There is a trope in fiction of an unseen world laid overtop of ours. It could be a magical world, or an alternate dimension, a glimpse into the past or future, etc. An example is the Spiderwick Chronicles, where the characters look through a magical stone to see the invisible creatures around them. A more…
Tag: stories
Muse on Monday – April 14, 2025
If you have ever been lost in the fog, you know how disorienting it can be. It can be a nightmare, although it depends on the context. If a monster is chasing you, or if you are in a foreign city and your ship leaves in an hour, it can cause panic. However, if you…
Muse on Monday – April 7, 2025
I used to wonder, in the story Jack and the Beanstalk, how the giant’s castle stayed up in the clouds. What’s more, what did they do with their garbage? If they dug down, could they poke through the cloud or was it solid? The answer to all these questions is, of course, it’s magic so…
Muse on Monday – March 31, 2025
The duel: it is a staple of action movies, like the standoff in a western movie. At the climax of the story or movie, the hero and villain face off, one on one. Of course this doesn’t have to be a physical confrontation. It could be a debate or a chess game or even two…
Muse on Monday – March 17, 2025
Have you ever read or written a story around one word? I don’t mean as a theme, but literally using the same word multiple times in the story. Sometimes this technique can be used ironically when a word has more than one meaning or it can just be done for fun. I can’t think of…
Muse on Monday – March 10, 2025
Story Prompt: March 10, 2025 You move into a new house with a locked closet. You can’t find the key to it. One night you see light coming from under the door. There are a number of reasons for this, but be creative. If you have a story like this you want to share or…
Muse on Monday – March 3, 2025
It’s a common trope in fiction: two strangers arrive/wake up/find themselves trapped together somewhere. They might be the last people on Earth, but they could also be stuck on a desert island (like The Blue Lagoon) or a spaceship (e.g. Passengers). And so on. The point is that there are two people suddenly pushed into…
Muse on Monday – February 24, 2025
I’m leaving on a fairly extensive trip to Asia today, so that got me thinking about travel. When you take a long trip, no matter how much preparation you do, it always feels like you are missing something. Of course, sometimes you have to leave unprepared. Refugees are in that situation, where you just take…
Muse on Monday – February 17, 2025
Of the five senses, the most used for description is sight. However, it’s very rare to only have sight to work with. One place where this happens is on security camera footage. There is no dialogue so we have to guess from body language and actions what is happening. Sometimes it’s obvious (a guy is…
Muse on Monday – February 10, 2025
People love symmetry because it feels right having things match up. You have a superhero, but also a supervillain. You start your story on a bus and end it on a bus. You have two main characters, one very rich and one very poor. There are lots of ways to have symmetry or mirror elements…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 