What if your story is real?
Weekly Writing Prompt No. 61
Hello everyone, and welcome to the weekly writing prompt.
For those new to The Writing Shed, the weekly writing prompt is the core of my activity here on Substack. Paid members can find an archive of courses I’ve created and access all past writing prompts, flash fiction attempts, and essays in The Index.
So have fun, enjoy the process, and write heaps.
In 1935 Erwin Schrödinger wrote a paper in response to questions about quantum mechanics originally posed by Albert Einstein. The paper titled, The Current Situation in Quantum Mechanics included a thought experiment involving an unassuming cat placed in a sealed box alongside the means of its potential demise. (By the way, there is no need to call the RSPCA, no cat was ever killed!)
According to Niels Bohr, and other physicists at the time, it was impossible to know if the cat was alive or dead until the box had been opened, and someone had looked inside. That something could be in more than one state at the same time; in this case, living or deceased is known as superposition; and the act of opening the box is known as the observer effect.
The point of Schrödinger’s thought experiment though was to demonstrate that the supposed quantum state of superposition was broadly nonsensical in our day-to-day experience of life on earth; the cat was either alive or it was dead, regardless of whether anyone looked or not!
However, since the early part of this century, experiments in labs around the world have begun to show that the original idea of superposition is valid in both the subatomic and real world.
The reason I bring this up is because it introduces an intriguing question, that of parallel universes that accommodate every possible outcome. If we think deeply about our own lives it becomes obvious that whenever we make a decision, other options to make different decisions disappear.
It doesn’t mean that you don’t necessarily get to change your mind, but that is in a future that is not yet visible. In the present moment, at the point of decision-making, other options collapse because you have effectively become the ‘observer’ and collapsing all superpositions into one, the one you chose.
The Prompt
Imagine if every story you told, paragraph you wrote, or poem you crafted came to life in another world or dimension. If every decision your characters made was simply one door chosen of many possibilities, but all those possibilities also existed at the same time in other dimensions or worlds.
What story would you tell?
Please share your poetry or prose in the comments below, I love to see how differently each prompt is approached, and a wide variety of responses demonstrates possibilities to the rest of us we might not have thought of.
Remember, you never know where today’s prompt may take you in the future!
Reflect
I include a reflection opportunity with every writing prompt. Personally, it helps me to write them longhand in my bullet journal as the act of moving my hand across a page seems to create a deeper connection to my inner world. You might like to do the same to see how differently it feels, especially if you write predominantly with a device.
Perhaps more importantly, which story would you wish had never been crafted, by you or anyone else, and why?
As a coach, mentor, and counsellor I work with many people on very different journeys. Some hope to write a best-selling book, while others simply want to be healthier and happier. Each person has a unique way of starting the inner work this requires. If you’re a writer who wants to manifest your writing hopes and dreams from the practical and pragmatic to the esoteric and spiritual, or who would like to clear any subconscious self-sabotage you may be experiencing, why not work with me? To find out more head over to my website by clicking the button below.
The Weekly Newsletter
Something to watch ..
The Weekly Writing Competition
Jenny Brown Associates Over 50 Award is for, guess what, yes that’s right, authors who are 50 or over on 31st May 2024. It is for debut authors who are unrepresented and have written their first (unpublished) novel.
Entry is free and the prize is a free place on a residential writing course at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre, and £1,000. You can find out more on the Jenny Brown Associates website here: https://jennybrownassociates.com/over-50-award-faq
With love, light, and laughter
Linda
x
(Image by Charles Betito from Pixabay)
On Fashion Shows (or how we grows)
Forget the clothes
We're over those
They just don't matter
Even if fatter
Than average, I suppose.
Forget the clothes
We're over those
Though if you're thinner
Then your dinner
May just show, I s'pose.
Forget the clothes
We're over those
If young be bold!
(More circumspect if old,
Or can no longer touch your toes)
Forget the clothes
On cat walks pose:
Where feet are bare,
No underwear,
Just twixt your cheeks a rose!
Forget the clothes in fashion shows
No overdose - We're over those!
Forget the clothes, the clothes, the clothes
We're over, over, over those(Fading)
Here’s the thing about the cat. It was a cat. And cats love boxes. I know, I have numerous pictures of Felix in boxes. He wasn’t Schrödinger’s cat. Perhaps if he had been, he might have been more wary of which boxes he chose. Certainly, he avoided those box-like thinks with handles and grated gates that could be locked that invariably meant a visit to the vet. But any cardboard packaging was a playground, a hidey-hole, a warren, a den, a curl-up comfort space.
Cat’s are witchery animals. They have wisdom and good instinct. So the thing is, Schrödinger’s experiment focussed on the wrong things. It just proved he knew more about physics than he did about cats. The question was never about whether the cat was alive or dead – the question was about whether the cat allowed itself to be sealed in at all, or whether it scratched its way out the second it saw the death-potion.
I’d bank on the former, but it could be the latter. Either way the cat lives. Either way the observer gets lots of new scratches. Either way, I’d rather be the cat.