Happy Monday and happy birthday to Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian author of the graphic novel Persepolis. This is also the day that C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite writers, died in 1963, the same day as Aldous Huxley and John F. Kennedy. Quite the momentous day. Second, this is the week of Thanksgiving in the…
Writing Corner: As…as Comparisons
As…as Comparisons One of the ways that English has to describe things is with comparisons using as…as, as in “as big as a house”. It is similar to metaphorical language because we can describe unknown or alien things by comparing them to known things. English has a huge number of set examples of these. For…
Being Prepared
Being Prepared That story of the grasshopper and the ant haunted me. When I moved out to the forest, Thoreau-style, I was determined to BE PREPARED. All summer I cut wood, stacking it against the walls until the whole house was surrounded by piled firewood, five feet deep, then ten feet. By fall, the house…
Muse on Monday – November 15, 2021
Did you know that this week is International Education Week? All over the world, people are holding special activities about international eduation. I am holding a workshop on academic writing for students in Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Muse on Monday is a weekly writing challenge. Anyone can join and the idea is to…
Writing Corner: Flashbacks
Flashbacks Today we’re going to look at the idea of a story-inside-a-story. This is when the main story stops to tell a second story. The most common form of this is a flashback, which is why I used it for the title of the post. There are other types of stories-inside-a-story as well. Today we…
Voodoo Ergonomics
Voodoo Ergonomics “Hey, check it out,” Hyo-Won said, pulling me into the corner of the classroom. She reached into her bag and took out a small doll. It was crudely made, with big, uneven stitches. “Nice,” I said. “Did your little sister make it for you?” “No!” She smacked my arm. “It’s a voodoo doll….
Muse on Monday – November 8, 2021
Hello everyone! Thanks for joining another Muse on Monday here at the Green-Walled Treehouse. I was on a trip in Central Asia for the last few weeks but I’m back now with a new prompt. Muse on Monday is a weekly writing challenge. Anyone can join and the idea is to write a story based…
The People Watcher
Nobody really sees me. I’m just the boy cleaning up spilled French fries and wiping spilled ketchup and nugget dipping sauce off the tables. There is a high level of invisibility with that job. But I see them. It is like watching snapshots of other worlds coming in. You see them for an instance and…
Writing Corner: Story Arcs – The End
Story Arcs: The End In the previous Writing Corner post, we looked at the ending part of the story arc. This is usually the shortest and least important part of the story arc. However, it is still important since this is the last thing the reader will read. Last week, I mentioned the idea of…
The Prisoner
The Prisoner As the sun heads up to cross the horizon my eyes bore into its burning glow. It peeks through the buildings and washes down the threatening glimmer of the sky that keeps me up at night. As I stare through the window the prickling sting in my eyes grows sharper. Time stretches, drawn-out…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 