Wow – another week has passed without me noticing. Which means it’s time for the amazing Inspiration Monday rewriting challenge over at BeKindRewrite If you’ve never checked it out, please do.
Find a mirror.
Look carefully at the person in it.
Say hello.
Smile.
Frown.
Sulk.
Grimace.
Say, “I love you” and see how sincere they are.
Say, “Hey sexy” and see if they’re interested in your proposition.
Turn your back on them to see if they care if you leave.
Reach out and ruffle their hair playfully while telling them everything will be okay.
Pat them on the head while saying, “Well done”.
Finally, when you can say, “Let’s be friends” and kiss them on the cheek, you will know you are an expert in How To Make A Mask.
Scribbla 
I love it! I’m not familiar with drabble. I’ll have to check it out.
I’m familiar with “masks” though. I spent a lot of my life trying to be what I thought others wanted. Most of the time, they weren’t even asking me to. It’s nice to take the mask off. 🙂
As I read your piece it brought me back to a time in my life when things weren’t going well and I still had to go out and face the music of life, earn money for my family. Sometimes, I would look in the mirror and do some of those very things to help me get going that day. I often wore a mask to get me through…and yes, I was lying to the outside world. Survival.
I loved this!
yup, me too! Very Real and part of life writing. Scribbla always turns my mind on. 😉
Very true, I think.
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fucking brilliant.
jealous I didnt write it.
So true. There’s something fascinating about what happens to us when we look in the mirror. I saw a photography series awhile back taken of people walking down the street, checking themselves out in a double mirror (behind which was the camera). Interesting stuff.
Love this piece!
Any chance you remember the name of that photographer? I would love to see that.
I’ve read this several times and find it very intriguing. It seems to have a duality to it — on one side it is how to lie to the outside world, show the right expressions, but at the same time it seems to be how to lie to ourselves. I like the structure, as someone else said, helps emphasize different aspects. Excellent piece of drabble.
You have read the truest intent I put into the piece. I haven’t tried it for a while now, but I remember spending time looking in the mirror trying to suss out what I looked like when I did certain things. I found it impossible to view myself objectively. Whenever I observed myself, I became an actor. I became self-aware and my actions became conceited. I spent a long time wondering if I’d ever be able to see my true self in that mirror. I gave up trying.
So yes, this piece is really about lying both to the outside world, but also to yourself.
Thanks very much for your insight. And for your continued encouragement.
I love this explanation. I’ll confess that the piece did not draw me in. I felt puzzled as I read. I may not have been astute enough to grab the intent from the piece, but I do know exactly what you are after upon reading this explanation. Your craft in the piece is superb, as usual, so there is no complaint there. You have a solid way of opening my mind to things we can try as writers – Your creativity is unending.
Mighty insightful of you both – this was very thought provoking!
Interesting bit of fiction as well as a commentary on human nature.
The human race? I hope not, lol. But you never know. Thanks for the input.
I like how you’ve structured the flow of the drabble (its sentences) to emphasise and dramatise.
Thank you. I thought I’d give it a go. Make a list, kind of thing.
I think a few too many people in life practice this daily. Especially politicians!
Agreed!
Appearances are everything.
I’ve heard so, yes. Still, I think that a person is created in the looker’s imagination.
Dear Scribbla, I have noticed you on Stephanie’s InMon projects, but you write with so much confidence I was a little hesitant to approach you, for my own writings in comparison are definitely juvenile. But I “bellied up to the bar” (rather appropriate, considering I just had hernia surgery today) and decided to speak up.
You are very good and I really liked this piece, for it sort of hit home for me. You see, what you describe is precisely what I feel I must do when I go out amongst my fellow life travelers…wear a mask…one which will at least allow me to move amongst them…albeit unaccepted. I am putting you on “subscribe” for I like your style.
By the way, you said you were looking for a small script to play with…what genre? Would something along the lines of “fantasy” work? The reason I ask is that I have a partial one that I had been working on with an animator in Scotland, on the Isle of Mull, and if you would like, and could email me at words2ponder@gmail.com, I would be glad to send it to you, but you would have to bear in mind that it is the first time I ever tried to write a script with the aim of it being translated into visual format, so it might not be up to your high standards. It is called “SECRETS OF THE SEA” and it is about a young girl who has an incurable (at least by mortal means, that is!) bone disease that forces her to wear a brace just to be able to stand, her older brother, and their family and how the two kids meet and are befriends by a creature of fantasy and legend, a mermaid named A’ghryla. Just email me if you are interested. I had enough already done for about six twenty minute animations.
Once again, very good job on using Stephanie’s prompts.
Wishing you many wonderful blessings
Marantha Jenelle, of https://1wordywoman.wordpress.com/
ha ! I bet many people out there would be practicing this daily !!
Sad it is so much !!
What is the price of not doing it?
Thanks for the read and comment.
Interesting. So, are you saying that our facial expressions of the various emotions are really just a mask? Or perhaps that we can easily ‘put on’ whatever ‘face’ we choose once we’ve become adept at changing it…
Hi Madison. Not to cheat you (because I really appreciate your questions), but please look further down the list at my response to Indigo Spider. I believe that our short discussion there answers your queries.
Thanks so much for asking questions and reading the piece.
You have an imagination that I hope to aspire to. And if I can’t attain the lofty reaches such as where your mind inhabits, then I shall be satisfied to read where your mind wanders to…because you’re one hell of a travel guide!
Wow. Thank you for such kind and encouraging words. In return, I must thank you for your images that lead my imagination to places it loves to haunt and find inspiration.