When I saw this mirror on the floor among some wet autmun leaves recently I was really drawn to it. I was on my way to work, it was raining and I was in a rush so the photograph is a little blurry, even after I’ve tried a couple of filters on it. 

But I don’t think it matters. The image itself still has an attractive power for me. When I looked at it I kept thinking of the phrase ‘Through the mirror crack’d’ but I wasn’t sure where it came from. 

A quick search on wikipedia reveals that it is the name of a British film from the 1980’s, based on an Agatha Christie novel, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (this is an affiliate link — if you buy this book through amazon I’ll recieve a few pense as a referral fee — but I’m not suggesting you should, I’ve not read it!).

I don’t know the story but Agatha Christie has a well earned reputaion as the queen of cosy mystery novels, so it made me think a little about the mystery involved in this picture. The mirror is shattered almost from the centre, giving it the appearance of rays of sunshine.

How do you think it came to be broken in this way?

Who broke it?

I’m not a huge fan of creative exercises, so it’s not my habit to tell people what to do with these prompts. There are lots of options – a scene, some flash fiction, a short story, an idea for a short film or a physical piece of art. If you do have a go with this one and would like to drop the result in the comments please do so. I would be very interested to see what people make of these so please do link to blog posts or comment below.

If you like the photos featured in these creative prompt posts you may be interested in my latest collection of prints and other things on Redbubble which feature a small selection of my best shots.

Thank you for reading. I also write, make art and films. You can read my short fantasy stories here on Simily. If you like these prompts and want to get a copy of a free short book of them I wrote, and to hear more about my writing projects please join my mailing list here. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see you could buy me a KoFi, and I also have a Patreon Page.