Do you think nature is kind or cruel? It’s both, of course, although in stories it is often cruel, or fickle at best. Nature makes a good antagonist in a story with no human bad guys, whether it is a location like a desert or the open ocean, an event like a hurricane or a volcanic eruption, or animals, like a pack of wolves or a single white whale.

There are several reasons why nature can make a very good character in your story.

1. Most things in nature are much bigger than people. Even small things like insects have exponentially more members than there are humans. This means that the stakes can be very high.
2. There is still a lot we don’t know about nature, so it can be a very mysterious place. We don’t know everything that is in the jungle or in the oceans, let alone on other planets.
3. We are surrounded by nature all the time, so it can feel very familiar as well. Taking something familiar and changing it a little can make for an interesting story, from something scary like the dog in Cujo to something absurd, like the weather in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Story Prompt: April 24, 2023

Write a story about some aspect of nature. Make it something that doesn’t get a lot of stories written about it.

If you want to share your story, you can either email me at info@greenwalledtreehouse.com or submit it at the link here. I’d love to publish your story as well. I’ll try to write a story myself about this prompt and post it in the next while.