Friday, January 10, 2020

Taking an online course in creative writing

While looking through all the free courses I can take through the the library, I settled on "creative writing" for my first class.  If it does me even a particle of good, at least I might be more proficient at writing my blog entries.  In fact, I'll do my first assignment right here, then copy and paste it to send to the instructor  (I'm not sure how I do that, but I hope I'll figure it out).  This is one of two assignments I have to do before moving on to the next lesson.  

Here it is:  "For this assignment you will need to write a couple of paragraphs (two at least). The topic you will be writing about is where you currently are as you are reading this. In it, you should try to be descriptive enough to show the reader what the place is like. Things to consider including would be setting, temperature, smell, artifacts, etc. You can assume you are writing a novel and in it you are showing the reader the room and setting. Submit your writing to the instructor when you are finished."

And here it is:

I sit here in this lumpy, aging recliner with my belly full from dinner and my dog covered up beside me.  He's trying to get warm after his last potty break taken in pouring rain.  It's been raining off and on all day and thundering occasionally, a gray day indeed.  It's the sort of day when I'm glad I have a good book to read.  There's seventies' country music playing in the background because my husband asked me to have Amazon play our favorite genre of music.  I thought about suggesting we wait until I finish my assignment so I could think more clearly, but he's a prisoner of the weather in this house the same as I.  There isn't much anyone living in the country can do on a rainy day in January.  Besides, Willie, Waylon, and Dolly are as much a part of me as breathing.  I hardly notice them.

We live in an older trailer house that we bought used, several years ago.  It suits me fine.  I could cheerfully live in a teepee with a dirt floor as long as I had a comfortable place to sleep and enough food to eat, although I'd want electricity and Internet.  It's a bit cool in here just now, because we keep our thermostat at 68 daytimes and 64 at night.  I wear flannel-lined jeans and two long-sleeved shirts layered, so I'm generally pretty comfortable.  We use propane for heat; it costs a small fortune to fill a 500-gallon tank, and we live only on what we get from Social Security.  My husband and I fill our time with web-surfing on days like this.  He's sitting on a fairly new leather recliner-couch we thought we loved when we bought it; once we were home with it, we realized it was a mistake.  We've lived with many mistakes in life.  These days, at our ages we just sort of shrug and say, "Oh well."

There you have it, my first assignment.  The next assignments will be longer, and I probably won't be putting the rest of them on my blog.    

6 comments:

  1. I like it very much! It's not just descriptive but it also has your unique voice running through it.

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  2. Great job and very descriptive. Good for you taking a course like that. it is always nice to learn something new.

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  3. your descriptions were spot on. had me sitting in the house with you and cliff. i hope you get a good grade or an enthusiastic compliment from the teacher online who monitors the class. keep us posted as you progress through the program.

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  4. Very well written Donna. You will intrigue your teacher. We throughly enjoy your snippets of your life shared on your blog. We are awaiting the snow ❄️ after the rain ☔️ yesterday. This just reminded me to get hamburger out for 🌮.. Gabby

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  5. You did a fine job, Donna! I could imagine your setting and that was the idea.

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  6. My sister was elementary school librarian before she retired, so in my best impersonation of her: Good job!

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