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Literary Reflections, Writing Prompts | August 2007

Writing Prompt: Under the Skin

By Caroline Grant

In Under the Skin: Lessons in Transformation, Kim Todd writes about researching a 17th century artist’s illustrations of metamorphosis while pregnant herself:

“She captured all the caterpillar gains by its different guises: its mouth is shaped to eat leaves when leaves are plentiful; its mouth disappears when it tucks itself away in a chrysalis; its mouth turns to a long proboscis to suck nectar when it lives the flitting life of a butterfly. The ability to alter, to move from singular to plural and back, is the insect’s greatest strength. It has the flexibility to creep and hide at certain times; to become liquid and immobile; then eventually, like the one that launched itself off the balcony into a gray, Netherlands sky, to soar off on gaudy wings.”

Consider the caterpillar changing into a butterfly, the pregnant woman growing a baby, the multitasking mom trying to get her kids out the door. If you could grow a new part of your body to help you write or mother, describe what would it be.

Tagged: Writerly Roundup

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