Week 9 Story: The Secret Shapeshifter

The Secret Shapeshifter

I'll never forget one of the strangest events that ever occurred in my life. I'm just a normal man who lives in a rural area, but I'm not the important part of this story. One day I was walking around my property, just a few minutes off the highway in Arizona. Suddenly I saw him. A man, running quickly towards me. He was tall and bald with a large frame. As he got closer, I could tell he was distressed; his eyes, which were an almost otherworldly pale color, displayed great panic.

Arizona State Route 64 in Coconino County, Arizona.

Source: Wikimedia

Seeing me, he approached me and aggressively began to speak. "Can I hide?" he demanded to know.  "Please show me somewhere I can hide, evil people who want to do me much harm are chasing me."

Though I was confused and entirely unsure about this man, he had a childlike innocence about the way he asked for shelter. It proved very compelling, and I agreed to let him hide in my shed. Just a couple of minutes after he had locked himself inside of the shed, I noticed two men in dark suits and sunglasses sprinting towards me. They approached me and I could instantly discern their serious manner. One of the men began speaking to me.

"Sir, we need to know where this man is," he said, showing me a picture on his phone of the man hiding in my shed. "He likely convinced you to hide him."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I exclaimed, feeling sympathetic towards the seemingly helpless man I was sheltering. "I've never seen him before in my life."

"Sir, he's a dangerous shapeshifter. At any moment he can take any form and cause great damage. We are with the U.S. government and need to know his location. You are not in trouble, but we need to know immediately This is imperative for the safety of you and your community."

Adequately convinced, I sheepishly pointed towards my shed and handed over my keys to unlock it. The men in suits opened the shed, and handcuffed the shapeshifter. They all suddenly vanished from my sight, and I never saw any of them again...



Author's Note: This story is loosely adpated from "The Flying Ogre" story in the Chinese Fairy Tales Unit. I changed the setting, turned the flying ogre woman into a shapeshifting man, changed the other characters completely, and told the story from the first-person perspective. What I kept was the story structure of hiding some stranger and then having to give them up after learning more about who they are.

Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part B

Another set of reading notes for this week, now Part B!


Bibliography: All readings are from the Chinese Fairy Tales unit in the Un-Textbook. Notes regard stories from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).


I'll be focusing on starting a story for this set of notes. Starting story is sometimes the hardest part, and it might be really helpful to consider how other writers have started their stories in these Chinese fairy tales.

The first story I read, The Little Hunting Dog, had an enjoyable start: "ONCE upon a time, in the city of Shansi, there lived a scholar who found the company of others too noisy for him. So he made his home in a Buddhist temple." This start engaged me instantly. I think a lot of us can relate to the feeling of being worn out by people and just wanting some peace and quite at times! This man withdraws from the busy world of society and creates his home in a tranquil setting, a temple. This start gives readers a good introduction to the character as well.

       Chinese Buddhist monastery. Gouache painting by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850. Source: Wikimedia

The next story that had a start that really grabbed my attention was The Night on the Battlefield. It began like this: "ONCE upon a time there was a merchant who was wandering toward Shantung with his wares, along the road from the South. At about the second watch of the night, a heavy storm blew up from the North." I enjoyed how it introduces a "wandering" character, on a road. Classic start! And then a problem quickly emerges: a storm. There is already an interesting character and potential for trouble. I liked the framing here.


Another story from the unit, The Flying Ogre, began like this: "THERE once lived in Sianfu an old Buddhist monk, who loved to wander in lonely places." This is a great character description. Some of the most captivating introductions are not detailed descriptions of the setting, but rather descriptions of a central character. The phrase "loved to wander in lonely places" stuck out as especially interesing and nostalgia-inducing.


These fairy tales had some excellent starts! The idea of beginning a story with character descriptions instead of just setting is an element I hope to work into my own tales.

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

Another week of reading notes! This week is on Chinese Fairy Tales, and I will be using the "Beautiful Sentences" method of notetaking.

Bibliography: All readings are from the Chinese Fairy Tales unit in the Un-Textbook. Notes regard stories from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

I really enjoyed Part A of this week's reading. The first sentence that really struck me as particularly effective was in "Yang Oerlang." In describing a character who had become skilled in magic, the author said this: "He also knew how to empty out seas and remove mountains from one place to another." The imagery used here resonated with me as a reader. The ideas of emptying out seas and removing mountains are great word pictures that are original and fresh. In my own writing, I want to use more imagery like this rather than employing cliches and overused metaphors. This sentence gave me a strong idea of the character's power.

A second sentence that I enjoyed was from "The Lady of the Moon." A sorcerer is explaining something, and says this: "The cassia tree grows so luxuriantly that in the course of time it would overshadow all the moon’s radiance. " This sentence worked well in context, but even removed from its original story the language is powerful. The concept of overshadowing "all the moon's radiance" is bold and gripping. Much like the last sentence, the imagery here is beautiful.

Finally, I was captivated by this sentence spoken by a monk in "The God of War" story: "The monk folded his hands and said: 'While you lived you were upright and faithful, and in death you have become a wise god, and yet you do not understand fate!'." This sentence is better in context of the narrative, but the point that this monk is making proves powerful. Even successful and wise people can fail to understand the realities of life and its unpredictability.  

These tales were enjoyable and full of strong sentences! I'm excited to look for ways to incoporate better, more interesting imagery into my own storytelling during the rest of this course.

 Statue of Guan Yu in Jingzhou Park.

Source: Wikimedia