creative writing story mountain

Writing a Story With "Story Mountain"

Kip Insights Team • April 27, 2023 • UK

The "Story Mountain" is a widely used framework in creative writing, often employed in classrooms and workshops to structure stories. Understanding the basic elements of the story mountain can help students create engaging and well-structured narratives.

Story Mountain

Opening - The opening of the story is where you set the scene by introducing the setting, characters and establish the tone of the story. It's important to provide details about the characters, the time and the place where your story is taking place. This will help readers better understand the journey that lies ahead.

Build-up - In the build-up phase, the story starts to gain momentum as the main character faces obstacles and struggles to overcome them. This is where you can add detail of interest to the reader, foreshadowing events that will lead to a greater conflict. By building tension and intrigue, you can keep the reader engaged and eager to know what happens next.

Problem - The problem or conflict is the turning point of the story, where the tension reaches its peak and the character faces their biggest challenge. This is the moment when the story takes an unexpected turn, and the character must confront and address the problem head-on. It's crucial to create a compelling and challenging problem that will keep readers hooked.

Resolution - The resolution is the point at which the character must solve or resolve the problem to reach their final goal. This is the most exciting part of the story, where the plot reaches its climax and the character's fate hangs in the balance. Make sure to keep readers guessing and create a satisfying resolution that ties up loose ends and provides a sense of closure.

Ending - The ending of the story is when the characters have resolved the problem and everything has been resolved. While it's the conclusion of the story, you can still be creative and add an unexpected twist that gives your story a unique and memorable ending. This could even hint at the possibility of a continuation or sequel.

Putting It To Use

To write a story using the story mountain framework, start by brainstorming ideas for each of these elements. Consider the type of story you want to tell, the characteristics of your main character, and the challenges they will face. Use the story mountain as a guide to structure your ideas and create a cohesive and engaging narrative. Here's an example of how you might use the story mountain to write a short story using Little Red Riding Hood: Beginning : Little Red Riding Hood sets off through the woods with a basket of food for her sick grandma. Build-up : Along the way, she encounters the cunning wolf who asks her where she is going. Little Red Riding Hood becomes suspicious but continues on her way to her grandma's. Problem : When she arrives at her grandma’s house, she realises that the wolf has locked her grandma in the cupboard and is pretending to be her. Little Red Riding Hood screams for help. Resolution : Just as the wolf is about to eat her, the Woodcutter arrives and chases the wolf away. Ending : Little Red Riding Hood, grandma, and the Woodcutter live happily ever after, knowing they foiled the wolf's evil plans.

To Conclude

In conclusion, the story mountain framework is a valuable tool for structuring stories and creating engaging narratives. By following the elements of the opening, build-up, problem, resolution, and ending. You can create a well-paced story that captivates readers. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting out, the story mountain can help you organise your ideas and bring your stories to life. If you're interested in learning more about Improving your child’s writing skills, we invite you to book a free assessment on our website. Our team of English specialists can provide personalised feedback and guidance to help you become a more confident and skilled storyteller. Visit our website today and take the first step towards enhancing your storytelling abilities with Kip McGrath.

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What is a Story Mountain — How to Tackle Story Structure

• What is a Scene
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• What is Story Structure
• What is a Story Beat
• What Is a Plot
• Plot vs Story
• What is a Non-Linear Plot
• What is a Plot Device
• What is Freytag’s Pyramid
• Screenplay Structure Examples
• What is a Story Mountain
• Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey
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• Dan Harmon’s Story Circle
• What is Aristotle’s Poetics
• What is Exposition
• What is an Inciting Incident
• What is Rising Action
• What is the Climax of a Story
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W hat does every story have in common? They all have a beginning, middle, and end. Obviously, writing and storytelling is more complex than simply laying out a beginning, middle and end. But simplifying those plot structures into clear stages can help with brainstorming and organizing your ideas as a writer. This visual guide of plot points is usually called a story mountain.

Watch: Three-Act Structure Explained

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What is a Story Mountain template? 

First, let’s define a story mountain.

So what is a story mountain? Narratives about hiking? Not quite. Let’s nail down a definition for the term, before looking at some story mountain templates.

STORY MOUNTAIN DEFINITION

What is a story mountain.

A Story Mountain or story map helps visualize and understand the series of incidents in a plot. Represented visually as a mountain, these stories build to a climax or obstacle that needs to be overcome, before being resolved and ‘ending’ on the other side of the mountain.

Story Mountain Structure:

• Exposition 
• Conflict/Rising Action

Falling Action

As you can see, a story mountain is inextricably linked to plot . A plot is the organized pattern or sequence of events that make up a story. Every plot is made up of a series of incidents that are related to one another. 

All those events can be illustrated in a story mountain. Here’s a story mountain template: 

Story mountain template

Let’s take a closer look into each plot point, and see them more clearly with clips and examples from some of your favorite TV shows and movies. Learning about these different components of what makes up a plot will help you in crafting more compelling narratives . 

Plot Mountain Example

Exposition in a plot mountain.

Exposition usually occurs at the beginning of a story and is when the characters are introduced, and we usually learn about the setting of a story. Thus, most of it is located in the “background” section of a story mountain.

There are many different techniques filmmakers use to show exposition. The 5 main ones are: 

Dialogue 

Dialogue between two or more characters allows for simple and effective exposition in a single scene.

Narration 

Narration, or voice over , is a way to communicate a character’s true thoughts and desires, or give insight into what’s happening.

Mise-en-scène

Mise-en-scène is the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play. Translated from French, it means "setting the stage" but, in film analysis, the term mise en scene refers to everything in front of the camera, including the set design, lighting, and actors. Mise en scene in film is the overall effect of how it all comes together for the audience. 

Mise en scene elements include:

Costumes 

Actor blocking

Shot composition

Text or title cards

This is the most straightforward technique. Text or title cards can contain all the relevant information your audience will need to know, before the film even begins. What movies that use this technique come to mind? Here’s one particularly famous example:

Star Wars opening titles

There are multiple ways to show past events in a present narrative, but flashbacks are the most visual as they place your character in context (versus having the characters or narrator relate the event, also known as showing vs telling). 

What famous movies or TV shows can you think of that use flashbacks to tell the character’s story? Lost   is one of the most acclaimed shows to rely on flashbacks for plot development.  

Let’s look at the best movie example of exposition. The Up opening montage is deemed by film critics to be a masterclass in narrative exposition. The film opens with a series of images that guide us through main character Carl Fredriksen’s relationship with his wife. In the span of just a few dialogue-free minutes, we experience Carl and Ellie’s joy, love, and loss over the many years. It’s devastating and memorable. Check it out below:

Up exposition opening montage

If you can still read through your tears, let’s continue to our next plot points.

Conflict and Rising Action

In a story mountain template, conflict spurs rising action . A conflict and rising action are introduced and the protagonist ’s journey begins. There is usually an inciting incident and rising action that takes place. A plot mountain literalizes “rising action”– the line rises to its peak.

Take a look at Little Red Riding Hood as a plot mountain example:

Story mountain example

In this story mountain example, the rising action is when Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf– conflict is established.

One movie conflict and rising action that comes to mind is the scene from Finding Nemo where Marlin witnesses a scuba diver kidnap his son, Nemo. This moment of conflict set the stage for the rest of the story where Marlin painstakingly searches for Nemo. 

Here’s a 2 minute summary of Finding Nemo that narrates all the major plot points: 

 Finding Nemo plot explained

The story mountain is usually done as a basic diagram, but is useful in the early stages of writing to best organize your characters and motives. 

Plot Story Mountain

Plot mountain climax .

Climax is the term used to refer to the part of a story where the tension or action reaches its highest point. This follows the rising action and precedes the falling action. In story mountain examples, this is, as you might imagine, the peak.

You can probably think of some pretty great movie or TV show climaxes. Perhaps one of the most shocking in recent films is that of Shutter Island . At the climax, DiCaprio's character is revealed in a bait and switch twist to be the true villain of the story - and his entire character is a charade. 

Check out the reveal in Laeta Kalogridis’ screenplay, which we imported into StudioBinder’s screenwriting software :

Shutter Islan Climax Scene

It’s a masterful scene, where Teddy, along with the audience, slowly sees the entire story unravel. This reveal starts with Chuck’s entrance, and Kalogridis emphasizes this by putting his name in all caps and underlining it.

Now, watch the scene below to see how it was translated onto the screen.

Story Mountain Falling Action

The falling action of a story is the section of the plot that follows the climax. It’s the backside of the mountain.

The falling action decreases tension of the central conflict, moving the story forward toward its conclusion. Characters use falling action to settle into whatever has changed in the climax, and to slowly work their way to resolving internal and external conflicts .

The falling action helps resolve the problem in the climax and the resolution completes the story. Let’s use Titanic as an example. In the film, the falling action is when Jack and Rose escape the sinking ship and find a floating door from the interior of the sinking ship, which helped them float together. There is still drama in the falling action, as Jack dies before the resolution, in which Rose is rescued. 

If you’re interested in learning about a more complex narrative structure, read about the Story Circle . Hollywood writer Dan Harmon describes his 8 step story structure of a protagonist's journey, sort of similar to a story mountain, but with more detail. Check it out a video explanation below:

                                                What is a Story Circle?  •   Subscribe on YouTube

No matter what shape you use, visualizing your story can help you make sense of how your plot is functioning. 

What is the Three Act Structure? 

There are other forms of plot structure, like the Three Act Structure. This article goes into more about this narrative model that screenwriters use as an organizational tool to help build stories. 

Up Next: What is the Three Act Structure? →

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What Is A Story Mountain In Writing & Screenwriting: Esseential Guide

In the world of writing and screenwriting, a Story Mountain is a pivotal tool that shapes compelling narratives .

It’s a visual plot structure that helps us map out the rise and fall of a story’s action, guiding readers and viewers on an unforgettable journey.

The Purpose Of A Story Mountain

Understanding the purpose of a Story Mountain clarifies its relevance in the realms of writing and screenwriting.

Simply put, it serves as a foundation for structured storytelling, ensuring that narratives don’t meander but instead grip audiences with a clear progression.

The Story Mountain aids in developing compelling plots by mapping out key moments in the narrative.

By providing this structure, writers can focus on enhancing character development and refining pivotal scenes to maintain the viewer’s engagement.

• Prevents stagnation – by dictating the rise and fall of action, the Story Mountain stops stories from becoming static or uneventful.
• Guides emotional impact – it helps pinpoint where audiences should feel tension, excitement, or relief, enhancing the overall emotional journey.

In the context of filmmaking, the Story Mountain is especially crucial.

With screen time at a premium, it’s imperative that each scene advances the story effectively, maintaining a pace that captivates the viewer from the opening scene to the final moments before the credits roll.

Plot points detailed on a Story Mountain ensure that screenwriters have clear milestones to work towards.

This not only aids in the creation of tight scripts but also facilitates the production process, as directors and producers can pre-visualize the film’s trajectory and prepare accordingly.

• Clarifies narrative goals – story mountains provide tangible targets for narrative highs and lows.
• Facilitates revision – as a visual tool, it allows writers to quickly assess and tweak their story’s pacing and distribution of key events.

It’s an invaluable tool for any writer, but particularly for those in the competitive world of film where each moment on screen must count.

By adhering to the rising and falling action that a Story Mountain dictates, filmmakers can produce stories that resonate deeply with their audience and stand the test of time.

Understanding The Structure Of A Story Mountain

The Story Mountain isn’t just a metaphor; it’s a blueprint for building the architecture of a narrative.

At its core, it embodies five crucial stages of storytelling – these stages are pivotal touchstones that guide the progression of our characters and plot.

– Exposition – We establish the setting, introduce main characters and reveal the starting situation.

• Rising Action – Conflict begins to unfold, challenges arise, and stakes are set higher.
• Climax – Our characters face their greatest challenge, resulting in the most intense point of the story.
• Falling Action – Consequences of the climax unfold and tension decreases.
• Resolution – Characters grasp the outcome of their journey, though it’s not always what they anticipated.

Examining a film like The Matrix , the Story Mountain becomes evident through the systematic building of action as Neo discovers the true nature of reality, culminating in his transformation into “The One.

” It’s this structure that grips audiences, holding their attention through emotional highs and lows.

Implementing the Story Mountain in screenwriting is fundamental to our script’s success.

The tight narrative control it offers us ensures we’re providing clear plot points and character arcs that serve the story and resonate with audiences.

Fluency in this framework allows us to craft a storyline that flows effortlessly even though its carefully plotted course.

Understanding the ebb and flow of narrative tension is essential.

Our scripts must grip viewers from start to finish, like a thrilling roller coaster designed with intentionality.

A well-constructed Story Mountain helps us maintain pacing and dramatic tension at every turn.

The Elements Of A Story Mountain

While crafting narratives for the screen, understanding the key components of a Story Mountain is paramount .

This model is vital for scriptwriters to create compelling and emotionally engaging tales.

Exposition introduces the characters, setting, and the story’s initial situation.

It’s the groundwork upon which the entire narrative will develop.

In The Matrix, we’re plunged into a perplexing reality where the protagonist is just as baffled as we are.

Rising Action forms the bulk of the narrative, where tension and complications build.

This phase introduces smaller crises that propel the plot forward.

For instance, Neo’s gradual acceptance of his role in The Matrix is fraught with trials and confrontations.

At the peak is the Climax , the moment of highest tension and drama.

This turning point is often a confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist.

In our case, Neo’s encounter with Agent Smith serves as an explosive and revelatory climax.

Following the climax is the Falling Action , where the immediate repercussions of the climax unfold.

It leads us toward the story’s closure.

Here the characters might grapple with the climax’s outcomes or tie up loose ends.

Finally, the Resolution rounds out the narrative arc, resolving any remaining subplots or questions.

It provides closure and often, a glimpse into the future of the storyworld.

Utilizing a Story Mountain effectively ensures that the story hits all the necessary emotional beats.

Here’s a quick rundown of its advantages –

• It structures the script around clear plot points.
• It guides character development and arcs.
• It maintains pacing and dramatic tension consistently.

By integrating these elements, we cultivate stories that captivate audiences and withstand the test of time.

Our focus is always on forging an enthralling journey for viewers, from the comfort of their seats right up to the edge – and holding them there, spellbound, as the narrative unfolds in unexpected, yet deeply satisfying ways.

How To Use A Story Mountain In Writing

Applying the Story Mountain to writing is quite straightforward once you’ve grasped its structure.

We’ll look at the framework within the context of writing a screenplay.

First , you’ve got the exposition.

This is where you’ll lay the groundwork for your story – introducing the characters, setting, and initial conflict.

Second comes the rising action.

Here the stakes begin to escalate and the tension builds.

It’s the bulk of your screenplay where characters struggle, face obstacles, and the audience becomes hooked.

Moving on, the climax is where the tension hits its highest point.

The main character faces their greatest challenge, often resulting from the rising action.

Next, the falling action allows for the aftermath of the climax to unfold.

It’s where characters process and the story begins to wrap up.

Finally, we have the resolution – not the end, but the tying up of loose ends.

It’s where the journey concludes, and the new norm is established for the characters.

Here’s a quick breakdown using Lord of the Rings as an example:

• Exposition – The Shire is introduced; Frodo receives the ring.
• Rising Action – Frodo decides to journey to Mount Doom; faces numerous trials.
• Climax – The confrontation at Mount Doom.
• Falling Action – The destruction of the ring; reaction to the victory.
• Resolution – Return to the Shire; impact of the quest on characters.

Using this structure purposefully in screenwriting helps you keep track of narrative flow and ensure that every element serves the story.

It’s about anchoring scenes to these pivotal moments and reasoning their existence in relation to the larger narrative.

This approach allows for powerful storytelling that resonates with audiences and keeps them engaged throughout the film’s duration.

To properly use the Story Mountain, we must also consider character arcs.

They are the backbone of the story and must evolve with the structure.

Let’s briefly cover how to align character development with the Story Mountain in our next section.

How To Use A Story Mountain In Screenwriting

Crafting a screenplay is akin to building a house.

First, we lay the foundation – that’s our exposition where we set the scene and introduce the characters.

Then, we build the walls, or the rising action, where tension and conflict begin to escalate.

Our climax is the roof, the pivotal turning point that decides the direction of the story.

Finally, we add interior details – falling action – and paint the front door with our resolution, leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

When applying the Story Mountain to screenwriting, it’s pivotal we understand our characters’ motives.

Every action on the Story Mountain must be driven by the characters’ desires and fears, aligning their arcs with the various stages of the story.

By doing this, we ensure that the events are not only exciting but also deeply personal and engaging to the audience.

The key to a successful screenplay is not just building a Story Mountain but knowing when to navigate it.

As we approach our screenplay’s climax, we escalate the stakes.

What’s at risk if our protagonist fails?

We must make it clear that everything built up to this point could crumble if the climax does not resolve the core conflict.

Screenplays thrive on structure and subtlety.

We use the falling action to release tension, but also to plant seeds that help the audience piece together the story’s deeper meanings.

It’s the thoughtful distribution of these clues throughout that keeps viewers invested and talking long after the credits roll.

The resolution of a story delivers satisfaction.

It’s essential to tie up loose ends without making the wrap-up seem too convenient or far-fetched.

Our goal is to create a conclusion that resonates emotionally and logically with the themes we’ve woven into our screenplay.

Remember, in screenwriting, the Story Mountain is a guide, not a rigid rulebook.

We use it to keep our narrative on track but should always be open to creative deviations that enhance our story’s impact.

After all, some of the most memorable moments in film come from unexpected twists and turns.

Story Mountain Essentials In Writing & Screenwriting – Wrap Up

We’ve explored the Story Mountain’s pivotal role in crafting stories that captivate and resonate.

By mastering its stages and integrating character arcs, we ensure our narratives pulse with life and authenticity.

Remember, while the Story Mountain serves as a stellar blueprint, it’s our creative flair that will truly make our screenplays stand out.

Let’s harness this structure to weave tales that linger long after the credits roll, always willing to bend the rules for the sake of an unforgettable story.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a story mountain.

A Story Mountain is a narrative framework with five key components — exposition, rising action , climax, falling action, and resolution — used to structure and guide the crafting of compelling stories.

How Does “the Matrix” Exemplify The Story Mountain?

“The Matrix” exemplifies the Story Mountain by following the essential stages: the exposition introduces the characters and setting, rising action builds tension, the climax is the peak of the conflict, falling action star ts resolving the turmoil, and the resolution ties up the story’s loose ends.

Why Is The Story Mountain Important In Screenwriting?

The Story Mountain is crucial in screenwriting because it helps structure the script, ensures effective pacing, maintains dramatic tension, and guides character development, all of which are key to holding the audience’s engagement throughout the film.

Can You Apply The Story Mountain To Any Narrative?

Yes, the Story Mountain can be broadly applied to narratives but using examples like “Lord of the Rings,” the article shows that while the framework benefits screenwriting, it’s also a guide that can accommodate creative deviations to enhance the story.

How Should Characters’ Development Align With The Story Mountain?

Character development should align with the Story Mountain by having characters’ motives and arcs correspond with the varying stages of the story, ensuring a coherent and emotionally engaging progression throughout the narrative.

What Is The Role Of Escalating Stakes In A Story Mountain?

Escalating stakes are pivotal in the Story Mountain, particularly as the climax approaches; they serve to heighten tension, keep the audience invested, and make the story’s peak moments more impactful.

How Should A Resolution Be Handled According To The Story Mountain?

The resolution should efficiently resolve conflicts, offer closure, and tie up story threads without being overly convenient or implausible, ensuring a satisfactory end for the audience.

Is The Story Mountain A Strict Set Of Rules For Storytelling?

No, the Story Mountain is a guide rather than a strict rulebook.

It provides a helpful structure for storytelling but encourages writers to explore creative deviations to enrich the story’s impact.

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What is a Story Mountain?

...and how do you use one.

What is a story mountain?

A story mountain is a fantastic framework used to help students visualise the structure of a story. The sections step students through important parts of the plot in creating a standard ‘story arc’ or ‘ hero’s journey ’.

Take a minute to think about the most recent fiction book you read or a captivating recount that a friend told you. Did it start by setting the scene, move into recognising a problem, cast you through a series of escalating events, before magically coming to some form of resolution and lesson learnt?

We’re surrounded by content that would slot straight into a story mountain framework (okay, maybe sometimes you would need a few extra boxes). But the point stands.

Our students need support with making the explicit connection between parts of a story and the stories that they’ve heard.

What are the parts of a story mountain?

The labelling of the parts does vary between templates. For example, you may see any of ‘Beginning’ ‘Exposition’ ‘Orientation’ or ‘Introduction’ used for the start of the sequence and a combination of ‘Falling Action’ ‘Solution’ ‘Resolution’ ‘Ending’ ‘Conclusion’ or ‘Closing’ at the end. Here are the terms I use with my classes:

Rising Action

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Story Mountain – Teaching this story structure in KS2 creative writing

Careful story planning doesn't mean children have to squash their creativity – quite the opposite, in fact....

By Sue Drury

Last updated 11 September 2020

Writing a story should be like an enjoyable journey. You should know where you’re starting and where you’re going to finish. You should also plan some interim destinations along the way. Precisely how you get to each staging post is up to you and could even be partly led by your characters.

Nevertheless, you need to start with a plan and this is something that is especially important to drill into your pupils. Children tend to love telling or writing stories and their instinct is to launch straight into each new tale with unbridled enthusiasm.

However, if you’ve ever had the misfortune to hear or read a child’s unplanned story, you’ll know exactly what we mean.

Here are a few tips for helping to ensure that you won’t be wearing a painfully fixed smile or propping your eyelids up with matchsticks next time you encounter an enthusiastic young storyteller.

Which story plan?

As with so many things in life, there are plenty of ways to plan a story. Different approaches often suit particular genres and it helps to pick and choose accordingly.

Basic story structure

Even so, a story needs a beginning, a middle and an end. To expand this a little further, many stories follow the ‘story mountain’ approach, whereby the dramatic tension of the plot starts low, then climbs steadily to its apex before returning, more or less to normality – sea level, if you like.

Depending on the particular story mountain template you use, this journey is often broken into five stages: opening (where you introduce the characters and setting), build up, problem(s), climax and resolution.

Early steps with familiar stories

A good way to introduce young writers to the idea of story structure is through oral storytelling, which also addresses those objectives about saying aloud what you intend to write. We have an attractive set of storytelling cards for Key Stage 1 pupils to help them spark these discussions and take their first steps along the road to effective planning. There are even some blank ones to allow pupils to come up with their own characters, settings and so on.

Story planning resources

The importance of rehearsing your ideas before you write does not diminish when the pupils reach Year 3, even if the expectation might be for them to have started putting plans down on paper. That is why we offer storytelling cards for lower key stage 2 children as well. These offer suggestions as to what might be happening at any of the stages on the story mountain and can be used as part of a class discussion or put on display as a constant reminder.

Use prompts for creative writing exercises

One of the main pitfalls of pupils’ planning is the temptation to blur the lines between the plan and the story itself. To overcome this, advise them to make notes, preferably as bullet points rather than full sentences. Also, provide planning templates with prompts to make them think clearly about each stage of the story. As well as breaking down the story into its main parts, it could also pose relevant questions about what is happening and why. Just make sure that they don’t confuse the story stages with paragraphs. It might be that the two concepts overlap when they are novice writers but, especially as they get older and produce more, they will need to understand the difference.

Story Mountain structure can be flexible

A story plan is not a legally binding contract. Although you might not state it in those terms to your pupils, it is appropriate to tell them that sometimes your ideas change while you’re in the process of moulding a plan into a story. Just urge them to adapt their plan accordingly so that it still follows a coherent plot.

Famous story structure

It is often said that there are seven basic plots in literature: overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, journey and return, comedy, tragedy and rebirth. You can unpick what these mean at your leisure; the point is that different plots have different key ingredients. It therefore makes sense for writers to adapt their planning style accordingly and not feel they have to struggle up and down the story mountain in the traditional sense.

We offer a variety of resources, complete with planning sheets, that will help pupils appreciate different approaches to planning, depending on the genre of the story they are writing. For example, our ‘Timing a Plot’ pack encourages pupils to focus on the chronology of the key events in their story. Our ‘Hero’s Journey’ pack provides a 12-stage template for planning a story in the style of myths, legends and fantasy adventures. We even have a resource for creating a historical story set in a particular time and place, namely the wild west . Yippee-i-ay!

Make sure that your pupils do not underestimate the importance of the resolution. The story mountain idea can really help here as it is a very visual illustration of how things return to normal. Loose ends will need to be tied up in a way that satisfies the reader and there should be some indication as to how life will carry on for the characters. Incidentally, the protagonists might well live ‘happily ever after’ but this is never an acceptable ending except for a traditional tale. If you’re feeling really draconian, ban the words ‘The End’. If it is not clear to the reader that the story has finished, you could argue that they have not written a good enough resolution.

We hope you now feel fully equipped to help your class to tackle the spectacular peaks of the story mountains. Just remember, it might take what seems like extra effort at the beginning but it will be well worth it in the end.

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• Story Mountain Template

Story mountain template – Free worksheet for creative writing

Story mountain template PDF

Story structure and plot

If you’re looking for teaching resources that will help children with their story planning, this handy story mountain template is just the ticket.

Read more about the story mountain method of story planning, then use this practical story planning resource to help pupils map out their plot arc.

Story mountain template

This lovely template for children has spaces for pupils to plot out the beginning, build-up, problem, resolution and ending of their story.

You never know – you might have the next Jacqueline Wilson or Michael Rosen in your class!

Browse more story writing  resources and creative writing ideas for  National Writing Day .

Similar resources

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Creative Writing Story Mountain Resource (KS2)

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

30 August 2022

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This is a great resource which I’ve used for multiple creative writing tasks, particularly short stories.

It includes the key elements of a story, with prompts and a brief description of what is usually in each.

Once the scaffolding is used, I often encourage my higher attainers to think how they could move away from the scaffold, perhaps using the ending as a beginning for example.

Elements of the story mountain:

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Descriptive Writing A-Level Example: The Mountain

This is a piece completed recently by one of my students for the Cambridge (CIE) A-Level English exam (Paper 2: Writing). It is suitable for anyone studying creative writing at a higher level — GCSE (10th Grade) and above, particularly on the following exam boards: AQA, CIE, OCR, Edexcel, WJEC / Eduqas, CCEA.

The piece attained a B grade, but it has great potential and with a bit of work could have achieved an A. I asked the student to write feedback below to give a sense of the grade, as well as suggested improvements for how to attain a higher level next time. You’ll see a breakdown of his writing process and thoughts behind how he uses language.

Thanks for reading! If you find this page useful, you can take a look at our full Basic Descriptive Writing course ; Advanced Descriptive Writing course , and other English Language and Literature courses

The Question:

Write a descriptive piece called The Mountain. In your writing, create a sense of atmosphere, and focus on colors and sounds to help your reader imagine the scene.

The Answer: (Descriptive Writing A-Level Example)

The mountain.

It had been a long hard trek across the sludgy path, my footfalls producing rhythmic squelches. A warm pitiful breath escaped my mouth and struggled against the unrelenting breeze. My eyes wept from the wind, without sadness, the tears quickly drying but no less pained. I had managed to stray unwittingly from the path. My mind blank, I had chanced upon a vast expanse of open land. Vaguely, I recalled how I had got there, how I awoke in perspiration merely hours earlier, my T-shirt soaked through. If I had wrung it, I’m sure water would have trickled out, so sodden it was.

When I eventually peeled myself off the bed, it was then the idea had taken root, to venture out for a spirited walk. Grabbing my staff and closing the door after me, I walked on mechanically, permitting the crisp air to enter my lungs and liven my senses. For a long time, I gazed listlessly at my traipsing feet, neglecting to survey the path ahead. Soon, when I glanced up, I had drunk in the formidable sight of a tall mountain stood gargantuan in the distance.

The sky, slate grey and heavy, bore the promise of rain. A knot of cloud hung low and obscured the mountain’s peak. It should have unnerved me, but it didn’t. I was Ill-dressed and ill-prepared, yet a dogged stubbornness coursed through my every fibre. I firmly decided I would task myself to climb it. It was as though I forged onward like a weary soldier, going into battle for the very first time.

As I neared the foot of the mountain, such was its mass I could no longer see sky. Pausing at the base of it, I noticed that the wind had abated somewhat, and I felt a brief flash of renewed confidence. Glancing up its steep face my eyes scanned the wild, rocky terrain, peppered with tufts of grass and high reeds.

No discernible path appeared to etch through it, which led me to believe that nobody of sound mind would be foolish enough to scale it. Nobody as foolish as me at least. Warding off the temptation to turn back, I placed my trusty staff before me and carefully distributed my weight across the unstable ground. With no visible path to speak of I lunged forward and begun to climb, praising each successfully placed step as I slowly advanced. Reaching roughly a meter high, I felt the first cool drop of rain blotch my forehead. It caused me to glance up instantly at the sky with trepidation, but before I would be greeted by an onslaught of raindrops, I decided to forge on undeterred.

A violent rush of wind suddenly rose beneath me, causing the hood of my coat to blow clean over my head. Maybe it was a sign, I thought. Nature’s way of telling me that I should prepare for the inevitable drenching. But I did my best to not entertain such thoughts. Instead, my mind cast back to the days of my youth. I recollected the numerous occasions I had ventured into the woods with my older brother. Together we would seek out the tallest climbable tree. He would goad and pressure me to reach the furthest branch no matter the risk of danger. His voice  was always close behind, providing a safety net in case I fell. I never did, but where was his voice now?

When the rain came, it had been roughly an hour since I last looked down. The terrain had gotten steeper, so much so that my staff was rendered useless and left me all but hugging onto the slope for dear life. There were times when I froze, clutching myself to the earth, breathing in mud and stone, feeling as though I had tasted time itself. The rain came down in sheets, muddying the very soil my hands struggled to claw into as I ascended. Why had I bothered? I asked myself. Don’t worry just keep going, keep climbing. I imagined my brother’s voice not that far behind.

Student’s Feedback:

There are two examples in this passage where the language draws visual depictions. Firstly, in describing the colour of the sky as ‘slate-grey’, likening it to a shade taken from a type of stone, successfully transmits the image of a dark sky into the reader’s mind. Furthermore, the adjective ‘slate’ has connotations of hardness and coldness, create an intense atmosphere and a sense of difficulty for the protagonist. The use of compound adjectives through the hyphen also enhances the intensity of the visual image.

The second refers to the protagonist’s determination. He ‘forged onward like a weary soldier, going into battle for the very first time.’ This conjures a feeling of vulnerability for the reader. It presents the idea that the protagonist is venturing into the unknown, with unforeseen dangers ahead, creating palpable suspense.

Voice/Tone:

An underlying sense of foreboding runs consistently throughout the passage. There is a distinct atmosphere enveloping the language that is earthy and rich. Much of this is derived from the detailed scene description. This places the reader directly into the mood and atmosphere of the text. This is portrayed in the depiction of physical hardship, endured by the protagonist. For example, ‘My eyes wept from the wind, without sadness, the tears quickly drying but no less pained.’ The line also contains a subtle hint of irony, the association between tears being linked to sadness. However, in this case it is the harshness of nature that is bringing about the shedding of tears.

Another example of ‘mood’ and ‘feel’ evident in the text can be found in the following line: ‘There were times when I froze, clutching myself to the earth, breathing in mud and stone, feeling as though I had tasted time itself.’ While ‘mud’ and ‘stone’ represent nature, they are also symbolically linked to the ancient age of the mountain and present the idea ‘tasting time’ as though it were a tangible thing. These linguistic techniques of tying nature to feeling, exist to immerse the reader within the voice and tone of the text.

The continuous verbs ‘clutching’ and ‘breathing’ … continuous motion / enduring difficulty / dynamic and physical enhance the sense of struggle / highlight the fragility of man in comparison to all-powerful nature.

Perspective/Structure:

The narrative uses first-person through the featured protagonist and unfolds in past-tense. It describes events in a continuous stream of action. However, there are two moments where the action shifts to a series of flashbacks. In the first one, we learn of the protagonist awaking from his bed: ‘I awoke in perspiration merely hours earlier, my T-shirt soaked through,’. In the second, he revisits thoughts of childhood: ‘I recollected the numerous occasions I had ventured into the woods with my older brother.’ Despite these two time-shifts, the throughline of the story commences from the moment the protagonist witnesses the mountain upon his travels, along the path, to lastly attempting to scale it, finding himself stuck upon its steep face.

Features to include for my next creative piece:

• Multiple characters
• A variation of sentences, including one word.
• A specific moment of conflict
• Range of paragraph lengths
• Range of punctuation > ! ? : ; ‘ “” ‘ () …

Teacher Feedback:

GRADE: 18/25

72 % > B grade

Mark scheme used .

• Effective expression, with a range of language, including some complex structures and less common lexis
• A few minor errors which do not impede communication
• Logical organisation of text; developed ideas in an effective manner
• Good achievement of text; content is relevant

Overall, I believed the last 2 sentences could have been more refined, more poignant, and expressive. The story at this point ends rather abruptly in comparison to the rest. This demonstrates better fluency and reads more elegantly.

However, the earlier paragraphs clearly demonstrate strong use of language. This is visually expressive, symbolic/poetic, and carries a distinct tone. There is much intrigue and suspense to be enjoyed, which in turn engages the reader.

Read more descriptive writing tips here: https://scrbblyblog.com/2022/10/26/spooky-atmosphere-writing/

Thanks for reading! If you find this page useful, you can take a look at our full Basic Descriptive Writing course ; Advanced Descriptive Writing course , and other English Language and Literature courses .

Or subscribe to scrbbly and access all of our courses for as little as £5 a month, related posts.

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© Copyright Scrbbly 2022

• Writing Prompts

150+ Story Starters: Creative Sentences To Start A Story

The most important thing about writing is finding a good idea . You have to have a great idea to write a story. You have to be able to see the whole picture before you can start to write it. Sometimes, you might need help with that. Story starters are a great way to get the story rolling. You can use them to kick off a story, start a character in a story or even start a scene in a story.

When you start writing a story, you need to have a hook. A hook can be a character or a plot device. It can also be a setting, something like “A young man came into a bar with a horse.” or a setting like “It was the summer of 1969, and there were no cell phones.” The first sentence of a story is often the hook. It can also be a premise or a situation, such as, “A strange old man in a black cloak was sitting on the train platform.”

Story starters are a way to quickly get the story going. They give the reader a place to start reading your story. Some story starters are obvious, and some are not. The best story starters are the ones that give the reader a glimpse into the story. They can be a part of a story or a part of a scene. They can be a way to show the reader the mood of a story. If you want to start a story, you can use a simple sentence. You can also use a question or an inspirational quote. In this post, we have listed over 150 story starters to get your story started with a bang! A great way to use these story starters is at the start of the Finish The Story game .

If you want more story starters, check out this video on some creative story starter sentences to use in your stories:

150+ Creative Story Starters

Here is a list of good sentences to start a story with:

• I’ve read about a million stories about princesses but never thought I could ever be one.
• There was once a man who was very old, but he was wise. He lived for a very long time, and he was very happy.
• What is the difference between a man and a cat? A cat has nine lives.
• In the middle of the night, a boy is running through the woods.
• It is the end of the world.
• He knew he was not allowed to look into the eyes of the princess, but he couldn’t help himself.
• The year is 1893. A young boy was running away from home.
• What if the Forest was actually a magical portal to another dimension, the Forest was a portal to the Otherworld?
• In the Forest, you will find a vast number of magical beings of all sorts. 
• It was the middle of the night, and the forest was quiet. No bugs or animals disturbed the silence. There were no birds, no chirping. 
• If you wish to stay in the Forest, you will need to follow these rules: No one shall leave the Forest. No one shall enter. No one shall take anything from the Forest.
• “It was a terrible day,” said the old man in a raspy voice.
• A cat is flying through the air, higher and higher, when it happens, and the cat doesn’t know how it got there, how it got to be in the sky.
• I was lying in the woods, and I was daydreaming.
• The Earth is a world of wonders. 
• The fairy is the most amazing creature I have ever met.
• A young girl was sitting on a tree stump at the edge of a river when she noticed a magical tree growing in the water.
• My dancing rat is dressed in a jacket, a tie and glasses, which make him look like a person. 
• In the darkness of the night, I am alone, but I know that I am not. 
• Owls are the oldest, and most intelligent, of all birds.
• My name is Reyna, and I am a fox. 
• The woman was drowning.
• One day, he was walking in the forest.
• It was a dark and stormy night…
• There was a young girl who could not sleep…
• A boy in a black cape rode on a white horse…
• A crazy old man in a black cloak was sitting in the middle of the street…
• The sun was setting on a beautiful summer day…
• The dog was restless…”
• There was a young boy in a brown coat…
• I met a young man in the woods…
• In the middle of a dark forest…
• The young girl was at home with her family…
• There was a young man who was sitting on a …
• A young man came into a bar with a horse…
• I have had a lot of bad dreams…
• He was a man who wanted to be king…
• It was the summer of 1969, and there were no cell phones.
• I know what you’re thinking. But no, I don’t want to be a vegetarian. The worst part is I don’t like the taste.
• She looked at the boy and decided to ask him why he wasn’t eating. She didn’t want to look mean, but she was going to ask him anyway.
• The song played on the radio, as Samual wiped away his tears.
• This was the part when everything was about to go downhill. But it didn’t…
• “Why make life harder for yourself?” asked Claire, as she bit into her apple.
• She made a promise to herself that she would never do it.
• I was able to escape.
• I was reading a book when the accident happened.
• “I can’t stand up for people who lie and cheat.” I cried.
• You look at me and I feel beautiful.
• I know what I want to be when I grow up.
• We didn’t have much money. But we knew how to throw a good party.
• The wind blew on the silent streets of London.
• What do you get when you cross an angry bee and my sister?
• The flight was slow and bumpy. I was half asleep when the captain announced we were going down.
• At the far end of the city was a river that was overgrown with weeds. 
• It was a quiet night in the middle of a busy week.
• One afternoon, I was eating a sandwich in the park when I spotted a stranger.
• In the late afternoon, a few students sat on the lawn reading.
• The fireflies were dancing in the twilight as the sunset.
• In the early evening, the children played in the park.
• The sun was setting and the moon was rising.
• A crowd gathered in the square as the band played.
• The top of the water tower shone in the moonlight.
• The light in the living room was on, but the light in the kitchen was off.
•  When I was a little boy, I used to make up stories about the adventures of these amazing animals, creatures, and so on. 
• All of the sudden, I realized I was standing in the middle of an open field surrounded by nothing but wildflowers, and the only thing I remembered about it was that I’d never seen a tree before.
• It’s the kind of thing that’s only happened to me once before in my life, but it’s so cool to see it.
• They gave him a little wave as they drove away.
• The car had left the parking lot, and a few hours later we arrived home.
• They were going to play a game of bingo.
• He’d made up his mind to do it. He’d have to tell her soon, though. He was waiting for a moment when they were alone and he could say it without feeling like an idiot. But when that moment came, he couldn’t think of anything to say.
• Jamie always wanted to own a plane, but his parents were a little tight on the budget. So he’d been saving up to buy one of his own. 
• The night was getting colder, and the wind was blowing in from the west.
• The doctor stared down at the small, withered corpse.
• She’d never been in the woods before, but she wasn’t afraid.
• The kids were having a great time in the playground.
• The police caught the thieves red-handed.
• The world needs a hero more than ever.
• Mother always said, “Be good and nice things will happen…”
• There is a difference between what you see and what you think you see.
• The sun was low in the sky and the air was warm.
• “It’s time to go home,” she said, “I’m getting a headache.”
• It was a cold winter’s day, and the snow had come early.
• I found a wounded bird in my garden.
• “You should have seen the look on my face.”
• He opened the door and stepped back.
• My father used to say, “All good things come to an end.”
• The problem with fast cars is that they break so easily.
• “What do you think of this one?” asked Mindy.
• “If I asked you to do something, would you do it?” asked Jacob.
• I was surprised to see her on the bus.
• I was never the most popular one in my class.
• We had a bad fight that day.
• The coffee machine had stopped working, so I went to the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea.
• It was a muggy night, and the air-conditioning unit was so loud it hurt my ears.
• I had a sleepless night because I couldn’t get my head to turn off.
• I woke up at dawn and heard a horrible noise.
• I was so tired I didn’t know if I’d be able to sleep that night.
• I put on the light and looked at myself in the mirror.
• I decided to go in, but the door was locked.
• A man in a red sweater stood staring at a little kitten as if it was on fire.
• “It’s so beautiful,” he said, “I’m going to take a picture.”
• “I think we’re lost,” he said, “It’s all your fault.”
• It’s hard to imagine what a better life might be like
• He was a tall, lanky man, with a long face, a nose like a pin, and a thin, sandy moustache.
• He had a face like a lion’s and an eye like a hawk’s.
• The man was so broad and strong that it was as if a mountain had been folded up and carried in his belly.
• I opened the door. I didn’t see her, but I knew she was there.
• I walked down the street. I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty.
• I arrived at my parents’ home at 8:00 AM.
• The nurse had been very helpful.
• On the table was an array of desserts.
• I had just finished putting the last of my books in the trunk.
• A car horn honked, startling me.
• The kitchen was full of pots and pans.
• There are too many things to remember.
• The world was my oyster. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.
•  “My grandfather was a World War II veteran. He was a decorated hero who’d earned himself a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart.
• Beneath the menacing, skeletal shadow of the mountain, a hermit sat on his ledge. His gnarled hands folded on his gnarled knees. His eyes stared blankly into the fog. 
• I heard a story about a dragon, who was said to be the size of a house, that lived on the top of the tallest mountain in the world.
•  I was told a story about a man who found a golden treasure, which was buried in this very park.
• He stood alone in the middle of a dark and silent room, his head cocked to one side, the brown locks of his hair, which were parted in the middle, falling down over his eyes.
•  Growing up, I was the black sheep of the family. I had my father’s eyes, but my mother’s smile.
• Once upon a time, there was a woman named Miss Muffett, and she lived in a big house with many rooms.
• When I was a child, my mother told me that the water looked so bright because the sun was shining on it. I did not understand what she meant at the time.    
•  The man in the boat took the water bottle and drank from it as he paddled away.
• The man looked at the child with a mixture of pity and contempt.
• An old man and his grandson sat in their garden. The old man told his grandson to dig a hole. 
• An old woman was taking a walk on the beach. The tide was high and she had to wade through the water to get to the other side.
• She looked up at the clock and saw that it was five minutes past seven.
• The man looked up from the map he was studying. “How’s it going, mate?”
• I was in my room on the third floor, staring out of the window.
• A dark silhouette of a woman stood in the doorway.
• The church bells began to ring.
• The moon rose above the horizon.
• A bright light shone over the road.
• The night sky began to glow.
• I could hear my mother cooking in the kitchen.
• The fog began to roll in.
• He came in late to the class and sat at the back.
• A young boy picked up a penny and put it in his pocket.
• He went to the bathroom and looked at his face in the mirror.
• It was the age of wisdom and the age of foolishness. We once had everything and now we have nothing.
• A young man died yesterday, and no one knows why.
• The boy was a little boy. He was not yet a man. He lived in a house in a big city.
• They had just returned from the theatre when the phone rang.
• I walked up to the front of the store and noticed the neon sign was out.
• I always wondered what happened to Mary.
• I stopped to say hello and then walked on.
• The boy’s mother didn’t want him to play outside…
• The lights suddenly went out…
• After 10 years in prison, he was finally out.
• The raindrops pelted the window, which was set high up on the wall, and I could see it was a clear day outside.
• My friend and I had just finished a large pizza, and we were about to open our second.
• I love the smell of the ocean, but it never smells as good as it does when the waves are crashing.
• They just stood there, staring at each other.
• A party was in full swing until the music stopped.

For more ideas on how to start your story, check out these first-line writing prompts . Did you find this list of creative story starters useful? Let us know in the comments below!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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36 Views of Moscow Mountain: Teaching Travel Writing and Mindfulness in the Tradition of Hokusai and Thoreau

L'auteur américain Henry David Thoreau est un écrivain du voyage qui a rarement quitté sa ville natale de Concorde, Massachusetts, où il a vécu de 1817 à 1862. Son approche du "voyage" consiste à accorder une profonde attention à son environnement ordinaire et à voir le monde à partir de perspectives multiples, comme il l'explique avec subtilité dans Walden (1854). Inspiré par Thoreau et par la célèbre série de gravures du peintre d'estampes japonais Katsushika Hokusai, intitulée 36 vues du Mt. Fuji (1830-32), j'ai fait un cours sur "L'écriture thoreauvienne du voyage" à l'Université de l'Idaho, que j'appelle 36 vues des montagnes de Moscow: ou, Faire un grand voyage — l'esprit et le carnet ouvert — dans un petit lieu . Cet article explore la philosophie et les stratégies pédagogiques de ce cours, qui tente de partager avec les étudiants les vertus d'un regard neuf sur le monde, avec les yeux vraiment ouverts, avec le regard d'un voyageur, en "faisant un grand voyage" à Moscow, Idaho. Les étudiants affinent aussi leurs compétences d'écriture et apprennent les traditions littéraires et artistiques associées au voyage et au sens du lieu.

Index terms

Keywords: , designing a writing class to foster engagement.

1 The signs at the edge of town say, "Entering Moscow, Idaho. Population 25,060." This is a small hamlet in the midst of a sea of rolling hills, where farmers grow varieties of wheat, lentils, peas, and garbanzo beans, irrigated by natural rainfall. Although the town of Moscow has a somewhat cosmopolitan feel because of the presence of the University of Idaho (with its 13,000 students and a few thousand faculty and staff members), elegant restaurants, several bookstores and music stores, and a patchwork of artsy coffee shops on Main Street, the entire mini-metropolis has only about a dozen traffic lights and a single high school. As a professor of creative writing and the environmental humanities at the university, I have long been interested in finding ways to give special focuses to my writing and literature classes that will help my students think about the circumstances of their own lives and find not only academic meaning but personal significance in our subjects. I have recently taught graduate writing workshops on such themes as "The Body" and "Crisis," but when I was given the opportunity recently to teach an undergraduate writing class on Personal and Exploratory Writing, I decided to choose a focus that would bring me—and my students—back to one of the writers who has long been of central interest to me: Henry David Thoreau.

2 One of the courses I have routinely taught during the past six years is Environmental Writing, an undergraduate class that I offer as part of the university's Semester in the Wild Program, a unique undergraduate opportunity that sends a small group of students to study five courses (Ecology, Environmental History, Environmental Writing, Outdoor Leadership and Wilderness Survival, and Wilderness Management and Policy) at a remote research station located in the middle of the largest wilderness area (the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness) in the United States south of Alaska. In "Teaching with Wolves," a recent article about the Semester in the Wild Program, I explained that my goal in the Environmental Writing class is to help the students "synthesize their experience in the wilderness with the content of the various classes" and "to think ahead to their professional lives and their lives as engaged citizens, for which critical thinking and communication skills are so important" (325). A foundational text for the Environmental Writing class is a selection from Thoreau's personal journal, specifically the entries he made October 1-20, 1853, which I collected in the 1993 writing textbook Being in the World: An Environmental Reader for Writers . I ask the students in the Semester in the Wild Program to deeply immerse themselves in Thoreau's precise and colorful descriptions of the physical world that is immediately present to him and, in turn, to engage with their immediate encounters with the world in their wilderness location. Thoreau's entries read like this:

Oct. 4. The maples are reddening, and birches yellowing. The mouse-ear in the shade in the middle of the day, so hoary, looks as if the frost still lay on it. Well it wears the frost. Bumblebees are on the Aster undulates , and gnats are dancing in the air. Oct. 5. The howling of the wind about the house just before a storm to-night sounds extremely like a loon on the pond. How fit! Oct. 6 and 7. Windy. Elms bare. (372)

3 In thinking ahead to my class on Personal and Exploratory Writing, which would be offered on the main campus of the University of Idaho in the fall semester of 2018, I wanted to find a topic that would instill in my students the Thoreauvian spirit of visceral engagement with the world, engagement on the physical, emotional, and philosophical levels, while still allowing my students to remain in the city and live their regular lives as students. It occurred to me that part of what makes Thoreau's journal, which he maintained almost daily from 1837 (when he was twenty years old) to 1861 (just a year before his death), such a rich and elegant work is his sense of being a traveler, even when not traveling geographically.

Traveling a Good Deal in Moscow

I have traveled a good deal in Concord…. --Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854; 4)

4 For Thoreau, one did not need to travel a substantial physical distance in order to be a traveler, in order to bring a traveler's frame of mind to daily experience. His most famous book, Walden , is well known as an account of the author's ideas and daily experiments in simple living during the two years, two months, and two days (July 4, 1845, to September 6, 1847) he spent inhabiting a simple wooden house that he built on the shore of Walden Pond, a small lake to the west of Boston, Massachusetts. Walden Pond is not a remote location—it is not out in the wilderness. It is on the edge of a small village, much like Moscow, Idaho. The concept of "traveling a good deal in Concord" is a kind of philosophical and psychological riddle. What does it mean to travel extensively in such a small place? The answer to this question is meaningful not only to teachers hoping to design writing classes in the spirit of Thoreau but to all who are interested in travel as an experience and in the literary genre of travel writing.

5 Much of Walden is an exercise in deftly establishing a playful and intellectually challenging system of synonyms, an array of words—"economy," "deliberateness," "simplicity," "dawn," "awakening," "higher laws," etc.—that all add up to powerful probing of what it means to live a mindful and attentive life in the world. "Travel" serves as a key, if subtle, metaphor for the mindful life—it is a metaphor and also, in a sense, a clue: if we can achieve the traveler's perspective without going far afield, then we might accomplish a kind of enlightenment. Thoreau's interest in mindfulness becomes clear in chapter two of Walden , "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," in which he writes, "Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?" The latter question implies the author's feeling that he is himself merely evolving as an awakened individual, not yet fully awake, or mindful, in his efforts to live "a poetic or divine life" (90). Thoreau proceeds to assert that "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn…. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor" (90). Just what this endeavor might be is not immediately spelled out in the text, but the author does quickly point out the value of focusing on only a few activities or ideas at a time, so as not to let our lives be "frittered away by detail." He writes: "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; … and keep your accounts on your thumb nail" (91). The strong emphasis in the crucial second chapter of Walden is on the importance of waking up and living deliberately through a conscious effort to engage in particular activities that support such awakening. It occurs to me that "travel," or simply making one's way through town with the mindset of a traveler, could be one of these activities.

6 It is in the final chapter of the book, titled "Conclusion," that Thoreau makes clear the relationship between travel and living an attentive life. He begins the chapter by cataloguing the various physical locales throughout North America or around the world to which one might travel—Canada, Ohio, Colorado, and even Tierra del Fuego. But Thoreau states: "Our voyaging is only great-circle sailing, and the doctors prescribe for diseases of the skin merely. One hastens to Southern Africa to chase the giraffe; but surely that is not the game he would be after." What comes next is brief quotation from the seventeenth-century English poet William Habbington (but presented anonymously in Thoreau's text), which might be one of the most significant passages in the entire book:

Direct your eye sight inward, and you'll find A thousand regions in your mind Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be Expert in home-cosmography. (320)

7 This admonition to travel the mysterious territory of one's own mind and master the strange cosmos of the self is actually a challenge to the reader—and probably to the author himself—to focus on self-reflection and small-scale, local movement as if such activities were akin to exploration on a grand, planetary scale. What is really at issue here is not the physical distance of one's journey, but the mental flexibility of one's approach to the world, one's ability to look at the world with a fresh, estranged point of view. Soon after his discussion of the virtues of interior travel, Thoreau explains why he left his simple home at Walden Pond after a few years of experimental living there, writing, "It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves" (323). In other words, no matter what we're doing in life, we can fall into a "beaten track" if we're not careful, thus failing to stay "awake."

8 As I thought about my writing class at the University of Idaho, I wondered how I might design a series of readings and writing exercises for university students that would somehow emulate the Thoreauvian objective of achieving ultra-mindfulness in a local environment. One of the greatest challenges in designing such a class is the fact that it took Thoreau himself many years to develop an attentiveness to his environment and his own emotional rhythms and an efficiency of expression that would enable him to describe such travel-without-travel, and I would have only sixteen weeks to achieve this with my own students. The first task, I decided, was to invite my students into the essential philosophical stance of the class, and I did this by asking my students to read the opening chapter of Walden ("Economy") in which he talks about traveling "a good deal" in his small New England village as well as the second chapter and the conclusion, which reveal the author's enthusiasm (some might even say obsession ) for trying to achieve an awakened condition and which, in the end, suggest that waking up to the meaning of one's life in the world might be best accomplished by attempting the paradoxical feat of becoming "expert in home-cosmography." As I stated it among the objectives for my course titled 36 Views of Moscow Mountain: Or, Traveling a Good Deal—with Open Minds and Notebooks—in a Small Place , one of our goals together (along with practicing nonfiction writing skills and learning about the genre of travel writing) would be to "Cultivate a ‘Thoreauvian' way of appreciating the subtleties of the ordinary world."

Windy. Elms Bare.

9 For me, the elegance and heightened sensitivity of Thoreau's engagement with place is most movingly exemplified in his journal, especially in the 1850s after he's mastered the art of observation and nuanced, efficient description of specific natural phenomena and environmental conditions. His early entries in the journal are abstract mini-essays on such topics as truth, beauty, and "The Poet," but over time the journal notations become so immersed in the direct experience of the more-than-human world, in daily sensory experiences, that the pronoun "I" even drops out of many of these records. Lawrence Buell aptly describes this Thoreauvian mode of expression as "self-relinquishment" (156) in his 1995 book The Environmental Imagination , suggesting such writing "question[s] the authority of the superintending consciousness. As such, it opens up the prospect of a thoroughgoing perceptual breakthrough, suggesting the possibility of a more ecocentric state of being than most of us have dreamed of" (144-45). By the time Thoreau wrote "Windy. Elms bare" (372) as his single entry for October 6 and 7, 1853, he had entered what we might call an "ecocentric zone of consciousness" in his work, attaining the ability to channel his complex perceptions of season change (including meteorology and botany and even his own emotional state) into brief, evocative prose.

10 I certainly do not expect my students to be able to do such writing after only a brief introduction to the course and to Thoreau's own methods of journal writing, but after laying the foundation of the Thoreauvian philosophy of nearby travel and explaining to my students what I call the "building blocks of the personal essay" (description, narration, and exposition), I ask them to engage in a preliminary journal-writing exercise that involves preparing five journal entries, each "a paragraph or two in length," that offer detailed physical descriptions of ordinary phenomena from their lives (plants, birds, buildings, street signs, people, food, etc.), emphasizing shape, color, movement or change, shadow, and sometimes sound, smell, taste, and/or touch. The goal of the journal entries, I tell the students, is to begin to get them thinking about close observation, vivid descriptive language, and the potential to give their later essays in the class an effective texture by balancing more abstract information and ideas with evocative descriptive passages and storytelling.

11 I am currently teaching this class, and I am writing this article in early September, as we are entering the fourth week of the semester. The students have just completed the journal-writing exercise and are now preparing to write the first of five brief essays on different aspects of Moscow that will eventually be braided together, as discrete sections of the longer piece, into a full-scale literary essay about Moscow, Idaho, from the perspective of a traveler. For the journal exercise, my students wrote some rather remarkable descriptive statements, which I think bodes well for their upcoming work. One student, Elizabeth Isakson, wrote stunning journal descriptions of a cup of coffee, her own feet, a lemon, a basil leaf, and a patch of grass. For instance, she wrote:

Steaming hot liquid poured into a mug. No cream, just black. Yet it appears the same brown as excretion. The texture tells another story with meniscus that fades from clear to gold and again brown. The smell is intoxicating for those who are addicted. Sweetness fills the nostrils; bitterness rushes over the tongue. The contrast somehow complements itself. Earthy undertones flower up, yet this beverage is much more satisfying than dirt. When the mug runs dry, specks of dark grounds remain swimming in the sunken meniscus. Steam no longer rises because energy has found a new home.

12 For the grassy lawn, she wrote:

Calico with shades of green, the grass is yellowing. Once vibrant, it's now speckled with straw. Sticking out are tall, seeding dandelions. Still some dips in the ground have maintained thick, soft patches of green. The light dances along falling down from the trees above, creating a stained-glass appearance made from various green shades. The individual blades are stiff enough to stand erect, but they will yield to even slight forces of wind or pressure. Made from several long strands seemingly fused together, some blades fray at the end, appearing brittle. But they do not simply break off; they hold fast to the blade to which they belong.

13 The point of this journal writing is for the students to look closely enough at ordinary reality to feel estranged from it, as if they have never before encountered (or attempted to describe) a cup of coffee or a field of grass—or a lemon or a basil leaf or their own body. Thus, the Thoreauvian objective of practicing home-cosmography begins to take shape. The familiar becomes exotic, note-worthy, and strangely beautiful, just as it often does for the geographical travel writer, whose adventures occur far away from where she or he normally lives. Travel, in a sense, is an antidote to complacency, to over-familiarity. But the premise of my class in Thoreauvian travel writing is that a slight shift of perspective can overcome the complacency we might naturally feel in our home surroundings. To accomplish this we need a certain degree of disorientation. This is the next challenge for our class.

The Blessing of Being Lost

14 Most of us take great pains to "get oriented" and "know where we're going," whether this is while running our daily errands or when thinking about the essential trajectories of our lives. We're often instructed by anxious parents to develop a sense of purpose and a sense of direction, if only for the sake of basic safety. But the traveler operates according to a somewhat different set of priorities, perhaps, elevating adventure and insight above basic comfort and security, at least to some degree. This certainly seems to be the case for the Thoreauvian traveler, or for Thoreau himself. In Walden , he writes:

…not until we are completely lost, or turned round,--for a man needs only be turned round once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost,--do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature. Every man has to learn the points of compass again as often as he awakes, whether from sleep or any abstraction. Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations. (171)

15 I could explicate this passage at length, but that's not really my purpose here. I read this as a celebration of salutary disorientation, of the potential to be lost in such a way as to deepen one's ability to pay attention to oneself and one's surroundings, natural and otherwise. If travel is to a great degree an experience uniquely capable of triggering attentiveness to our own physical and psychological condition, to other cultures and the minds and needs of other people, and to a million small details of our environment that we might take for granted at home but that accrue special significance when we're away, I would argue that much of this attentiveness is owed to the sense of being lost, even the fear of being lost, that often happens when we leave our normal habitat.

16 So in my class I try to help my students "get lost" in a positive way. Here in Moscow, the major local landmark is a place called Moscow Mountain, a forested ridge of land just north of town, running approximately twenty kilometers to the east of the city. Moscow "Mountain" does not really have a single, distinctive peak like a typical mountain—it is, as I say, more of a ridge than a pinnacle. When I began contemplating this class on Thoreauvian travel writing, the central concepts I had in mind were Thoreau's notion of traveling a good deal in Concord and also the idea of looking at a specific place from many different angles. The latter idea is not only Thoreauvian, but perhaps well captured in the eighteen-century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai's series of woodblock prints known as 36 Views of Mt. Fuji , which offers an array of different angles on the mountain itself and on other landscape features (lakes, the sea, forests, clouds, trees, wind) and human behavior which is represented in many of the prints, often with Mt. Fuji in the distant background or off to the side. In fact, I imagine Hokusai's approach to representing Mt. Fuji as so important to the concept of this travel writing class that I call the class "36 Views of Moscow Mountain," symbolizing the multiple approaches I'll be asking my students to take in contemplating and describing not only Moscow Mountain itself, but the culture and landscape and the essential experience of Moscow the town. The idea of using Hokusai's series of prints as a focal point of this class came to me, in part, from reading American studies scholar Cathy Davidson's 36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan , a memoir that offers sixteen short essays about different facets of her life as a visiting professor in that island nation.

17 The first of five brief essays my students will prepare for the class is what I'm calling a "Moscow Mountain descriptive essay," building upon the small descriptive journal entries they've written recently. In this case, though, I am asking the students to describe the shapes and colors of the Moscow Mountain ridge, while also telling a brief story or two about their observations of the mountain, either by visiting the mountain itself to take a walk or a bike ride or by explaining how they glimpse portions of the darkly forested ridge in the distance while walking around the University of Idaho campus or doing things in town. In preparation for the Moscow Mountain essays, we read several essays or book chapters that emphasize "organizing principles" in writing, often the use of particular landscape features, such as trees or mountains, as a literary focal point. For instance, in David Gessner's "Soaring with Castro," from his 2007 book Soaring with Fidel: An Osprey Odyssey from Cape Cod to Cuba and Beyond , he not only refers to La Gran Piedra (a small mountain in southeastern Cuba) as a narrative focal point, but to the osprey, or fish eagle, itself and its migratory journey as an organizing principle for his literary project (203). Likewise, in his essay "I Climb a Tree and Become Dissatisfied with My Lot," Chicago author Leonard Dubkin writes about his decision, as a newly fired journalist, to climb up a tree in Chicago's Lincoln Park to observe and listen to the birds that gather in the green branches in the evening, despite the fact that most adults would consider this a strange and inappropriate activity. We also looked at several of Hokusai's woodblock prints and analyzed these together in class, trying to determine how the mountain served as an organizing principle for each print or whether there were other key features of the prints—clouds, ocean waves, hats and pieces of paper floating in the wind, humans bent over in labor—that dominate the images, with Fuji looking on in the distance.

18 I asked my students to think of Hokusai's representations of Mt. Fuji as aesthetic models, or metaphors, for what they might try to do in their brief (2-3 pages) literary essays about Moscow Mountain. What I soon discovered was that many of my students, even students who have spent their entire lives in Moscow, either were not aware of Moscow Mountain at all or had never actually set foot on the mountain. So we spent half an hour during one class session, walking to a vantage point on the university campus, where I could point out where the mountain is and we could discuss how one might begin to write about such a landscape feature in a literary essay. Although I had thought of the essay describing the mountain as a way of encouraging the students to think about a familiar landscape as an orienting device, I quickly learned that this will be a rather challenging exercise for many of the students, as it will force them to think about an object or a place that is easily visible during their ordinary lives, but that they typically ignore. Paying attention to the mountain, the ridge, will compel them to reorient themselves in this city and think about a background landscape feature that they've been taking for granted until now. I think of this as an act of disorientation or being lost—a process of rethinking their own presence in this town that has a nearby mountain that most of them seldom think about. I believe Thoreau would consider this a good, healthy experience, a way of being present anew in a familiar place.

36 Views—Or, When You Invert Your Head

19 Another key aspect of Hokusai's visual project and Thoreau's literary project is the idea of changing perspective. One can view Mt. Fuji from 36 different points of views, or from thousands of different perspectives, and it is never quite the same place—every perspective is original, fresh, mind-expanding. The impulse to shift perspective in pursuit of mindfulness is also ever-present in Thoreau's work, particularly in his personal journal and in Walden . This idea is particularly evident, to me, in the chapter of Walden titled "The Ponds," where he writes:

Standing on the smooth sandy beach at the east end of the pond, in a calm September afternoon, when a slight haze makes the opposite shore line indistinct, I have seen whence came the expression, "the glassy surface of a lake." When you invert your head, it looks like a thread of finest gossamer stretched across the valley, and gleaming against the distinct pine woods, separating one stratum of the atmosphere from another. (186)

20 Elsewhere in the chapter, Thoreau describes the view of the pond from the top of nearby hills and the shapes and colors of pebbles in the water when viewed from close up. He chances physical perspective again and again throughout the chapter, but it is in the act of looking upside down, actually suggesting that one might invert one's head, that he most vividly conveys the idea of looking at the world in different ways in order to be lost and awakened, just as the traveler to a distant land might feel lost and invigorated by such exposure to an unknown place.

21 After asking students to write their first essay about Moscow Mountain, I give them four additional short essays to write, each two to four pages long. We read short examples of place-based essays, some of them explicitly related to travel, and then the students work on their own essays on similar topics. The second short essay is about food—I call this the "Moscow Meal" essay. We read the final chapter of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006), "The Perfect Meal," and Anthony Bourdain's chapter "Where Cooks Come From" in the book A Cook's Tour (2001) are two of the works we study in preparation for the food essay. The three remaining short essays including a "Moscow People" essay (exploring local characters are important facets of the place), a more philosophical essay about "the concept of Moscow," and a final "Moscow Encounter" essay that tells the story of a dramatic moment of interaction with a person, an animal, a memorable thing to eat or drink, a sunset, or something else. Along the way, we read the work of Wendell Berry, Joan Didion, Barbara Kingsolver, Kim Stafford, Paul Theroux, and other authors. Before each small essay is due, we spend a class session holding small-group workshops, allowing the students to discuss their essays-in-progress with each other and share portions of their manuscripts. The idea is that they will learn about writing even by talking with each other about their essays. In addition to writing about Moscow from various angles, they will learn about additional points of view by considering the angles of insight developed by their fellow students. All of this is the writerly equivalent of "inverting [their] heads."

Beneath the Smooth Skin of Place

22 Aside from Thoreau's writing and Hokusai's images, perhaps the most important writer to provide inspiration for this class is Indiana-based essayist Scott Russell Sanders. Shortly after introducing the students to Thoreau's key ideas in Walden and to the richness of his descriptive writing in the journal, I ask them to read his essay "Buckeye," which first appeared in Sanders's Writing from the Center (1995). "Buckeye" demonstrates the elegant braiding together of descriptive, narrative, and expository/reflective prose, and it also offers a strong argument about the importance of creating literature and art about place—what he refers to as "shared lore" (5)—as a way of articulating the meaning of a place and potentially saving places that would otherwise be exploited for resources, flooded behind dams, or otherwise neglected or damaged. The essay uses many of the essential literary devices, ranging from dialogue to narrative scenes, that I hope my students will practice in their own essays, while also offering a vivid argument in support of the kind of place-based writing the students are working on.

23 Another vital aspect of our work together in this class is the effort to capture the wonderful idiosyncrasies of this place, akin to the idiosyncrasies of any place that we examine closely enough to reveal its unique personality. Sanders's essay "Beneath the Smooth Skin of America," which we study together in Week 9 of the course, addresses this topic poignantly. The author challenges readers to learn the "durable realities" of the places where they live, the details of "watershed, biome, habitat, food-chain, climate, topography, ecosystem and the areas defined by these natural features they call bioregions" (17). "The earth," he writes, "needs fewer tourists and more inhabitants" (16). By Week 9 of the semester, the students have written about Moscow Mountain, about local food, and about local characters, and they are ready at this point to reflect on some of the more philosophical dimensions of living in a small academic village surrounded by farmland and beyond that surrounded by the Cascade mountain range to the West and the Rockies to the East. "We need a richer vocabulary of place" (18), urges Sanders. By this point in the semester, by reading various examples of place-based writing and by practicing their own powers of observation and expression, my students will, I hope, have developed a somewhat richer vocabulary to describe their own experiences in this specific place, a place they've been trying to explore with "open minds and notebooks." Sanders argues that

if we pay attention, we begin to notice patterns in the local landscape. Perceiving those patterns, acquiring names and theories and stories for them, we cease to be tourists and become inhabitants. The bioregional consciousness I am talking about means bearing your place in mind, keeping track of its condition and needs, committing yourself to its care. (18)

24 Many of my students will spend only four or five years in Moscow, long enough to earn a degree before moving back to their hometowns or journeying out into the world in pursuit of jobs or further education. Moscow will be a waystation for some of these student writers, not a permanent home. Yet I am hoping that this semester-long experiment in Thoreauvian attentiveness and place-based writing will infect these young people with both the bioregional consciousness Sanders describes and a broader fascination with place, including the cultural (yes, the human ) dimensions of this and any other place. I feel such a mindfulness will enrich the lives of my students, whether they remain here or move to any other location on the planet or many such locations in succession.

25 Toward the end of "Beneath the Smooth Skin of America," Sanders tells the story of encountering a father with two young daughters near a city park in Bloomington, Indiana, where he lives. Sanders is "grazing" on wild mulberries from a neighborhood tree, and the girls are keen to join him in savoring the local fruit. But their father pulls them away, stating, "Thank you very much, but we never eat anything that grows wild. Never ever." To this Sanders responds: "If you hold by that rule, you will not get sick from eating poison berries, but neither will you be nourished from eating sweet ones. Why not learn to distinguish one from the other? Why feed belly and mind only from packages?" (19-20). By looking at Moscow Mountain—and at Moscow, Idaho, more broadly—from numerous points of view, my students, I hope, will nourish their own bellies and minds with the wild fruit and ideas of this place. I say this while chewing a tart, juicy, and, yes, slightly sweet plum that I pulled from a feral tree in my own Moscow neighborhood yesterday, an emblem of engagement, of being here.

Bibliography

BUELL, Lawrence, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture , Harvard University Press, 1995.

DAVIDSON, Cathy, 36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan , Duke University Press, 2006.

DUBKIN, Leonard, "I Climb a Tree and Become Dissatisfied with My Lot." Enchanted Streets: The Unlikely Adventures of an Urban Nature Lover , Little, Brown and Company, 1947, 34-42.

GESSNER, David, Soaring with Fidel: An Osprey Odyssey from Cape Cod to Cuba and Beyond , Beacon, 2007.

ISAKSON, Elizabeth, "Journals." Assignment for 36 Views of Moscow Mountain (English 208), University of Idaho, Fall 2018.

SANDERS, Scott Russell, "Buckeye" and "Beneath the Smooth Skin of America." Writing from the Center , Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 1-8, 9-21.

SLOVIC, Scott, "Teaching with Wolves", Western American Literature 52.3 (Fall 2017): 323-31.

THOREAU, Henry David, "October 1-20, 1853", Being in the World: An Environmental Reader for Writers , edited by Scott H. Slovic and Terrell F. Dixon, Macmillan, 1993, 371-75.

THOREAU, Henry David, Walden . 1854. Princeton University Press, 1971.

Bibliographical reference

Scott Slovic , “ 36 Views of Moscow Mountain: Teaching Travel Writing and Mindfulness in the Tradition of Hokusai and Thoreau ” ,  Caliban , 59 | 2018, 41-54.

Electronic reference

Scott Slovic , “ 36 Views of Moscow Mountain: Teaching Travel Writing and Mindfulness in the Tradition of Hokusai and Thoreau ” ,  Caliban [Online], 59 | 2018, Online since 01 June 2018 , connection on 13 May 2024 . URL : http://journals.openedition.org/caliban/3688; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/caliban.3688

About the author

Scott slovic.

University of Idaho Scott Slovic is University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Idaho, USA. The author and editor of many books and articles, he edited the journal ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment from 1995 to 2020. His latest coedited book is The Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication  (2019).

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• 62 | 2019 Female Suffrage in British Art, Literature and History
• 61 | 2019 Land’s Furrows and Sorrows in Anglophone Countries
• 60 | 2018 The Life of Forgetting in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century British Literature
• 59 | 2018 Anglophone Travel and Exploration Writing: Meetings Between the Human and Nonhuman
• 58 | 2017 The Mediterranean and its Hinterlands
• 57 | 2017 The Animal Question in Alice Munro's Stories
• 56 | 2016 Disappearances - American literature and arts
• 55 | 2016 Sharing the Planet
• 54 | 2015 Forms of Diplomacy (16 th -21 st century)
• 53 | 2015 Representing World War One: Art’s Response to War
• 52 | 2014 Caliban and his transmutations

Anglophonia/Caliban

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Department of English

M.f.a. creative writing.

English Department

Physical Address: 200 Brink Hall

Mailing Address: English Department University of Idaho 875 Perimeter Drive MS 1102 Moscow, Idaho 83844-1102

Phone: 208-885-6156

Email: [email protected]

Web: English

M.F.A. Students

Raquel Gordon (First Year, Poetry) is a poet from Seattle and has a B.A. in creative writing and dance from the University of Washington. She has performed in music videos, dance films, and choreographed several stage performances including a solo performance in 12 Minutes Max in Seattle. She also loves to sing.

Jason Cahoon (First Year, Fiction) comes from Amherst, Massachusetts. Jason’s work concerns the simultaneous restrictions and empowerments of communal belongingness. He studied English at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Jason taught English at Eaglebrook School, an independent school in Massachusetts. In addition to teaching, Jason served as an editor for The Outlook, the school’s art and literature magazine.

Kathleen Walker (First Year, Nonfiction) grew up in the foothills of South Carolina. Her work explores her childhood spent in rural Appalachia, queerness, witchcraft, and animals both mythical and real. Kathleen was chosen by Nikki Giovanni as the recipient of the 2021 Giovanni-Steger Poetry Prize. Her writing has been published in a variety of publications, including CutBank and Susurrus Magazine.

Annie Burky (First Year, Fiction) calls Colorado home and returns to the West by way of Brooklyn. While earning a M.A. at New York University, she was awarded the Gallatin Review’s prose prize. She writes on gender, religion, and inheritance. She has worked as managing editor at Ms. Mayhem magazine, literacy specialist in Uganda and instructor at China’s Southwest University.

Jennifer Yu (First Year, Fiction) is exploring.

Reid Brown (First Year, Poetry) writes on themes of femininity, mental illness, the human body, and the threads that connect people, place, and memory. She is the Associate Poetry Editor for Fugue. She lives with her husband, Shane, and their kitten BMO, and collects an unhealthy amount of yarn for knitting projects in various states of incompleteness.

Rya Sheppard (First Year, Fiction) is from Kellogg, Idaho. She is a graduate of the University of Idaho where she studied English and creative writing. Rya enjoys coffee shops, painting, and cats of all kinds.

Karissa Carmona (First Year, Poetry) hails from western Montana and writes about rural identity, violence, and surreality in the so-called American West. She is the winner of the 2022 Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry. Prior to University of Idaho, Karissa worked as a bookseller, community arts studio manager, and organizer for a coalition against gendered violence.

Trixie Zwolfer (Second Year, Fiction), is originally from Boise, Idaho. For her undergraduate degree, she attended Montana State University, where she studied writing and literature. She enjoys threading between the reality of our world and the speculative possibility of what it could be in her writing. In her free time, she can be found reading, hiking, and drinking copious amounts of tea.

Tymber Wolf (Second Year, Nonfiction), a Florida Gulf Coast University graduate, is passionate about writing about many things, including philosophy, the environment, personal essays, Judaism, and more. As a Florida native, Tymber is excited to see the environment her namesake inhabits. You can find some of Tymber’s award-winning work in The Mangrove Review. When Tymber isn’t writing, they’re probably doing one (or five) of an indefinite amount of hobbies.

Alicia Gladman (Second Year, Nonfiction), is from Western Canada by way of Chattanooga, Tennessee. She has worked in harm reduction for fourteen years, interested in conversations about accountability and personal freedom. She has a dog, two cats, and a lot of plants.

Maggie Nipps (Second Year, Poetry) is a poet and playwright from Wisconsin. Her work appears in Figure 1, Pinwheel, Sporklet, No Contact, Sip Cup, petrichor, and elsewhere. She co-founded and co-edits Afternoon Visitor, a new quarterly journal of poetry, visual art, hybrid text, and visual art.

Spencer R. Young (Second Year, Poetry) is a queer, genderfluid poet obsessed with identity and its transient borders. Their work, published in Terrain.org, 13th Floor Magazine, and elsewhere, encounters these binaric borders of identity and attempts to envision the space beyond them. Twice nominated for Best New Poets, Spencer holds an MA in Literature and Creative Writing from Kansas State University.

Gianna Marie Starble (Second Year, Fiction) is originally from Colorado and received her undergraduate degree in Professional and Creative Writing from Central Washington University. Her work has appeared in Manastash Literary Journal and The Hunger. In 2020 she won second place for best creative nonfiction piece in the Write On The River competition. When she is not writing, she is probably running with her dog, Blue.

Miriam Akervall (Second Year, Poetry) was born in Lund, Sweden, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For the past six years they lived and worked in high country; most recently, the Idaho Boulder Mountains. Lately, they have been thinking about how memory lives in the body. Their work has appeared in Stone Journal, Ariadne Magazine, Voicemail Poems, and Apiary Magazine.

Emily Holmes (Second Year, Nonfiction) has spent most of her life living in wild places, looking for beauty and adventure. She seeks to connect people to place by telling stories about nature and exploring human relationships to wilderness. While studying rangeland ecology at Montana State University, Emily learned more about ski-bum life, trail running, and environmental advocacy about rangelands. These experiences strongly inform her creative projects.

Alex Connors (Second Year, Fiction) is originally from the north shore of Massachusetts. They attended UMass Amherst, where they studied poetry and social thought. They are working on a collection of short stories that explores the complexities of friendship, family, and queerness within working-class communities. Before coming to the University of Idaho, Alex spent many years as a farmer in western Massachusetts.

Natalie Kinkade  (Third Year, Nonfiction) was born and raised in Bend, Oregon. She writes about art, religion, depression, childhood, and her puppy, Pippin, among other things. Before attending the University of Idaho, she earned an M.A. in English from Ohio University. Her work has appeared in Gulf Coast and The Rumpus and is forthcoming in The Harvard Review.

Michael Harper (Third Year, Fiction; Hemingway Fellow) completed his M.A. in English at the University of Vienna. His work has appeared in The Manzano Mountain Review, Litro Magazine, Decomp Journal, and CafeLit. Prior to the University of Idaho, he taught English as a second language in Europe.

Emma Neal (Third Year, Fiction) was born and raised in Boise, Idaho. She attended Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied creative writing and religion. Currently, she is working on a collection of short stories about young women trying to understand themselves and searching for their communities. Emma enjoys coffee shops, live music, and painting. She taught yoga for two years at Sarah Lawrence College.

Steff Sirois (Third Year, Fiction) is a writer from Connecticut who is currently writing about womanliness, the multiple versions of her Self, and ghosts. Some of her recent work has appeared in Prism Review, LandLocked, and The Washington Post.

Daniel Lurie (Third Year, Poetry) grew up in eastern Montana. He attended Montana State University, Billings, where he received his B.A. in Organizational Communications. Daniel is the Poetry Editor for Fugue. His work has appeared in NewVerseNews, The Palouse Review, and FeverDream. His poem “One Night Only” is stamped into a concrete street in Billings.

Isabel Marlens (Third Year, Nonfiction) grew up in California and Colorado, and studied literature and ecology & evolution at Bennington College. She went on to work in the nonprofit world, writing about local economies and initiatives for community and ecological renewal. She is working on essays that layer the personal with thoughts on literature, psychology, evolutionary theory, history, and politics. She spends most of her free time rock climbing and traversing the rural West.

Christian Perry (Third Year, Nonfiction) is a white, Queer, Midwesterner born and raised in Michigan. They attended Michigan State University, where they studied a myriad of subjects and obtained a B.A. in English/Creative Writing in 2019. In 2020, Christian self-published their undergraduate thesis, thanks. Their free time is often spent playing Nintendo games and going on long walks.

Sam Simmons (Third Year, Fiction) is a writer from California. He is the current web editor for Fugue and teaches first-year composition and introductory creative writing. He is currently at work on a novel.

Cameron Martin (Third Year, Poetry) is a fat and queer writer originally from Michigan. He attended Wayne State University and the University of Idaho, where he studied English. Their writing has appeared in Sonora Review, The Normal School, Palette Poetry, and Afternoon Visitor. He’s currently working on collections of poetry and personal essays. In Moscow, they are one of the co-coordinators of the ‘queer-minded, queer-hearted’ Pop-Up Prose reading series.

Crystal Cox's (Third Year, Poetry) work has appeared in The Shore, Nimrod, Kissing Dynamite, The Bookends Review, and on the Academy of American Poets website. Her poem “Self-Portrait with Dolly Parton” won the 2022 Academy of American Poets University Prize, selected by Andrew Grace. She calls Missouri home.

Katie Ludwig (First Year, Nonfiction) has lived on the Palouse for 18 years. She is a performing singer/songwriter, Mom of 2 teenagers, and Native Plant Landscaper. She does exploratory writing about the Environment, Spiritual Philosophy, Self, Native Practices, and Hard Topics.

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Book News & Features

Ai is contentious among authors. so why are some feeding it their own writing.

Chloe Veltman

The vast majority of authors don't use artificial intelligence as part of their creative process — or at least won't admit to it.

Yet according to a recent poll from the writers' advocacy nonprofit The Authors Guild, 13% said they do use AI, for activities like brainstorming character ideas and creating outlines.

The technology is a vexed topic in the literary world. Many authors are concerned about the use of their copyrighted material in generative AI models. At the same time, some are actively using these technologies — even attempting to train AI models on their own works.

These experiments, though limited, are teaching their authors new things about creativity.

Best known as the author of technology and business-oriented non-fiction books like The Long Tail, lately Chris Anderson has been trying his hand at fiction. Anderson is working on his second novel, about drone warfare.

He says he wants to put generative AI technology to the test.

"I wanted to see whether in fact AI can do more than just help me organize my thoughts, but actually start injecting new thoughts," Anderson says.

Anderson says he fed parts of his first novel into an AI writing platform to help him write this new one. The system surprised him by moving his opening scene from a corporate meeting room to a karaoke bar.

Authors push back on the growing number of AI 'scam' books on Amazon

"And I was like, you know? That could work!" Anderson says. "I ended up writing the scene myself. But the idea was the AI's."

Anderson says he didn't use a single actual word the AI platform generated. The sentences were grammatically correct, he says, but fell way short in terms of replicating his writing style. Although he admits to being disappointed, Anderson says ultimately he's OK with having to do some of the heavy lifting himself: "Maybe that's just the universe telling me that writing actually involves the act of writing."

Training an AI model to imitate style

It's very hard for off-the-shelf AI models like GPT and Claude to emulate contemporary literary authors' styles.

The authors NPR talked with say that's because these models are predominantly trained on content scraped from the Internet like news articles, Wikipedia entries and how-to manuals — standard, non-literary prose.

But some authors, like Sasha Stiles , say they have been able to make these systems suit their stylistic needs.

"There are moments where I do ask my machine collaborator to write something and then I use what's come out verbatim," Stiles says.

The poet and AI researcher says she wanted to make the off-the-shelf AI models she'd been experimenting with for years more responsive to her own poetic voice.

So she started customizing them by inputting her finished poems, drafts, and research notes.

"All with the intention to sort of mentor a bespoke poetic alter ego," Stiles says.

She has collaborated with this bespoke poetic alter ego on a variety of projects, including Technelegy (2021), a volume of poetry published by Black Spring Press; and " Repetae: Again, Again ," a multimedia poem created last year for luxury fashion brand Gucci.

Stiles says working with her AI persona has led her to ask questions about whether what she's doing is in fact poetic, and where the line falls between the human and the machine.

read it again… pic.twitter.com/sAs2xhdufD — Sasha Stiles | AI alter ego Technelegy ✍️🤖 (@sashastiles) November 28, 2023

"It's been really a provocative thing to be able to use these tools to create poetry," she says.

Potential issues come with these experiments

These types of experiments are also provocative in another way. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger says she's not opposed to authors training AI models on their own writing.

"If you're using AI to create derivative works of your own work, that is completely acceptable," Rasenberger says.

Thousands of authors urge AI companies to stop using work without permission

But building an AI system that responds fluently to user prompts requires vast amounts of training data. So the foundational AI models that underpin most of these investigations in literary style may contain copyrighted works.

Rasenberger pointed to the recent wave of lawsuits brought by authors alleging AI companies trained their models on unauthorized copies of articles and books.

"If the output does in fact contain other people's works, that creates real ethical concerns," she says. "Because that you should be getting permission for."

Circumventing ethical problems while being creative

Award-winning speculative fiction writer Ken Liu says he wanted to circumvent these ethical problems, while at the same time creating new aesthetic possibilities using AI.

So the former software engineer and lawyer attempted to train an AI model solely on his own output. He says he fed all of his short stories and novels into the system — and nothing else.

Liu says he knew this approach was doomed to fail.

That's because the entire life's work of any single writer simply doesn't contain enough words to produce a viable so-called large language model.

"I don't care how prolific you are," Liu says. "It's just not going to work."

Liu's AI system built only on his own writing produced predictable results.

"It barely generated any phrases, even," Liu says. "A lot of it was just gibberish."

Yet for Liu, that was the point. He put this gibberish to work in a short story. 50 Things Every AI Working With Humans Should Know , published in Uncanny Magazine in 2020, is a meditation on what it means to be human from the perspective of a machine.

"Dinoted concentration crusch the dead gods," is an example of one line in Liu's story generated by his custom-built AI model. "A man reached the torch for something darker perified it seemed the billboding," is another.

Liu continues to experiment with AI. He says the technology shows promise, but is still very limited. If anything, he says, his experiments have reaffirmed why human art matters.

"So what is the point of experimenting with AIs?" Liu says. "The point for me really is about pushing the boundaries of what is art."

Audio and digital stories edited by Meghan Collins Sullivan .

• large language model
• mary rasenberger
• chris anderson
• sasha stiles
• authors guild

'Chronicles of Culture' Writing Workshop - Wakefield LitFest 2024

A Creative writing workshop to help aspiring writers build confidence in creating short story narratives.

Date and time

About this event.

We will be bringing people together through story making. Uniting young writers by commissioning them to create short stories and funding their dissemination to an audience in printed and audio form.

In a series of free, open workshops, run by professional writers and creatives, any and all young people will develop the skills to help them build the confidence and knowledge to apply for the commissions. The workshops will give insight into how to get inspired, develop ideas and take stories to final drafts.

The workshops will also connect young people to their local heritage by directly linking the workshops and subsequent stories with places of interest in the district as the inspiration for their stories working in partnership with Wakefield Museum. Suitable for ages 14-25

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R.O. Kwon Is Writing Into Desire

By Keziah Weir

All featured products are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Vanity Fair may earn an affiliate commission.

“I’m so obsessed with every word, every comma of a novel, that it was initially hard for me to contemplate letting go,” R.O. Kwon says of the screen adaptation of her best-selling 2018 debut novel, The Incendiaries. “My first reaction for half a day was like, ‘Well, guess I’m just going to learn how to make TV shows.’” But publishing has brimmed with lessons in surrender for the writer. “I was just like, ‘Well, no, I've read exactly one script in my life. I’m not versed in this.’” She relinquished control to two filmmakers whose work she admires. A collaboration between screenwriter Lisa Randolph ( Jessica Jones , Prodigal Son ) and director Kogonada ( Columbus, Pachinko ) is now underway.

She’s found other outlets for her comma tinkering. In 2014, Kwon started writing Exhibit (Riverhead) , and over the intervening decade has polished it so it glitters like a garnet in firelight. “I want the prose to get to a place where I can pick it up at random, read two sentences and not want to change anything about those sentences.” In the novel, a Korean American photographer named Jin finds herself creatively blocked at the same time her husband’s longing to become a father diverges painfully from her own desire to remain childless. An injured ballerina named Lidija, whom she meets at a party, unleashes both an artistic and a sensual awakening.

Kwon, who lives in San Francisco (“the long-term plan is to be here until climate change chases us out”), says that Exhibit bloomed from her longtime appreciation of photography and its “complicated and fraught relationship to reality, and to hanging on to a little bit of time, a little bit of the past” along with a more recently discovered love of dance. While watching a San Francisco Ballet performance of Alexei Ratmansky’s Shostakovich Trilogy, “I had this full body experience while watching, where I thought the dancers’ bodies—like, the cells —were directly talking to my body.” Kwon took introductory photography and ballet classes in an attempt to capture the bodily sensation of creating both art forms.

Earlier this year, Kwon wrote an essay about why she hopes her parents won’t read the book, given its frank depictions of lust and queerness—subjects into which Kwon took an exploratory dip with the best-selling 2021 story anthology Kink, which she co-edited with Garth Greenwell. It comprises fiction that explores desire from such authors as Alexander Chee, Melissa Febos, Roxane Gay, and Chris Kraus. Kwon’s own story, “Safeword,” was first published by Playboy and centers on a man navigating his girlfriend’s newly disclosed submissive sexual desires with a joint visit to a dominatrix.

“One of the strongest antidotes to the deepest kinds of loneliness, the worst shame I have felt, has been the fellowship I have found in literature and other people’s art,” Kwon says. “That's a guiding principle for me in my work. I so badly want to meet other people’s loneliness and other people’s solitude and other people’s shame.”

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Vanity Fair: Where did the book start for you?

R.O. Kwon: One of the first sparks for the book was that I was interested in what, as a woman, I feel allowed and encouraged to want, and what I feel pressured to hide my desire for. I wanted to have women on the page who want a great deal, to see what happens if they're given a space to run after what they desire. Ambition continues to feel like a really fraught thing for, I think especially, my woman artist friends and woman writer friends to even say out loud. Saying the words, "I am an ambitious woman" still feels really dangerous.

Jin, like the narrators in The Incendiaries and in your short story “Safe Word,” was raised Christian and lost their faith, which I know is something that you experienced too. But both of those narrators were white men. Of course, I understand that Jin is fictional, and that you are not Jin, but I am curious about the difference between writing a narrator who feels biographically, on paper, different or more similar to you.

With The Incendiaries, it wasn't as though I walked in telling myself, I'm going to write a book from the point of view of a white man. It was actually initially told from Phoebe, the Korean woman’s point of view, and that ended up changing. I believe very strongly in following the book's desires and needs, and not imposing what I think the book should be.

But with this book, I wanted very much to write from a Korean woman's point of view, and to not let the book morph again, in that way, if at all possible. In retrospect, I thought that maybe part of why that happened with The Incendiaries, it could have been some part of me was trying to protect myself a little. A lot of people seem to assume that Phoebe was a stand-in character for me, which was definitely a little wild because I was like, I haven't bombed an abortion clinic! That was definitely the most common question: How autobiographical was this book? And my goodness, well, I haven't done that.

By Eve Batey

By Kase Wickman

By Bess Levin

I wanted to let myself be much more unprotected in this book. Sex is at the center of this book. And being Korean, ex-Catholic, and ex-Christian, part of the journey of this book has involved some of the most overwhelming anxiety and panic that I've ever experienced in my life.

I'm sorry!

Part of me would just be watching myself and being like, you did this to yourself. Why? No one made you do this. No one made you write this very queer, kinky novel.

It's still true that every cell in my body seems to feel convinced that…honestly, a message I keep hearing is: You're going to be killed. It wasn't that long ago that a Korean woman could be divorced for talking too much. You could be divorced for—this one kills me, I flew into a day’s outrage about this—you could be divorced for moving during sex. And at the time, being divorced was a death sentence. I'm just not that far removed from when that was true. And my body's fully aware that giving any hint to the world that I've ever had sex is such a rule-breaking thing. I'm pretty sure I haven't even told my grandmother I’m queer. I just let her live her life in peace. She almost certainly thinks being queer is an illness. It's just not that uncommon. It's not just my grandmother's generation, at all.

Part of the deep anxiety about this has also come from the ways in which I write about sexuality and kink, especially Jin's sexuality, is that it can be misinterpreted as aligning exactly with some of the most harmful stereotypes about people who look like me. That we’re submissive, hypersexual, compliant, that we’re up for being mistreated. But I do believe that turning away from naming what I feel compelled to name, that itself brings its own harm.

I think a lot about something that my friend Garth Greenwell said. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like, "I'm not writing for people who think I'm disgusting. I'm writing for people who already think I'm beautiful." Jin clearly has very conflicted feelings about her desires, and is working through those conflicted feelings. I hoped that this book would at least in part turn into or turn toward a celebration of our bodies, and a celebration of bodies who are told that we don't get to want what we want.

In talking about her lack of a desire to have a child, Jin says that she can't argue the urge into being, which felt like such a parallel to the surety or lack thereof about faith in God.

That was one obsession of the book, these different ways—with faith, with wanting children or not, with sexual desire, with appetites in general, including for food—that our bodies are so powerful. I haven't been able to—and I've tried—I can't argue myself into believing in a Christian God. Again, I can't argue myself into or out of sexual desire. I am fascinated by the ways in which I haven't been able to ever reason or argue myself out of who I seem to be and what I want and what I believe.

I have friends and loved ones who so desperately want kids. And I know how absolutely, with all my being, I've never had that desire. With Jin and her husband, she, even more adamantly than I do, doesn't want kids. I always said if my partner woke up one day realizing he definitely wants kids, then I've told him, we will work with that and figure something out. But for Jin, it's further along on the spectrum than I am. She's just like, "I can't imagine this." And so there's the profound heartbreak of what do you then do when your life becomes incompatible with someone you love very much?

There’s another love story of sorts—the ghost of a kisaeng starts speaking to Jin.

The kisaeng story, the bare bones of the double suicide, with someone who was going to marry her, that's very loosely based on a family story. It has been fascinating to me, in part, because some of the family stories I've heard most often, and I really haven't heard that many family stories, have to do with people blowing up their lives for love. This became especially personal to me when the conflict that Jin has with her parents, where they didn't want to, where they say, "If you don't have a marriage in the church then we won't come." My parents said that to me. I took a less hard-line position. I’m so not Christian. That said, I thought, if this matters so much to y’all, then all right, whatever. We can have a priest involved.

The kisaeng who plays this large role in my own family's mythology, her name hasn't survived. I plunged into research, which itself started feeling really restrictive, because I just became increasingly obsessed with needing the historical details to be exactly right. And at one point, what became very liberating was I read about Korean men in Korea looking through Korean history and anointing people of the past as queer ancestors, because of all the ways in which queer people are erased from history. That really liberated me. I was like, You know what? We're talking about a ghost, channeled through a shaman, and she can fly. I can make some things up.

One of my biggest pleasures in a book is finding a character from another one of the author’s books—and I got that in The Exhibit, with a visit from the world of The Incendiaries.

There's a part of me that almost believes that an ideal version of a book pre-exists me. And I feel less that I'm making anything up with fiction, and that I’m more working my way toward a book that's already there. Honestly, that feels more reassuring than...

That you're liberating a form rather than having to find it yourself.

That way it’s not the wide open vista of infinite choice, but instead working my way toward liberating, like a sculpture out of a rock. The world of The Incendiaries feels to me as though it almost exists. When I feel extra down about the world, I sometimes turn to quantum physics for consolation, the articles and books that are for lay people. I love reading that there are infinite versions of the world, and in ways that almost exceed language. In The Incendiaries, a world where those abortion clinics were bombed, that version of the world, it seems to exist to me. It still felt so vibrant, that it felt natural for the world of Exhibit to also belong there.

I'm most likely working toward either a trilogy or triptych, or a quartet, of books where they're very loosely connected. But where what happens in the past, in these past books, continues to exist in future books. I think Jin's photos—I mean, who knows, it's early days—I think Jin's photos will show up in the next book.

It sounds like you're already working on that third book.

I'm having more trouble really pulling myself into fiction than I've ever had. It's been really disorienting. It just remains such a central terror, that terror Jin feels in Exhibit , her fear that the photos have left. Because it does happen sometimes. Every now and then, there are artists who just don't ever write again, don't make their art again. I’m so afraid that the words have left. But I'm trying to be patient, and I've been storing up, and I've been collecting accounts of writers who fall into years of quiet, because I know my mind and body are at their best when I’m writing fiction every day. And currently I’m not able to, but I'm trying.

Below, Kwon shares some of the creative inspirations behind Exhibit.

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Mother, Couch Stars Ewan McGregor in Very Weird New Movie with Big Actors

• Check out the trailer for Ewan McGregor and Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn's hilarious dramedy Mother, Couch (above). The film also stars Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, F. Murray Abraham, Lake Bell and Taylor Russell.
• McGregor portrays one of three estranged siblings dealing with their mother's bizarre behavior at a furniture store, leading to an intriguing exploration of family dynamics.
• Film Movement and Memory's Mother, Couch marks the feature film debut for director Niclas Larsson, who also wrote the screenplay.

Ewan McGregor literally has to get his obstinate mother, portrayed by Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn, off the sofa in the upcoming dramedy, Mother, Couch . In fact, Mother’s refusal to get off the furniture store’s couch leads to her three estranged children — portrayed by McGregor, Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle — having to reunite to deal with the family matriarch. This marks the feature film debut for director Niclas Larsson, and Mother, Couch made its world premiere back in September of 2023 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Be sure to watch the brand-new trailer ( above ) and check out Mother, Couch’s synopsis below (per TIFF ):

While David (McGregor) is at a furniture store with his mother (Burstyn), she pulls the tarp off a covered couch and plops herself down. With a mountain of obligations waiting around the corner, hes anxious to leave, but she refuses to get up. Davids brother Gruffudd (Ifans) and sister Linda (Flynn Boyle) seem less bothered about the situation, casually tending to matters that seem infuriatingly unimportant."

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In addition to TIFF, McGregor's upcoming dramedy also played at the San Sebastián International Film Festival (Nominated New Directors Award), Göteborg Film Festival (Winner Best Nordic Film), Glasgow Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival. Mother, Couch's synopsis continues as follows:

"David becomes pushy while trying his best to be gentle, recognizing that his mothers odd behavior may be a sign of psychosis. As hes forced to take a step back, acquainting himself with the store owner (F. Murray Abraham) and his daughter (Taylor Russell), the stress dream starts to expand around him. Why wont his mother just tell him whats wrong? And why were they here in the first place?

Check Out Brand-New Images from Ewan McGregors Mother, Couch

Ewan McGregor recently surprised Star Wars fans when he showed up at a 25th anniversary screening of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace in Atlanta. And while it shouldn’t shock anyone, given McGregor’s enormous talents and acting range, his character of David in Mother, Couch is quite different from that of Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi. Mother, Couch is based on the 2020 book, Mamma i soffa, written by Jerker Virdborg, and be sure to check out images of McGregor and his castmates from Mother, Couch (above).

Niclas Larsson also serves as the writer of his directorial debut. Ella Bishop and Pau Suris (Suris/Bishop Films), Alex Black (Lyrical Media) and Sara Murphy (Fat City) are credited as producers on Mother, Couch . McGregor pulls double duty as one of the dramedy’s executive producers. The other EPs include Jon Rosenberg and Natalie Sellers (Lyrical Media), Ryan Zacarias (Fat City) and David Harari.

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Could this end up ranking among Ewan McGregor’s best films? Only time will tell. Mother, Couch opens in select cinemas beginning on July 5 and will be available to view at home on September 13. Mother, Couch’s first stop is scheduled for the Angelika Film Center & Café in New York City. For additional venues, please visit Film Movement’s official website now.

At the time of this writing, McGregor's dramedy Mother, Couch registers 36% on the Tomatometer against 14 reviews from the critics submitted on Rotten Tomatoes.

• International

The latest on the massive solar storm

By Angela Fritz, Elise Hammond and Chris Lau, CNN

Incredible lighthouse picture from Maine

From CNN's Chris Lau

Among a flurry of surreal images capturing the dazzling auroras is one taken by Benjamin Williamson of a lighthouse in Portland, Maine.

"It's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen, the awe and wonder," Williamson told CNN.

He said he used a long-exposure technique to snap the shot, but did not edit it.

Watch the full interview with Williamson here .

Things could be about to ramp up

If you still haven't seen the aurora, hold on for another 30 minutes to an hour, according to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

The next wave of coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which cause the aurora, is about to arrive, he said.

"Just wait a minute because things are going to start to ramp up here," he said, adding that the increase could arrive "anytime now." "When it comes, get outside, get ready, put your coat on."

For those who are too busy to witness the phenomenon tonight, Myers said the aurora is expected to last three nights.

Why does the aurora last for a weekend?

By CNN's Chris Lau

Generally, it takes just eight minutes for light to travel 93 million miles to the Earth from the sun, but astrophysicist Janna Levin said the energized particles causing the current wave of aurora travel a lot slower, causing the phenomenon to last for the weekend.

"Some of these mass ejections are trillions of kilograms," she said. "They're slower. So they're taking longer, but still hours, maybe tens of hours."

Here's how the solar storm looks in the South and on the East Coast

The aurora was visible across the East Coast and in the South Friday.

Here's how it looked in Chester, South Carolina.

Down in Florida, waves of color swam through the sky.

Up north in New Jersey, a purple-ish haze could be seen in the sky.

Will solar storms get more intense and risky in the future?

The answer is probably not in the short term, according to astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi.

He said scientists study what is constantly happening on the surface of the sun and have found a pattern.

“Geological data shows us that in the past the sun was way more active than it is today. It has cycles where it goes very quiet ... and you have events that show that the solar activity was much, much greater,” he told CNN. “So there's no evidence that we're going to see those big maxima this cycle." 

But the astrophysicist also spoke of a caveat - the limitations of modern science.

“Even though it's predictable in the short term, we still don't quite understand what creates the magnetic fields in the sun,” he said, adding: “That's why NASA has so many satellites looking at the sun.”

In Pictures: Auroras light the sky during rare solar storm

From CNN Digital's Photo Team

A series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun are creating dazzling auroras across the globe .

The rare solar storm may also disrupt communications. The last time a solar storm of this magnitude reached Earth was in October 2003, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center.

See more photos of the aurora from tonight.

Behind dazzling aurora could lie “real danger,” Bill Nye the Science Guy says

The massive solar storm could present “a real danger,” especially with the modern world relying so much on electricity, according to Bill Nye the Science Guy , a science educator and engineer.

Scientists are warning an increase in solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun have the potential to disrupt communication on Earth into the weekend. Solar flares can affect communications and GPS almost immediately because they disrupt Earth’s ionosphere, or part of the upper atmosphere. Energetic particles released by the sun can also disrupt electronics on spacecraft and affect astronauts without proper protection within 20 minutes to several hours.

In comparison to tonight's event, Nye drew comparisons with another incident in 1859, known as the Carrington Event, when telegraph communications were severely affected.

“The other thing, everybody, that is a real danger to our technological society, different from 1859, is how much we depend on electricity and our electronics and so on,” Nye said. "None of us really in the developed world could go very long without electricity."

He noted that there are systems in place to minimize the impact, but “stuff might go wrong,” stressing that not all transformers are equipped to withstand such a solar event.

“It depends on the strength of the event and it depends on how much of our infrastructures are prepared for this the sort of thing,” he said.

Bill Nye breaks down significance of the solar storm | CNN

This post has been updated with more details on solar flares' impact on electronics.

Here's where clouds will block the view of the northern lights in the US

From CNN's Angela Fritz

After an incredibly stormy week, most of the Lower 48 has clear skies to see the northern lights. But there are some areas where clouds and rainy weather are spoiling the view.

A deck of clouds is blocking the sky in the Northeast, from parts of Virginia into Maine, as an area of low pressure spins off the East Coast.

In the Midwest, the aurora will be hard to see through thick clouds in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan — including the Upper Peninsula — and Illinois.

A stripe of clouds is tracking across Texas, including Dallas-Forth Worth, and into Louisiana.

And in the Southwest, patchy clouds across the the Four Corners region could make the northern lights difficult to spot.

Aurora seen at least as far south as Georgia

Barely visible to the naked eye, the aurora can be seen in Atlanta in the 10 p.m. ET hour. 

It is easier to see through photographs using a long exposure. The photos below, taken by CNN's Eric Zerkel and Emily Smith, used 3- and 10-second exposures.

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