Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Weather

Simon wrote an excellent post yesterday on the snow. Etherial, magical, poetic, beautiful. I, unfortunately had to shovel my driveway, up hill, and so didn't find it quite so magical.

Do you write the weather when you write your stories? Is it raining, is it cold, is it humid and sunny? Is it important? Do you care if your MC's are cold, wet, hot, sweaty, hypothermic?

Do you find that you imitate the weather where you are? If it's nice outside, is your MC outside? If it's raining, is it raining where they are? Do you care if they don't have an umbrella in a hurricane?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's much easier to wax poetic about snow when it doesn't amount to more than a couple of inches, then melts the next morning... ;)

Anne Gallagher said...

I hear you. I loved snow when I lived on the beach. Talk about etherial, magical and poetic. Especially when the chill caused blue ice to form on the shore. Unreal.

sarahjayne smythe said...

By this point in the year I hate snow and cold. I'm ready for them both to be gone.

Even so, sometimes there will be a snowfall or an ice storm that creates such beauty I can't help but stare in wonder.

But for the most part I don't write my weather when I write. My characters are hot or cold or wet or dry or inside or out if they need to be in the story independent of what is going on around me.

Anne Gallagher said...

Living here in North Carolina now, the seasons are not the same as they were in Rhode Island. Last week we had temps in the 60's after 4 weeks of 20's. Yesterday we had 10" of snow. I cannot wait for spring. I must be getting old.

Sarah Ahiers said...

i'm with Sarah J (such and awesome awesome name ;D ) I don't write my own weather in my stories. It's cold here in MN, but my WIP takes place in the summer months.
i MAY write the opposite weather though, so if it's hot i make it cold and if i'm cold i make my characters hot, but that just may be coincidental

Unspoken said...

I use weather all the time!

Kelsey (Dominique) Ridge said...

I write the weather when it suits. If my MC is walking home, the weather determines her actions and her garb. In my current WIP, a series of events are set in motion by my MC being trapped outside in a downpour. Weather shouldn't be overlooked as a plot device, an aspect of setting, or generally useful information in a story.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

I use weather a lot in my writing. I think I did in Monarch? Did I? My brain's not all here today. I'll post why later.

Anne Gallagher said...

Hey thanks you guys for all the feedback. It's great to know I'm not the only one who plays at Mother Nature.

As Dominique says, "Weather shouldn't be overlooked as a plot device, an aspect of setting, or generally useful information in a story."