Lost Smile

This is a sad and touching story. Me personally, I would say this is a prime example of someone losing the motivation of living. Sure, you can try to enjoy living. You can pretend it doesn't hurt at all to just sit and watch. But in the end, the question you keep asking yourself is, "When will I get to be alive again?"

Living and being alive is not the same thing. To live is to act neutral towards others, as if they do not matter. To live is just doing things casually. You exist without a cause or a goal, you just do.

Being alive on the other hand means experiencing challenges, acquiring knowledge, and most importantly, having fun. Fun is what sticks most things together. It isn't responsible, nor is it always the good thing to do, but fun is too compelling for the human brain to deny.

What the character is experiencing is a void life stage. A phase where life just seems too boring to continue. Picture a Minecraft world in which you've already finished all the final bosses, acquired every single block possible, and have 10 sets of netherite armor and tools. You'd just want to restart, because there is nothing to do. Absolutely nothing.

The bad news is your life is set to hardcore, so once you die, your life is lost forever. You can't even play other worlds. There's just death.

"Once, I had something precious. It wasn't gold or diamonds, but it lit up my world like a thousand stars..." I love this line! I love the imagery you used and how you compared happiness and feeling happy with precious stones and jewels.

"One day, without warning it disappeared. I didn't notice at first life kept moving..." As someone who can get all in my head I can understand not noticing something until late. The only thing I will say is...how did life keep moving for you? what are some things that still stayed the same even after your smile was gone? What were you feeling. Using your great imagery skills that should be a snap.

"But me? I sat there, still and silent, like a statue. My lips didn’t move not even a twitch. Inside, I tried to force it to push the corners of my mouth upward. Nothing happened." I relate to this in so so many ways. Someone with severe anxiety I understand completely the statue reference. Again, you rock with the imagery words.

THIS WAS AMAZING <3

please ignore this message, YWS just get bugged a bit :,)

Heya! Maybe it's not autumn yet, but that doesn't mean that NovemberCrow can't stop by with a quick review (I'm still working on intro. Used to have a good one. But that's a different story an we are here to talk about yours!)
At the very beginning, I would like to praise you for choosing the title of the short story - I know from my own experience that sometimes finding the perfect title is difficult. Well, you managed it easily - already while reading, the reader realizes what exactly the title means, but before reading it is a bit of a mystery, raising small questions.
I like how you kept the pace and narration voice more or less steady throughout the work. The whole work just holds together quite nicely. Speaking of the narrator's voice: the one used in this short story is extremely strong. You start with a sentence with the touch of a fairy tale:

Once, I had something precious. It wasn’t gold or diamonds, but it lit up my world like a thousand stars. It was my smile. It wasn’t perfect or beautiful but it was mine. It was my light, my comfort and my joy.

hey there Alwaysea! Icy here for a quick review on this Monday morning. I was definitely drawn in by the title and the one line description you included for this one. It already feels like it's going to be a pretty poignant piece. I often struggle with naming works so I'm always impressed when someone manages to convey the message of their work really well in a couple of words.

I think you open it really well too. The 'once I had' is almost fairy-tale like and I think it fits the nostalgic tone well.

The language and poetic tone used works really well, though I found the shift to 'today' to feel a bit off. Everything else felt so far in the past that it had that dreamlike, fairy-tale effect and for me that was lost, a bit abruptly by moving us into such immediate present day.

I'd like to see more of the progression of the MC losing their smile - though I think this works well as a short standalone I really like the the ideas that are presented here and there's potential to explore that further.

Overall though I think this worked super well; you've definitely got a knack for powerful imagery!

Hope this helped.

Icy

Hello, my fellow writing friend!

Hi there! I hope you are having a wonderful day! Let's get right into this review


A Little Skimming - First Impressions
This is my first time reading a piece from you and I really loved it! I know you're fairly new to YWS, so (sorry, quite late >u<) welcome! I hope you're enjoying it here on this site! This was a fairly poetic work and the analogies were so creative! I love the sort of melancholy it has.


Love it! - Parts That I Like
There were so many lovable aspects of this short story.

Once, I had something precious. It wasn’t gold or diamonds, but it lit up my world like a thousand stars. It was my smile. It wasn’t perfect or beautiful but it was mine. It was my light, my comfort and my joy.

Slowly, I began to feel its absence. Conversations felt colder and laughter seemed far away.

I searched everywhere. I tried to remember the moments that used to bring it out. I surrounded myself with people, with jokes, with things that once made me happy. But no matter how hard I tried, my smile didn’t return.

Today, I gave it one last try. I went to the theater to watch a comedy. The movie was hilarious—everyone in the audience was laughing so hard, their laughter filled the air like music. Some even had tears of joy streaming down their faces.

But me? I sat there, still and silent, like a statue. My lips didn’t move not even a twitch. Inside, I tried to force it to push the corners of my mouth upward. Nothing happened.

That’s when I realized: my smile was gone. Truly gone. It was something I didn’t know I could lose but now, it feels like it’s lost forever.

And as I left the theater, I felt the weight of its absence more than ever. Something so simple, yet so powerful, had been mine once. Now, all I could do was remember it and hope, deep down, that maybe one day, it might find its way back to me.