Prompt 1: Who Could You Be?

When I wrote hot enough, I set out to capture the feeling of internalized misogyny. It increases in tempo dramatically from the beginning to the end. Even now, that makes my adrenaline spike every time I hear it.

Once I had that concept, I kept collecting images from my own childhood and adolescence as well as the stories of friends and family. One day, sitting in traffic, I just had most of the lyric. Writing it helped me look a lot of memories in the eye. It externalized something truly disgusting and disfigured that I had taken into myself. That was purifying—like fire.

Prompt: Split your page in two halves from top to bottom (hot dog style). On the left, make a list of images, moments, and interactions that taught you something you wish you hadn’t learned.

On the right, make a list of what you might have believed had the poison of those ideas never seeped in. Who would you be? Who could you be still?