Creating a Legend

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is how a religion assignment became one of my most beloved stories.

The Senior Religion Class

At St. Mary’s, the senior year religion class was World Religions.

The school spent three years teaching us about Catholicism. Now it was time to look at other faiths. See how they formed their own ideas and customs. Better understand how the Catholic religion fit into the wider tapestry of humanity’s belief systems.

This was a different kind of religion class with a fairly different sort of religion teacher. She always prided herself on being “non-provincial” like the character Belle from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

World Religions’ first semester had a large focus on tribal African beliefs. Our midterm exam was divided into a test, a group art project, and a group essay. For the final, our teacher served us s’mores with peanut butter. After the test, she showed us the classic Robin Williams movie Dead Poets Society.

Overall, I enjoyed World Religions. Quirks and all.

Legendary Homework

Greatest thing I got out of World Religions came from one of our homework assignments.

The class was between religions. Our teacher assigned some simple creative writing to give us a bit of a break.

We were to make legends. Stories meant to explain the world in a mythical sense.

I wrote a legend on how dogs became man’s best friend. Many have touched on the origins of this unique bond, and I wanted to create my own version. Something that reflected all the joyous moments and happy moments my dogs have given me. Greeting me after a long day of school or work, running through the backyard on a warm summer day, sleeping beside me on the couch. All with those big soulful eyes letting me know they are there for me no matter what.

The legend would involve a group of humans making first contact with a group of animals.

For these groups’ rulers, I simply used the sun and moon. They are generally a good natural pair for such stories. I made the moon ruler of animals because of many animals’ nocturnal habits. The sun became the humans’ ruler by default.

My legend involved the sun becoming sick. He would send some humans to the animals’ land. These humans were tasked with bringing the moon back to their land to light it while the sun rested.

The moon agreed to help the sun on the condition the animals stay in the humans’ land. After all, these beings depended on light too, no matter how faint. As a diplomatic measure, the moon sent the humans back with dogs. These beloved animals would help the humans prepare to meet the rest of the moon’s subjects.

“Dogs, Man, and the Sun and Moon” proved a good story. I received a 107% on my assignment. Still, I thought I would be done with the story after that.

But I was wrong.

Second Submission

My dad discovered my legend.

He thought it was reading for my AP World Literature class. He was amazed to discover the story was actually one of mine.

My dad always enjoyed my writing. But this story seemed to be at a whole other level for him.

I really did not expect this reaction. The legend never felt like something special during time of writing.

Still, the story struck my dad.

He wanted to share it with Glow, my AP World Literature teacher and the St. Mary’s headmaster at the time.

I laughed off the request at first. But my dad knew the legend should be shared.

He told Glow about the legend during a basketball game. I remember later walking by Glow while he was on the phone. He took a break from his call to tell me he expected the legend in his hands during our next class.

I gave him the legend and heard nothing more for a few weeks.

Then, one day, Glow was passing back our essays and exams from the marking period.

I noticed my stack of papers felt a bit heavier than expected. Took a look and there sat my legend. Only two words had been written on it, “Good Stuff.”

That simple comment meant everything to me.

As a student at St. Mary’s, I made no secret of my writing. Everyone, especially Glow, knew writing was what I wanted to do. Writing was even one of the major things which led me to St. Mary’s, though that is a story for another time.

To see those good few words from a fellow literary mind, I felt I was doing everything I needed to do.

Glow would go on to share further thoughts on my legend with my dad. The story indeed sparked some high hopes for my writing.

But I think it bet to save sharing those thoughts for now. I do not wish to get too far ahead of myself.

Countless ideas formed for expanding on my legend. I wanted to write a whole collection of similar tales. Create a whole fictional culture to weave everything together.

Still, the legend would be retired for a few years. I was shifting focus to other projects and pursuits.

At least, until I found a good excuse to bring back the legend.

Make a Myth

One of student teaching’s highlights was my mythology elective.

My cooperating teacher was so famous for this class that some would call him Mr. Mythology.

At first, the extra work and planning seemed like it could become exhausting. This was a whole other class to manage in addition to four nearly full sections of English 10.

Over time though? Mythology became one of the day’s brightest spots. I recommend any student teacher to teach an elective class. Such classes remind you why you teach. For the most part, students in electives want to learn what you are teaching. That is why they have chosen the class.

Anyway, Spring Break was approaching.

I wanted to give my mythology students something fun to do during those long days. So, I grabbed one of my cooperating teacher’s standard assignments.

Myth creation.

I would have my students create myths like those studied throughout the semester. And to start this assignment, I would pull out my good old legend “Dogs, Man, and the Sun and Moon.”

My students knew I was a writer. I had long promised they would one day see my work.

That day had finally arrived, though they did not know it at first.

Story time began. Lights were dimmed. Video of a roaring fireplace was started on the classroom projector.

I read my legend. Took great care not to somehow expose my attachment to the text. Authors often make it easy to tell when they are reading their own words. They may give a smirk at their brilliance or frown at a lingering grammar mistake.

Thankfully, none of the students noticed anything out of the ordinary. Makes the fact they loved the store all the more meaningful. Their feelings were genuine, not just some attempt to please me.

I had the students guess the myth’s origin.

Most common theory was a Native American source. Likely due to the natural setting and heavy focus on animals. Some students in the back guessed a Greek origin. We had been studying the Greeks recently.

Then I showed the students the paper in my hands. They saw the story was mine.

I told the students of my old World Religions assignment. They were amazed by the whole thing.

When I formally announced the myth creation assignment, the students were excited to do what I had done. They each wanted to make something amazing.

My legend inspired them.

The students told stories of mirrors, alternate worlds, plagues, mysterious spirits, celestial beings, aliens, and gum. They told tales which were truly their own and remain theirs to share.

An Easy Addition

My legend was an easy choice for Five Strange Stories. It was a story which I expected nothing from. Still, it became one of my most beloved tales.

I wondered for a long time whether the story needed many changes. In the end, I decided to make a few key alterations.

• Changed which kingdom’s residents needed to move. If the sun was sick, it made more sense to move his people to the moon’s kingdom. Moving the moon’s subject when she was in perfect health made little sense.
• Named the characters and setting. The original story named no characters of locations. This was done to make the story seem ancient. Like it was the final trace of a record nearly lost. But giving names makes the characters tangible ideals. They have their own conflicts and develop. Readers can attach to them and aspire to be like them.
• Changed the title. To emphasize the story being a legend, “Man, Dog, and the Sun and Moon” has become “Legend of Sun, Moon, and Dog.”

May these changes only increase the charms of this beloved story.

I hope you all will love it as my dad and my teachers loved it, and I hope it can inspire you as it inspired my mythology students.

Kotcher’s Call to Action

“Legend of Sun, Moon, and Dog” is one of the tales featured in my new book Five Strange Stories, available now. You can purchase Five Strange Stories on Amazon. Five Strange Stories is enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program, so anyone who buys the paperback can also get the eBook version for free.

If you wish to learn more about Five Strange Stories, check out my blog post One Stellar Success Story.

Finally, if you liked my content and want to make sure you read all my new blog posts, be sure to like my Facebook page and share it with your friends. I post a link there whenever a new blog post goes live each Friday at 5:00 PM EST. Liking and sharing is especially appreciated now when a new book has been released.