that he has no idea why he's there, but the deep rumbling voice from the man at the top of the stairs gives him one word in reply: "Inevitable." Sherlock is the proprietor of a wish-granting shop, and the fascinating series of events that take place reveal the many mysteries of Sherlock, John, and the ways in which their lives have been entwined. The Sherlock series’ characters turn up in especially memorable ways, along with an enchanting cast from the Japanese manga the fic is fused with -- including what is the most ridiculously cute animal in all of Sherlock ficdom, a Pipe Fox spirit creature, whose mysterious nature brings John and Sherlock closer in many endearing ways.

........................................................................ *fic reblog recruits, perhaps??? ❤️ @totallysilvergirl @blogstandbygo @mydogwatson @keirgreeneyes @helloliriels ........................................................................

Readerly Exploration #4

October 2, 2023

Title: “Collaborative Reading and Writing: Learning in the Company in Peers”

Citation: Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 4, “Collaborative Reading and Writing: Learning in the Company of Peers,” (pp. 82-96)

Takeaway: The big takeaway that I received from this chapter is that students need to be engaged in more independent and smaller group literacy groups in order to develop skills that they do not gain from a whole-group instruction.

Nugget: With younger students, it is important to have a variety of literary elements in the classroom, like group reading, peer conversations, or literature circles.

Narration: An important mentor in my faith is my mom! I decided to talk to her about her perspective on an excerpt of the chapter. I focused on page 94-95, which talks about how individual practice outside of the teacher’s instruction is valuable and important for a student to be able to completely develop under a literacy skill. I had a conversation about how I found it interesting that students should not be given just one thing to repeat over and over again. With this reading, I told my mom that I learned that it is more meaningful when a teacher gives smaller engagement pieces of literacy so that the students are not overwhelmed or falling under the pattern of repetition. My mom found it intriguing that this is how literacy can be taught, because she was in a completely different world when she was in elementary school. She cannot remember when a teacher valued independent working or reading, and if you were to fall behind in a large group instruction, there were no interventions to help you gain the skills you needed. I also had a conversation with my mom about how I hope to make an influence on my students in a way that they will not feel like they are falling behind and to give them opportunities to learn on their own. I also mentioned how I hope to influence them in a godly way, and show them the love that God has for all of us.

Multimedia documentation: Unfortunately, I did not get a photo from when we had a conversation. Here is a quote I found from the excerpt we talked about: “Time away from the teacher is an excellent opportunity to provide students with the practice they need to fully develop these skills. Practice when done well, moves learning forward” (pg. 94). Also, this is a photo of my mom and I when I was 10, just for fun! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: “Small-Group Reading Instruction: Targeted Support through Guided Reading”

Citation: Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 5, “Small-Group Reading Instruction: Targeted Support through Guided Reading,” (pp. 114-128)

Takeaway: A takeaway from this reading is that it is important to select literature for each student that is connected to their reading level while being able to create small group instruction and check comprehension for individual students.

Nugget: Students need to be asked important questions to be able to understand what reading is and what elements are valuable to gain from reading books.

Y'all quick question because I'm confused as hell right now, when was AO3 starting to post fics exactly??

Readerly Exploration 1

Readerly Exploration 1 - 9/24 (week 6)

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 1, “Defining Balance, Finding Balance”

Fisher, et. al. (2020), Chapter 7, “Independent Reading: Practicing, Applying, and Extending Learning”

The big takeaway from the first reading is that balanced literacy helps students build interest in reading, knowledge, abilities to read and write better, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and oral language.

The big takeaway from the second reading is that students must spend time reading, both at school and home, independently, which helps their reading abilities and interest grow, plus their understanding. Teachers need to facilitate this by giving students options of book topics, time to read, differing levels and constant measuring of their abilities to see if they are growing.

A nugget I got from these readings was how important it is for students to have choice. While this may seem obvious, it stuck out to me/stuck with me because it reminds me that not giving kids the choice to do something can easily quash any passion or interest they have in something. As someone who was very passionate about reading, but vehemently hated non fiction readings and did not like to read them unless it was on a topic I was interested in, I think this is an important thing I learned/relearned.

To do this exploration I found it rather easy. First I read the article a little, skimming the topics to see if anything stuck out to me, and then I picked the task, which was framing it from another class experience. Then I finished reading the articles, and began to reflect on my experiences in Korea before writing down all the things I connected with from the reading and could frame from my Korea experience. Then afterwards I went through the other requirements of the assignment and wrote them. I found it fairly easy to do, as it was mainly reflecting and writing this time, but what was enlightening was remembering back to my experience and having a reason and ability to connect it to something I’m learning now, which really enforces the fact that the class in korea is helpful and that the concepts learned here are also learned and used elsewhere, which speaks to effectiveness. This reading and connection really helped to solidify my understanding of reader choice, and why variety is important, as well as independent reading - and its usefulness in regards to developing personal reading habits that grow into literacy skills in the future - which was something I always enjoyed in school or home anyways; being able to read on my own, especially with the whisper phones or in my room for hours.

_______________ Readerly Habit + Practice ______________________

[Explore relationships with other people through reading by using texts as a shared experience with another person/other people or to gain insight into the perspective of another person - Provide an interpretation of the assigned reading through the lens of another course you’ve taken.

After reading this assignment, it made me think about one of the courses I took in Korea. I took a children’s literature class, which framed my view of English literature in a different light, and as I read I considered some of the things I had learned. We were taught in the class about all kinds of English literature, especially in regards to the usefulness of all kinds of genres. Something discussed in the reading was balanced literacy, and then specifically balanced reading, which means using both narrative and informational texts equally and finding a good balance between practicing different literacy skills. The reason for this is not only to expose children to multiple examples of genres and literacy skills, but to also sample different skills and interests for students, which the class in Korea talked about. In the class, we went over how the genres were vastly different, and then how the different genres helped with English acquisition, as well as exposure to information, culture and different concepts and interests. We analyzed different books and discussed how we could use it to help students learn (for example, a non fiction book about animals can teach about animal vocabulary, or a fictional book about a Korean family and their stories and problems acclimating to American culture can teach about different cultures), as well as how we could find other books like it but in a different genre to help teach different or connecting concepts. Using different genres and skills allows for students, especially foreign ones like my Korean classmates, the ability to sample the many different parts of English literacy, discover the intricacies of the English language (looking at phonemes, phonics, vocabulary and comprehension), and also use it to help teach their future students in the different skills we discussed in class like explicit and implicit learning through the reading and analyzing and writing about the books. In Korea, my professor was very adamant about us reading like we were little kids too, even having us do our own independent reading activities in order to show us how it works for all ages, as well as give us a sample of different cultural and leveled books. Another of her lessons was on how beneficial reading is for all ages, and all children or adults learning a language (English mainly), and she used independent reading that we got to pick the book we read for, for us to be reminded of what it is like to have to read and comprehend fiction and nonfiction books. In the second assigned reading, it talks about independent reading and how important it is for students, especially to keep interest and keep developing independent language skills. Similarly, we highlighted this in Korea when talking about using simple books for English students to take home and practice, many of my peers talking about the childrens books I read when I was 5 that they read in high school or university to work on their vocabulary and language development. Ultimately the topics we went over in my Children’s lit class were very affirming of this reading, and it was really cool to remember these readings’ topics framed in the foreign environment, forwarding the idea that these practices (balanced literacy, independent reading, and literacy practice in multiple formats) are utilized and work everywhere.]

Readerly Exploration #1

Due: September 11, 2023

Articles:

Wessel-Powell, Kargin & Wohlwend (2016) "Enriching and Assessing Young Children's Multimodal Storytelling"

Takeaway: Two teachers teach how important multimodal storytelling is for young students.

Nugget: I thought it was interesting how children's storytelling can show through their play and also show their literacy skills and development.

Leong & Bodrova (2018) "Why Children Need Play"

Takeaway: “Pretend” play in early childhood should be encouraged because it is beneficial to the social and cognitive development of children.

Nugget:  I liked that it mentions how important both play that encourages development and play that does not are without taking away from the focus of the article.

Scholastic (2018) "Building Language and Literacy Through Play"

Takeaway: Teachers supporting dramatic and high-quality play encourage children's practice of literacy and language skills and the overall development of them.

Nugget:  I really enjoyed the section on characteristics of dramatic play that support language and literacy learning, those are not things that I would have ever thought about before reading this.

Activity:

I chose to pick an excerpt from the article “Why Children Need Play?” and I had my fiancé read it. The excerpt was “Play is especially beneficial to children’s learning when it reaches a certain degree of sophistication. In other words, “unproductive” play happens not only when children fight and argue over who is going to be the “mommy” and who is going to be the “baby,” but also when the child who is “mommy” keeps performing the same routines with her “baby” day after day with no change. By contrast, play that has a potential for fostering many areas of young children’s development, including social and cognitive development, has the following characteristics: 1) Children create a pretend scenario by negotiating and talking to peers and use props in a symbolic way; and 2) Children create specific roles- and rules-for pretend behavior and adopt multiple themes and multiple roles. When children engage in this kind of play for most of their early years, they learn to delay gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions.” It was really fun for me to hear his perspective because he did not grow up around kids who really played like this, because he has a three years older brother so all he knew was playing sports outside and wrestling. After he read the excerpt I explained the premise and main ideas of the whole article and the other readings. He told me that it is “kinda cool to read things like this so that you know how much of an impact a parent or teacher can have on a child’s development when they encourage creativity and imagination in their children's play”. Those are things that I have also thought of, so it was nice to see someone outside of this career path thinking similar things to me. This activity helped me engage and understand what I read in the readings better because I saw different perspectives and reactions to the readings that I had not looked at and considered. He had a completely different outlook on it and has a point of view that is not related to an education major's views.

@sfischer819

I screenshotted this after he finished reading the excerpt.

Readerly Exploration #1

Due Date: September 18, 2023

Title: "Why Children Need to Play" By Deborah J. Leong, Elena Bodrova

Big Takeaway: Play is crucial for children's learning and overall development.

Nugget: The article explores how different types of play, such as pretend play and constructive play, help children develop important skills like problem-solving, creativity, and social interaction. It emphasizes the importance of play in fostering a love for learning and supporting children's overall well-being.

I chose a task that would empower me to do better on my next readerly exploration. I chose the task, "Based on your successes and struggles reading this text, write down two or three goals for yourself as a reader for your next reading assignment." I thought this could support me in aiming better for my next reading. The first thing I did was read all the tasks and determine what the best one for me would be. Then I picked one and read an article. I took into consideration what I struggled with and what I succeeded with. I first struggled with all the noise that was happening around me. I kept getting distracted and finding myself wanting to do other things. I created a goal from this experience and decided that I will find a quieter place to read and work on my readerly exploration. Something I succeeded at was being able to read through the article in a reasonable amount of time. I usually struggle with trying to get through articles that I don't have any interest in but I was interested in reading about "why children play." I also made another goal to read articles in a timely manner. When its time for me to continue reading these articles another goal is to read articles in a reasonable time. Working on this readerly exploration allowed me to dive deeper into the text and really focus on what was happening and what the author really wanted me to understand.

Multimedia documentation:

Me and my dog Charlotte spent quality time with each other as I did my homework. She was quite the distraction with how often she needed to go outside and how much attention and snacks she needed.