Publisher's Prompt

Getting Physical

*(This prompt is from Roberta Allen’s book The Playful Way to Serious Writing)

Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write about someone real or imagined who has one or more of the physical characteristics listed below. How has one or more of these characteristics affected this person’s life?

A Birthmark A Club Foot A Double Chin A Crooked Nose Ingrown Toenails Wispy Hair Pimples Wrinkles Tattoos Large Pores A Shaved Head Sideburns A Potbelly Freckles A Snub Nose Stained Teeth A Flat Butt Flabby Arms Dimples Thinning Hair A Mustache A Face-Lift An Overbite A Large Butt A Hooked Nose Pockmarks A Scar Fat Thighs False Teeth Big Breasts Bitten Nails A Beard Frizzy Hair Crooked Teeth A Beer Belly A Muscular Chest Thick Lips

Rose

She couldn’t go out. Not with a face like that. She stared at herself in the mirror. Hating her face. Loathing her self. Pissed off at her parents for the stupid DNA they passed on to her.

Why couldn’t she look like Samantha Markley? Why couldn’t she have clear, beautiful skin that was deplete of a blemish? Ooooh- she hated Samantha Markley in this moment! She hated everything!

She stared harder at the mirror, as if doing so would make all those thousands of pink and reddish marks go away. Of course they remained. Taunting her. Letting her know she’d never look like Samantha Markley.

How was she supposed to go to school? How was she supposed to go to Tate Rossmore’s party later tonight?

“Rose,” her mother called from downstairs. “You better hurry up or you’re going to be late for school again.”

Rose. What a flippin’ name, she thought. Too bad they didn’t add an “s” on my damned birth certificate- that would have matched my face perfectly!