These bones feel hollow
The wind blows through my chest
This suit of armor is supposed to protect
But in it, it is hard to rest
The breeze whistles through my helmet
Is it in there, I wonder?
I hid it long ago,
When I had torn it asunder
Neath plates of metal
I hid it away, lest it be torn apart
But I really wonder if its there now,
A tin man, with no heart.
Once upon a time, there lived a man who lost his heart. He lost it to a woman with eyes like honey and a voice like silk. He handed it over to her without hesitation not thinking he would see her run away with it in less than a month. But she did. And the man was left alone and with a hole in his chest.
Determined to fill it with something, he set out to craft a new one. A new heart that could be even better than the one he had lost. So he gathered his crafting tools together and went out into the land in search of materials.
He came upon a city that sat upon a high mountain. There in its streets, he found a girl with a cart who sold colored ribbon. It was so beautiful, the man decided to make a heart of silk. He bought red silk from the girl and returned where he when about sewing his silk heart. But when he had finished, he found the heart much too light in his hands and entirely too vulnerable.
So he set out again this time into the woods. This time he came upon a woodcutter who told him of a kind of wood that could withstand anything. The man decided he would buy some of this wood and fashion his new heart from that.
He carved this new heart carefully with his tools and when he had finished, he found himself quite proud of his handy work. But another problem arose when the heart had been set on a table in front of an open window and clouds overtook the sky as it began to rain. The man returned to find his wooden heart, rotted and black on the table.
Frustrated and discouraged, the man traveled once again, determined to find the perfect material from which to craft his heart. It was on his travels once again that he met a witch upon the road who listened to his problem. She then offered the man a solution (for a price of course which he ignorantly paid).
“Take this stone,” she said after she pocketed his gold, “and carve yourself a heart that shall never break. Nothing shall penetrate its shell.”
And so the man agreed, returning to his home to carve the stone into a new heart. He found the stone quite heavy but surprisingly this did not deter him, determined not to possess a vulnerable heart ever again.
The man fashioned the heart and hid it away in his house. The man began staying home more as well, for fear someone might break in and steal his heart of stone. Soon, his paranoia grew so much to where he never left his home. And so he lived. Just him and his heart of stone.
Until one day a woman happened by his house. He was suspicious of her at first, afraid she had come to steal the stone heart. But he was slowly won over by her politeness and allowed her in.
Once inside the home, the woman remarked that the house felt cold, opening a window to allow the sun in. The man couldn’t remember the last time he had allowed the sun inside. The woman also noticed quite a few cobwebs hanging around the place. So she began clearing those away.
Grateful, the man offered her a meal for her troubles. She heartily agreed. Over warm food, the man asked the woman why she had come in the first place, thoroughly perplexed at her arrival. He was no longer in the habit of inviting anyone over.
She set her leather satchel on the dinner table.
“I found this discarded on the side of a road months ago. I have been searching far and wide for its owner. Finally, I was led to you.” The woman drew out the man’s old heart from the bag, offering it to him freely.
It was that day that the man decided he had very little use for a heart of stone. He then found himself inviting the woman to a meal the next evening if she so wished. Delighted at the gesture, she accepted.
It wasn’t before long that the two courted and were engaged, then married. And they lived happily ever after in a cottage where cobwebs never hung, and sunlight filled its rooms, for it was now a house of two hearts.
Welcome to the writer’s tea time challenge! A witch offers you a selection of steaming teacups. Which do you choose?
Rose
You take a sip, and find yourself transported back in time, into the body of a young princess. What do you do and what happens next?
Earl Grey
You take a sip, and suddenly can see ghosts and the dead, as well as commune and talk with them. What happens next?
Matcha
You take a sip, and you glance at your hand to find yourself sprouting green, gossamer scales. Your throat burns, and you scream as you cough fire and begin to transform. What do you do next?
Lavender
You take a sip and feel very dizzy. When you awake, you find yourself very, very small. But-oh! Where did these tiny little wings come from?
White
You take a sip and the creamy, white liquid goes down your throat like silk. The following day, you find your feet feel lighter, and your voice is beautiful in every sense of the word. You also seem to be constantly fighting the urge to help people at every turn. Have you always been this benevolent? The weirdest thing occurs when you gaze in the mirror, to find your eyes have turned a distinct shade of gold. What happens next?
Chamomile
You take a sip and lean back in your chair in a deep sleep. When you awake, flowers have ground all around you, as if protecting you. They have also woven themselves around yourself to form a crown, and you seem to be wearing a white, heavenly gown. What do you do next?
Peach
You take a sip and blink, only to find yourself gazing at your own body. It seems you have switched places with the witch? What do you do next?
Responses can be as long and short as you want.
And so the series of writing prompts continues! In this post I plan to tackle creating a few writing prompts based around the MBTI personality type of INFP. The personality type is known at the “mediator” and is known for being in touch with their feelings and being empathetic towards others as well as one of the more introverted personality types. This personality type has a very gentle, dreamy feel and as such I associate them with fairytales, van gogh paintings, violins/soft classical music, and dreamy nebulas in the night sky.
Armored Heart
A princess with a strong thirst for adventure and to prove herself worthy to ascend to the throne (unlike her irresponsible twin brother) stumbles across a strange suit of armor in an abandoned room in the basement of the castle. She puts it on only to find that this armor is enchanted to where she can change her appearance in the armor as well as accomplish incredible physical feats. What happens next is up to you…
Letters to the Ocean
A mountain deity is in love with the ocean deity. You are the appointed mail carrier as well the transcriber for both parties in this love story as both are bound to their physical forms of nature. Tell me of this love story?
Quilted Fate
You are an odd, single woman living along in an old, sleepy town during the late 1800’s as the new nation of America gives rise. You see many ranchers and settlers come and go but you remain in your small town house, working as a seamstress for a living… among other things. It is not entirely public knowledge but you are a seer who weaves the future into your quilts. And this becomes apparent to a visitor who waltzes into your shop one day….
The Cafae
You are secretly an immortal fairy who runs a café for overly tired college students. Things are going fine until you accidentally run into another of your kind while on the job.
The Chosen Two
There exists a fantasy world where “The Chosen One” is reincarnated time after time to vanquish the persistent evil that plagues the land. A sign of sorts appears to the pregnant woman to let her known she is carrying the future hero of the world and one such sign appears to a woman living in a remote village. The townspeople are excited to know that the next hero is going to be born in their village. But much confusion and concern arises when the woman gives birth to twins and they have no idea which is “The Chosen One”.
The Key to Everywhere
While rummaging through your attic, you find a box that you don’t recognize. Inside, you find only one old fashioned key. Being a fan of collecting old shiny things, you slip the key into your pocket. Fast forward a little, and you lock yourself out of your apartment. Flustered and annoyed you grab the key from your pocket as oppose to your regular house key and unlock your apartment door. When you realize what has happened, you are quite confused how a key found in your attic that is clearly old and designed for old doors could unlock your modern apartment.
Good evening and happy Christmas eve, bloggers! Hope you are having a fabulous (and festive) week! I’ve had quite a busy last few since school let out and we’ve been on winter break but I am happy deliver yet another seasonal writing prompt collection! Enjoy & have a lovely Christmas!
Down the Rabbit Hole in December
On Christmas eve, your mother allows you out to play in the snow and you do so with glee. But between making Snow Angels you spot a white rabbit bouncing along and start to follow, only to find yourself slipping on ice and falling down the rabbit hole to find…
Wonderland of course!
But things are not at all like you had read! Sure, you recognize the castle along with a few odd characters from the book but the world looks rather different with snow falling gently upon magical world as everyone prepares for Christmas. Now its up to you to figure out how you can get home in time for the holidays.
Box
You live in a world where on your sixteenth birthday, you are given a special gift in a box. Nobody knows where they come from. They just show up on your doorstep on your birthday when you come of age. The rules of these box gifts is every single one is unique and no two people have the same box or “gift”. You open yours to find….
A Bardic Christmas Tale
A young bard with a pristine appreciation for music and Christmas sets out to find the best, most beautiful, and most magical Christmas song there is. Why exactly? World domination probably.
Mother Christmas
Every year Father Christmas leaves his wife at home while he goes out and delivers gifts to the world. Tell me what Mother Christmas does while Father Christmas is gone?
Escape the North Pole
A story where Santa is evil and runs coal driven factories and employs slave-like labor from the Elves of the Land. The story is centered around a team of elves bent on escaping and bringing down this communist operation.
So I’ve been doing a bit more tags and challenges lately because I was randomly thinking about the old forum games/challenges I used to play back in middle school that would help me practice writing. A lot of these challenges can be found on Weheartit.com as well, so thankfully, if I don’t remember the parameters for a challenge, usually someone has a post dedicated to it over there.
This is one of those such challenges.
The “If I Had Nine Lives” Challenge was insanely fun for me and my old forum friends and I’m excited to see how my answers vary now that I’m older. This challenge is characterized by coming up with neat fictional lives that would have been fun to live so feel free to join in and complete this challenge as well as it can be a joyous day dream.
This life would have been characterized by long days spent molding clay and drawing up sketches of human anatomy. I’m kind of thinking this life would have occurred around the late 1400’s and early 1500’s (around the time of Leonardo Da Vinci’s work for reference). The Middle Ages were coming to a close as people were beginning to value books and education more and more and this life was probably right in the middle of it. They probably lived in a European city and enrolled in a artists/artisan’s school where they could train under artistic masters before coming one themselves.
This gal lived during the Victorian Era on the English Countryside. She hand drew most of her theories and discoveries (fossils, plants/botany sketches, etc.). But due to the nature of this time period, she wasn’t recognized professionally as a biologist until later in life. The concept for this life is heavily inspired by the very real life of Beatrix Potter who was an amazing botanist and scientist who was never really recognized for her work due the fact that she was a woman. I am sure there were many similar stories to hers that occurred during this time.
Have I mentioned that I loved Scotland?? I really don’t know what time period I’d place this gal. I researched what was the time frame for the Scottish Monarchs and got quite a range. But besides that, that information was most likely in reference to the official Monarchs of Scotland. Lords, Ladies and Governesses of Scotland still exist to this day I believe. You just gotta own some land (and maybe a castle? I probably need to research the official requirements. I’m curios now).
Anyhow, what I can assure you about this lady is she lives in castle and was widowed young. She has a son who is currently far too young to take control of the estate. So until her son can take over, she will continue to head the castle and protect the family’s honor.
I have always loved the thought of designing my own fashion line (I mean, what girl hasn’t?). In high school I took to drawing fashion sketches and even though I haven’t drawn one in quite awhile, this life appeals to me quite a bit. This girl probably lived in the mid to late 1900’s, just after world war 2.
The fashion industry was final able to flourish again and this girl wanted in on the action. She lives in Paris (because why not?) and spends her days sketching and comparing fabrics for the fashion company she has the pleasure of working for. She drinks lots of teas and keeps company with about 3 cat back at her apartment. She probably marries later in life as she was guilty of focusing on her career more than anything in her early years.
Another fun fact about me, in high school, all my electives fell under computer coding and web design. It was something I was considering going into after high school, but I soon realized that I didn’t think this was the path cut out for me after I graduated and became infatuated with the biological sciences.
Buuuuut in my spare time I do enjoy coding dinky little programs for no apparent reason so its no wonder that I would design a past life based on this potential career.
This Web Developer lives in New York during the mid to late 1900’s. The Internet is now picking up speed and is becoming acknowledged as more than just a trend and she takes full advantage of that. She coded as a hobby at first, but now holds down a job at a corporate company, designing and keeping track of their online presence.
Okay, it’s at this point you’re probably realizing that this list isn’t in chronological order. I tried at first but now I’ve stopped. So, that being said, this girl lived during the mid to late 1800’s, just when children’s books were becoming a thing. She lived in England was was a house wife who spent her spare time writing and drawing, at first for only her children, but then moved on to have her work published for others as well.
Ahhhh Astronomy. My forbidden career. This life is a cumulation of a life time of infatuation with the night sky. Why didn’t I pursue astronomy then, you might ask? Well the answer is plain and simple:
Math.
I’m only sort of kidding. When looking at the career path of a modern day astronomer, I saw many years of mathematics and physics ahead and I could not bring myself to commit to it in fear that it would destroy my current love for the stars.
But this girl isn’t a modern day astronomer. No, she got into the game early. Around the mid 1600’s to be exact, just after the marvelous observations of the famous astronomer Galileo. She went on to discover with her own homemade telescope, a few moons and stars, detailing their existence in her journals that she would lady reference when writing books on her work later in life.
This is probably one of my favorite “lives”. The thought of carefully painting and restoring the grand works from the Renaissance era seems infatuating (at least until one gets a hand cramp).
This life spends her days restoring paintings upon church’s and cathedral’s walls, in an attempt to show tourists the former glory of these masterpieces. She’s married to a Historian who works on the more historical side of these projects as oppose to the actual restoration.
And finally, my current life, which began in the early 2000’s. This one is a little less cohesive than the others, thus far not being characterized by only one main career but I like it anyway. This gal spends her days drinking over-priced iced coffees, doing homework, going a little small town adventures with her friends, playing DnD on boring Saturdays, petting cats, and drawing.
She isn’t entirely sure where she’s headed yet but she knows its going to be good life when its all said and done.
And concludes The Nine Lives challenge! Again, feel free to participate if you want! See you in my next post!
~Brooke F.
Has it ever occurred to you
That we’re looking at life through a keyhole?
This rusty world
Isn’t what it’s meant to be.
Any beauty we see
Are traces of something far greater
And far more wonderful
Than us or this broken world around us.
We are peering at life
Through a small sliver.
As long as we draw breathe
We have no perspective
Of what is to come.
For the opening is far too small
For us to even understand.
But I beg of you, please dont touch me
For fear that if you do
I’ll feel complete
So entirely complete
I cant give up another piece
For you to take when you leave
I’ve already dolled out to many
Like a puzzle that has lost its edge pieces
I struggle to see the shape of myself
Because of what people have taken from me.
I dont have much left to give
So I keep what remains close
For fear of losing the remnants
The shreds that I have left.
Please understand
They’re all I have.
At nights when I feel the emptiness hanging over my head
They’re the pieces that I hold close
Because at least I have them
But I really want you.
And that’s this whole predicament.
I feel like a child in an arcade
I’ve already spent all my tokens
On broken games.
Gambles lost.
Chasing after the hope that
This time, I’ll win.
But its not really about winning and losing anymore.
It’s about surviving.
But what do I do now
As I need love to survive
Topic: Endings
Threshold: 6,500 Points
Possible Points: 1,100 Points
All Possible Points up until this level: 9,470
And that’s it! The final level. This has been an intense challenge & I hope it has been an enjoyable ride for you! Take a break from writing for a bit if you so desire! You’ve earned it! And if you have a desire to challenge yourself again, I hope you’ll make your way back here. You’re always welcomed. Take care, lovely writer!
~ Brooke F.
Topic: Everyday
Threshold: 6,200 Points
Possible Points: 550 Points
All Possible Points up until this level: 8,370
Score 6,500 points to advance to the next level.
When you’re ready to advance to the next level, click here.
By the Brooke 