TECH: Nanowrimo Notes #12: Weather

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Nanowrimo?

Just thinking about something that I notice about various stories -- they don't seem to have any weather? Sometimes they don't even have climate? I suppose it's part of the setting, but stop and think about what kind of weather your characters are dealing with. If it's winter and they have snow -- now you've got shoveling snow, driving on the snow, listening to the radio or TV news to find out what's open and what's closed, and just the little chore of putting on coats and gloves and scarves and hats -- as well as taking them off and hanging them up when you go in somewhere. Even in the summer, sometimes they may run into rain, fog, and other wonderful weather? What about sunburn!

Now, you may not live in the place that your story is set, but you can find out about the climate. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_California and there's a bunch of fun stuff. Monthly temperatures, some discussion of the rain (what, it rains in California?), and some of the special terms used in that area. Santa Ana winds, Pineapple Express (whoops, it pours sometimes in California), the Tule fog, June Gloom and the Marine layter, and the queasy worries about earthquake weather. Or drill down to San Francisco, Los Angeles, or even San Diego? Poke around, lots of information about weather out there.

Let's see, you're not quite sure what to have? Okay, pick a number from one to six. Here's what you picked:

1. Wind
2. Cloud
3. Rain
4. Snow
5. Fog
6. Dust storm

Feel free to extend your choice to the disasters, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, ice storms, hail, and so forth. Do think a bit about where your story takes place before tossing in the odd disaster, though -- for example, there are very few typhoons in the wheatfields of Kansas, although you do get tornadoes. And I suppose you could have a rain of frogs, if you insist.

Or you could wander over here http://www.almanac.com/weather/ and pick the area to get a two-month prediction about the weather. Probably plenty for your story.

Anyway, put some climate and weather into your story, to make the setting a bit more real. Remember, it doesn't pay to argue with the weather, but everyone has to deal with it. So make sure your characters have their rubber boots, umbrellas, coats, and all the other gear to struggle with -- and get a sunburn when the time is right, too. But don't have them just walking through never-changing perfection, unless they've gone to Valhalla. I mean, even if the whole story takes place in the dining room, someone might glance outside and notice that there is rain on the windows?

(400 words plus a few)