Inside the Belly of a Beast

This prompt is exactly what it sounds like! Write a narrative that describes in detail the inside of a beast’s belly. Don’t spend too much time detailing how the narrator got there, and focus mostly on the things the narrator is experiencing through his 5 senses. Heavily consider the type of beast you’re describing. What does he eat? Is he a carnivore, omnivore, or herbivore? How big is he? Is he earth or water bound? Is the narrator passing through the beast’s gullet, in his stomach, or is he hanging on to a giant taste bud, Finding Nemo-style? After you’ve described the narrator’s meanderings within this beast, give him a way out—or not!

You may struggle to come up with adequate details of something so odd, but I urge you to dig deep (and possibly do some research)! Here’s an excerpt from Jim Crace’s novel, Being Dead, where he reflects on what happens after death by describing the decomposition process of the human body.

“The bone caved in like shell. Her brain, once breached and ripped, was as pale and mushy as a honeycomb, a kilogram of dripping honeycomb. It was as if a honeycomb had been exposed below the thin bark of a log by someone with a trenching spade. Her honeycomb had haemorrhaged; its substance had been split… Celice began to hyperventilate, a squall of sips and gasps and stuttered climaxes. Her heart and lungs were frenzy-feeding on the short supply of blood, until, quite suddenly, they failed. They had abandoned her, too devastated to survive. Her chest muscles had forgotten how to rise and fall. Her reflexes were lost. She could not cough or even swallow back the blood.”

Being Dead by Jim Crace