The complaints led her to deafen herself. One day, she could not take it anymore, the complaints about how this or that went and why it should be changed and, and, and--and so she went up to her quarters and poured a solution in her ears. It hurt terribly for a few moments, and then she felt nothing. And heard nothing. She walked out and down to the courtyard, where the nobles congregated, and she saw their mouths moving and their hands waving, but she heard--absolutely nothing. It was so blissful that she laughed, her famous tinkling laugh. And that too was silent. It felt wonderful. She did not tell anyone that she was deaf, but they figured it out, eventually. They brought her written notes.

Inspiration: Oh, a question about complaints about women writers.
Story Potential: Medium.
Notes: She doesn't blind herself; it's not that kind of story.

The amnesia impulse came on her in the night. She rose from the bed, leaving her husband snuffling in his sleep among the blankets, and walked to the window. Silver moonlight shone down upon the back yard, and she saw it with the eyes of a stranger. She saw beauty where she'd only seen duty during the day, the duty to trim and tidy and weed and water and. She turned quickly in the moonlight, glancing back on her bed as if she thought her husband might have vanished. She pulled the curtain aside further and its silver light brushed over him, revealing a young prince gilded in silver, lying asleep and waiting for Princess Charming to kiss him awake. Unexpected--

Inspiration: "Feign Amnesia" by They Might Be Giants
Story Potential: High
Notes: I like the idea of her choosing amnesia deliberately, and yet having it be real. Make it all magic realismy. Might catch the--not chick lit, but "women's literature" market, and maybe some of the fantasy. Would need an external threat, too, or would get boring. Sorta romance, sorta self-realization, sorta fantasy. Smells like a novel. (Man, I'm going to need forever to write all the stories I think are neat!)