Last week I didn’t post a Muse on Monday since I was feeling sick. It wasn’t anything serious, but it’s hard to do some things when you’re not feeling well.

Of course there are a lot of types of sickness. In stories, they are handled in different ways:

1. Short-term, debilitating, not life-threatening (e.g. a cold): not common in stories since it doesn’t offer enough conflict to justify it
2. Long-term, somewhat debilitating, life-threatening (e.g. cancer): gives a character a sense of their own mortality if in the main character, or gives the main character something to fight for if it’s a side character
3. Short-term, debilitating, life-threatening (e.g. cholera): this is more likely in side characters since this kind of illness kills quickly. Most common in plague/epidemic stories.

There are other types too, of course, but I just want to give some examples of sickness in stories.

Story Prompt: October 6, 2025

Write a story with a character who is sick

If you write a story with this prompt, send me a link to your story on your own site, either in the comments or at info@greenwalledtreehouse.com. You can also submit your story here for a chance to have it published on the site next week.

Have a wonderful beginning of October. I hope you have a good autumn.