True Beauty

(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)

She had never believed she was good enough to shine.

Until the day she learned to see beneath skin.

Her face was “plain”, but her heart pure.

Friends praised her kindness, intelligence, and love.

And she knew she was valuable.

She smiled at the mirror.

The mirror smiled back.

You believe now?

She did.

Beautiful.


This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!

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