A slightly different sort of prompt request - brainstorming for a submission

[aldersprig]

I want to write a story for submission based on the theme of identity (I'm working my way through the themes in this textbook, and I'm having trouble coming u with ideas.

Like, staring-at-the-chalkboard nothing's-coming sort of having trouble.

So, this one-shot call is more like Ysabet's fishbowls: if I write something based off your prompt, I will send it to you privately before I submit it. I will post one not-going-to-submit idea for free, and then if I've managed to get more than two flash fictions out of it, I'll offer up story-sponsorship options.

But the main point here is to get me something to submit. So: ideas on identity?

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

Here's maybe a way to begin a story: gazing in a mirror causes a revelation about identity not previously suspected.

[inventrix]

We spent several days in my English lit class talking about Balin and Balan in Mallory's Mort and how that story plays on the theme of identity, which was very interesting. A lot of good ideas about the duality of the brothers' identities and the importance of being secure in your identity, which we also tied into some Arthur segments. particularly involving interpreting prophetic visions. It could be interesting if you were represented by the opposite symbol in a prophecy than you thought. :O

[inventrix]

The idea of Balin and Balan both sharing an identity and the final fatal challenge between them with not recognizing each other with Balin using a strange knight's shield representing a sort of self-destruction based on the loss or discarding of one's identity was particularly interesting, I thought.

how does "identity" form?

[dialecticdreamer]

Is it something you are born with, then grow into, like a genetic tendency toward left-handedness or diabetes? Is it, in the end, "inevitable"?

Is it something based on your internal experiences, shaped by external experiences, and where is the balance point between the two?

[rootsofthestories]

The many lives and identity one lives through the physical time they spend on this earth.