Truth or Fiction? Part 2

Prompt: Write two memory posts. One real; one fake. Let the readers figure out which is true.

Story 2: Bubbles on the Holiday Trolley

First off, I must inform that my four best friends and I are... unique and a bit... totally insane.

Anyway, one day over winter break, we got really bored and decided to take a ride on the Holiday Trolley downtown. Earlier in the day, our group had gone on a shopping spree in the dollar store and bought packs of fruit-scented bubble-stuff, coloring books, crayons, "grow your own" animal kits, and a pregnancy test. I said we are insane.

So we pulled out the bubbles and started blowing away on the trolley. There were a pair of little girls wearing matching fluffy pink coats in the seat in front of us, and they started to chase after the bubbles, giggling adorably.

After a few minutes, we pulled out the books and were coloring. One of the girls peeked her dark blonde pigtails over the seat and saw our coloring books. She began laughing and asked if we were allowed to color at our age. We told her, "Of course, you are never too old to color, silly!"

Upon abandoning the trolley, we left a few coloring pages, a half-grown polar bear (grown with water from a water bottle), and the scent of peach and strawberry bubbles in our wake. I wonder what the next people who took our seats thought.

Answer: Fiction

Truth or Fiction? Part 1

Prompt: Write two memory posts. One real; one fake. Let the readers figure out which is true.

Story 1: My First Day of Spring Break

On the way home for 'Spring' Break (In what why, shape, or form is this spring?), my mother and I stopped at the dollar general in my hometown. When we left the store, me holding bags, I caught sight of one of my old classmates exiting a car alongside her mother. She began to squeal and ran over to hug me.

The four of us gathered there in the parking lot and talked briefly. During this time, an 80ish year old lady backed out of her parking spot in a tiny gray car. She preceded, even though she could have avoided it no trouble at all, to turn and drive straight into our group.

Our mothers jumped out of the way as they could do so easily from their positions. My classmate was behind me and luckily was not hit. I was.

The car pushed me a few feet and I stumbled clutching onto my classmate, while her mother banged on the car's windows until the lady stopped. My mother stood there in complete shock.

After a second, the three of them began to scream at the woman for hitting me. In response, the little old woman stuck out her tongue and drove away. We were all too out-of-it to think to write down her licence plate.

My classmate hugged me tightly and I just fell into hystrical laughter in her arms. Sore, brusied, shaken, but otherwise fine. What a way to start a spring break, huh?

Answer: Truth

I am just saying...

One thing I learned from reading Stephen King's memoir is not to overuse adverbs or "fancy" verbs. I write anime fan-fiction, and I have a mild case of this disease. Since third grade, I don't think I've ever written "said" in a story, just the word said by itself.

He pleaded. He screeched loudly. He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Never just said. It is just how King says on page 121 (of my copy of the book); I am afraid of the readers not being smart enough to understand what I mean. Therefore, I must explain exactly how a character says something to be sure my point comes across.

But King is correct; my reader's are not complete idiots. They know exactly how the character is saying a line from the other things happening in the scene. I'm going to watch if I'm over-describing, to the point of annoyance, from now on in my work.

Quote from King's memoir of what I'm referring to: "Believe that when you use he said, the reader will know how he said it--fast or slowly, happily or sadly. Your man may be floundering in a swamp, and by all means throw him a rope if he is... but there is no need to knock him unconscious with ninety feet of steel cable." (121)