My story, my myth

We are shaped by selection, which is the mainspring of fiction. Furthermore our experiences have a lot to do with fiction because we tend not to remember everything. So our stories get their shape from what we leave out as well. According to James Hillman, 'The first task is restorying the adult ... in order to restore the imagination to its primary place in consciousness in each of us, regardless of age'. I can 'restory' myself, by way of autobiography or a private journal.

Rilke writes:

In the arch of eyebrows some firmness remains From long-disciplined and large-browed ancestors Inside the eyes the fearfulness of childhood persists ...

Look in the mirror. Imagine your face as a story. How did the lines and marks get there? Do it in no less than 500 words if it's an essay. If it's a poem you don't need to count the words.

This exercise has been taken from The Writer's Voice: A workbook for writers in Africa by Dorian Haarhoff.