Fear: "The youth, binding a rope round his body, dived to the bottom of the sea. There he discovered that the Daughter of the Sea (Deniz Kyzy) was shaking the vessel. He fell upon her, flogged her soundly, and drove her away. Then, appearing at the surface, he asked: 'Is this fear?'"
One thing I'm not a fan of in old folk tales and fables is the general lack of description. I understand that the stories were usually told to teach a lesson, and it helps that they're short, but I feel like a descriptive tid-bit here and there would be helpful, to put the reader in the story. With this story (and I just used this paragraph as an example), I feel like I'm floating on the outside of the story, watching it unfold from afar, rather than being in it. Again, I guess that's the difference between folk tales and novels, but I think the same principles can be applied. I've read novels that feel "far away" and I've also read short stories that put you in the story very well.
I was kind of surprised at the ending to the fear story. Surprised, and a little disappointed. I was wondering how the author was going to find something to scare the youth at this point, which was good suspense, but then it fell flat. To me, a bird flying out of a soup bowl is startling, but I'm not sure it's fear. Maybe if the author had described the youth's reaction: heart racing, frozen, whatever, it would have seemed "scarier," and made for a more satisfying ending.
Wizard Dervish: In this story, the author tells of three separate times one of the characters turns herself and her husband into an object so a witch can't find them. But it happens three times in a row, each with the same pattern and the same outcome. Usually in fables, the last one is surprising or something... but this just seemed monotonous.
This story also has a very odd ending, with not much satisfaction. He starts with one wife, then ends up with another...which I guess was the dervish's plan all along? Maybe? It just sort of... ends. So one thing I want to be sure of with my writing is to satisfy the readers at the end of the story! Bring it all back together, draw some ties in.
(The man who ends up with two wives, sort of. And is also an oven, a pond, and a garden.)
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