Writing Challenge: Tall Tales

[Prof. Arielle Lemoyne]

This idea comes from an assignment I had in high school:

Write a first-person narrative that is either a true story from your life, a partly-true story based on your life, a story that’s totally made up, or a story that’s anywhere in between. Secretly give it a 1-10 rating of how true it is, and then read it for the class and see if you’re able to trick everyone into thinking your true story is fake or your fake story is real.

I thought that would be a fun icebreaker activity, so we’re going to do the same thing!

Write a story (at least 300 words) about yourself that can be as true or as false as you like.

Post your story here, and also send me a PM with your rating on a scale of 1 (100% made up) to 10 (100% true), and a brief explanation of why you gave it that rating.

You have until April 26th at 11:59 pm to come up with and post your story. After that, everyone will have a few days to guess how true it is.

I’ll give 30 beans to everyone who writes a story, with potential additional prizes for the guessing part!

Have fun

[Katya Snow]

Once, when I was eight or so I had an unhealthy obsession with the idea of flying. I had vivid dreams and often these dreams consisted of me being capable of flight in some manner or another. Now i'm sure you know where this is going but bare with me here. You see, things don't end exactly the way you might think. For a good long while, I was convinced I was actually a dragon, oh yes, a dragon and I would spend a good amount of my time trying to breath fire and grow my wings. It seams a silly thing to remember now that I think about it, but there it is. I would sit on the playground and try to breath fire and practicing my growls and leap from an old stump that was left as a large sitting stool. Well of course, nothing worked and I didn't turn into a dragon but I was one hundred percent convinced. (one too many fairy tales I think.)

so, one Saturday when I was out playing in our tailor park, I decided I just wasn't trying hard enough. So, making sure no one was looking I got a stepstool, planted it in front of the biggest tree in the area, and this was a very big tree. I can't tell you truly how big, I was never good with numbers, but it was big enough that when my neighbors cat got stuck in it, the fire ladder didn't reach the top. Nearly, but not quite. So it was a big tree. Big enough that I really should have known better. Then again, I was eight years old and was convinced I was a dragon so I think you can see the issues with my 'common sense' configurations. So there I was, eight years old, halfway up the biggest tree in the backyard and getting ready to keep from this tree when I looked down and realized just how high up I had climbed and realized something I had never known before.

I was afraid of heights.

I wasn't up for very long of course, my mother was very attentive, ad as soon as she saw me up in that tree she, freaked, out. After all, I had spent the last several weeks pretending I was a dragon, i'm pretty sure she reached the some conclusion as everyone else did. I was so petrified that I was going to fall that was bear hugging the limb I was sitting on. It took a further ten minutes for the fire department to get there and a good half an hour and too men to literally pry me off the tree branch and down the ladder. i was grounded for three weeks for the ridiculous stunt. i didn't even mind.

I've been terrified of heights ever since... which is pretty ironic because I still have dreams about flying and wish I was a dragon. ah well.

[Prof. Polaris Black]

When I started working, I earned a grand total of four vacation days during my first year. My best friend, who had all of July and August off, was spending the summer in Europe so we planned on meeting in London in August. I took him to the airport and bought my plane ticket before he left and although I didn’t hear from him again, I was only the very tiniest bit concerned.

The plane ride to London was thankfully uneventful. I chatted with my seatmate for the entire seven hours. Turns out we had a lot in common; we both had never been to London, we were both vacationing with our “significants”, and later, we were both stood up in Heathrow.

So we spent our first day in London together, exploring the city on foot. We were exhausted from the flight so we slept in, grabbed a late lunch, then went window-shopping first on Oxford Street and then on Regent Street. We were just marveling at how much Piccadilly Circus looked like a slightly less-grand Broadway when his girlfriend actually found him in the middle of the masses. What are the odds?

Drama ensued and when she walked away crying and angry, I assured him I’d be fine though I was really quite petrified. I don’t know how I got back to the guest house but I managed somehow and was seriously thinking about catching the next plane home. But I didn’t.

I started out slowly; I wandered around and spent hours in Madame Tussauds and saw a really depressing film in the Regent Street Cinema. That night I finally came to the realization that he was never going to show up and if I wanted to see anything that I couldn’t see in the states, I had better start to plan my vacation for real.

I conquered the Tube and began picking off attractions: Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard, Westminster and the Churchill War Rooms, Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. I spent entirely too much time gazing at clocks at the British Museum. The Tower of London and a costume exhibit at Victoria and Albert inspired me to later learn as much as I could about Henry VIII and his wives. But it wasn’t until I spent the day at Kew Gardens that I met other tourists to go clubbing with.

I totally had this. I almost hired a car to drive to Stratford-upon-Avon but I couldn’t cross the street without looking the wrong way so sanity prevailed and I decided to take the train instead. Although I had studied and even memorized parts of Julius Caesar, I never truly appreciated Shakespeare until I saw the play performed by the RSC. I was also able to fit in the Tower tour of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and spend a little time at Shakespeare's home, listening to actors reciting lines in the garden.

And then I was home. I didn’t speak to my now ex for months. But secretly I was happy he didn’t show up and things worked out the way they did.

[Prof. Arielle Lemoyne]

Voting is now open for our two wonderful Tall Tales! Send me a PM rating them on a scale of 1 (100% false) to 10 (100% true). Everyone who votes will receive 5 beans!


It only takes a few seconds to vote, but I do wanna give people a few days to see this, so I'll say the truth will be revealed on May 4th. Get your votes in by May 3rd at 11:59pm HOL time if you want to be sure to get your beans and have a chance at guessing!

[Prof. Arielle Lemoyne]

It's time to announce the results of this challenge!

Polaris rated her story as a 7 (70% true).
We had three guessers think her story was a 4, 8, or 9.

Katya rated her story as a 5 (about equal parts fact and fiction).
Our guessers were pretty close, thinking it was a 6 or a 7.

Aurelia West was our best guesser, only off by 1 from each of the author's ratings!

Writers, you're welcome to post with more explanation, but of course only if you want to!

Thank you all for participating. I hope you enjoyed it (:

[Prof. Polaris Black]

The premise is true but the details in red are not:

When I started working, I earned a grand total of four vacation days during my first year. My best friend, who had all of July and August off, was spending the summer in Europe so we planned on meeting in London in August. I took him to the airport and bought my plane ticket before he left and although I didn’t hear from him again, I was only the very tiniest bit concerned.

The plane ride to London was thankfully uneventful. I chatted with my seatmate for the entire seven hours. Turns out we had a lot in common; we both had never been to London, we were both vacationing with our “significants”, and later, we were both stood up in Heathrow.

So we spent our first day in London together, exploring the city on foot. We were exhausted from the flight so we slept in, grabbed a late lunch, then went window-shopping first on Oxford Street and then on Regent Street. We were just marveling at how much Piccadilly Circus looked like a slightly less-grand Broadway when his girlfriend actually found him in the middle of the masses. What are the odds?

Drama ensued and when she walked away crying and angry, I assured him I’d be fine though I was really quite petrified. I don’t know how I got back to the guest house but I managed somehow and was seriously thinking about catching the next plane home. But I didn’t.

I started out slowly; I wandered around and spent hours in Madame Tussauds and saw a really depressing film in the Regent Street Cinema. That night I finally came to the realization that he was never going to show up and if I wanted to see anything that I couldn’t see in the states, I had better start to plan my vacation for real.

I conquered the Tube and began picking off attractions: Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard, Westminster and the Churchill War Rooms, Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. I spent entirely too much time gazing at clocks at the British Museum. The Tower of London and a costume exhibit at Victoria and Albert inspired me to later learn as much as I could about Henry VIII and his wives. But it wasn’t until I spent the day at Kew Gardens that I met other tourists to go clubbing with.

I totally had this. I almost hired a car to drive to Stratford-upon-Avon but I couldn’t cross the street without looking the wrong way so sanity prevailed and I decided to take the train instead. Although I had studied and even memorized parts of Julius Caesar, I never truly appreciated Shakespeare until I saw the play performed by the RSC. I was also able to fit in the Tower tour of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and spend a little time at Shakespeare's home, listening to actors reciting lines in the garden.

And then I was home. I didn’t speak to my now ex for months. But secretly I was happy he didn’t show up and things worked out the way they did.

[Katya Snow]

Unfortunately for me, i really did get stuck up a tree! however it wasn't because i wanted to be a dragon and fly. i had already had THAT incident when i was si and cracked my head (nasty bruise but no injuries) trying to jump from an old tree stump so i certainly knew better than that!

no i went up the tree after a perceived injured squirrel. i was stuck up there for about an hour but some 'coaxing (A.K.A being called a scardy cat in front of the group of neighborhood kids who had come to see the yuckle stuck in the tree) i managed to make my own way back down. i was pretty scarred from the event and i am still ultra terrified of heights. (more from vertigo than anything else these days. it's hard to feel calm and confident when anytime you stop out into anything that resembles empty air your head starts to spin.) As far as i know my mother never heard of the incident but i was grounded for three weeks for being outside instead of cleaning my room as i had been ordered.