What does your character see when they look in a mirror?

Where Do I Start? | Mirrors

Nov 05, 2024

One thing I love to do is to create a story from a story.

I like to think about an image or detail from a story I admire and use that as a place to start from.

Steven Millhauser reinvents the symbol of mirrors to great effect in his chilling and startling story “Miracle Polish” (link below).

How can you reinvent the mirror? Or how can we see the mirror or see how a mirror can function in a new way in a story?

Here’s a mirror prompt that gets you to approach the mirror image by grounding it in character and getting you to engage in some self reflection.

Writing Prompt

Think about a character you want to write looking at themselves in a mirror.

What do they see or not see about themselves?

What does the mirror reveal or hide?

Where are they?

What kind of mirror is it?

Why are they looking in the mirror in this particular moment in time.

What is the setting where the mirror is located?

As an entry point, ask yourself what do you see or how do you feel when you look into the mirror?

Or try writing about what a blade of grass or an object or animal sees when it looks into the mirror as in the above photo.

For Inspiration

I should have said no to the stranger at the door, with his skinny throat and his black sample case that pulled him a little to the side, so that one of his jacket cuffs was higher than the other, a polite no would have done the trick, no thanks, I’m afraid not, not today, then the closing of the door and the heavy click of the latch, but I’d seen the lines of dirt in the black shoe creases, the worn-down heels, the shine on the jacket sleeves, the glint of desperation in his eyes. All the more reason, I said to myself, to send him on his way, as I stepped aside and watched him move into my living room. He looked quickly around before setting his case down on the small table next to the couch. I’d made up my mind to buy something from him, anything, a hairbrush, the Brooklyn Bridge, buy it and get him out of there, I had better things to do with my time, but there was no hurrying him as he slowly undid each clasp with his bony fingers and explained in a mournful voice that this was my lucky day.

Read “Miracle Polish” by Steven Millhauser in The New Yorker Fiction Podcast

How did the prompt worked for you. Let me know in the comments.

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