Apparently I like writing, but I don’t do enough of it

I just started participating in an online course from Future learn. It’s a Fiction Writing course and will last 8 weeks. For more info, go here.

I haven’t done any online courses (#ds106 4 life), or writing courses since my last year of Uni in 2011. 4 years ago! CRAZY!  Time to kick myself into gear and be creative.

The first assignment is to write 1 paragraph with 3 lies, 1 truth and write 1 paragraph 3 truths, 1 lie. The purpose is to realize the relationship between fact and fiction.

Here’s what I wrote:

I hate where I live. This city is comprised strictly of grimy factories and giant apartment complexes that house the workers who slave away in the factories. The city has made a halfhearted attempt to plant trees around to help beautify the city, but the trees are scraggly and wasting away under the noxious air. If I didn’t wear a face mask, I would be choked by the pollutants and yellow dust that drifts over from China. My city likes to blame China for all of its air quality problems, not their stinking factories, but everyone knows better.

How did I end up here? Money. I needed the money. Even though working here pays only a pittance, it’s better than what I could make at home. At home, in a land far, far away, the economy is in the toilet. No jobs, no prospects, no future. I thought this place would be an adventure, and I guess I was right. I could have never dreamed that moving here would alter my life so dramatically. But has it changed me for the better? I’m not sure.

~~

Can you tell what are the lies and what are the truths?

 

Day 216: Friendship Day competition

Yesterday was Friendship day which is a day all about celebrating your friends. You can read more about it’s inception here. My friend’s family has been celebrating this day for many years and yesterday was the first time I was able to take part.

The theme this year was “Friendship is a gift.”  Everyone was asked to bring a small gift for someone else and there was going to be a competition for the best gift wrapping. The first place was for the all around “Best wrapped gift.” The second place was for “most creatively wrapped” and third prize for the “most whimsically wrapped.” Continue reading