The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 12 November 2010

Hah! I thought I had almost gotten my sinuses dried up, when last evening I walked in the door of our apartment, sat down, and started sneezing! Spent the evening dripping, and teased my wife that I was getting allergic to home.

By this morning, the weather had turned into a cold, rainy slog, which seems to have been the trigger for my sinuses deciding to run again (not that it takes much to trigger them right now). Needless to say, this made the day a bit of a dreary one. Read a little on the computer screen, blow nose, sniffle, run the mouse, see what the dictation software makes of a stuffy nose? sniffle, grab another tissue, blow nose. Hold head where sinuses are aching. What was I doing, again? Oh, yeah. Sniff. Blow nose. What?

Aha! Over here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/143808.html the old posting suggests thinking about weather. Of course, one is likely to fall into the pathetic fallacy, having a storm when they're arguing, sunny skies when times are good, and so forth, but you can always use the blue sky and glowing clouds to remind us of beauty in the midst of the fight or some such. After all, you might notice the wonderful color of the leaves in the fall, or play games with revealing the seasons through various typical bits and pices (the faint green poking through winter's brown in spring, the rush of corn growing in summer, the pumpkins of Halloween, or even the snowy winter?). Heck, even people in Los Angeles and San Diego sometimes remember what weather is. And as for the extremes of hurricanes, tornadoes, and what not, they can hit almost anywhere, and provide a whole different twist to the story. The two men that thought fighting over lawn care was so important might learn something when the tornado brings down a tree across their houses? or not.

And, of course, weather has effects. When the snow drifts, even people with an SUV and four-wheel drive are likely to find getting places a bit slower and more complicated than usual. Or perhaps the rain makes sinuses run?

Who knows? But when you're thinking about setting, especially if your characters have to go outside from time to time, you might think about the weather. Let your character get dressed up, raincoat, umbrella, galoshes, and all that good stuff. Or have Joe come running in from the outside, drenched, without thinking about it because he was worried about what he would find inside?

Interesting thought. I know that the pathetic fallacy is having the weather reflect the character's emotions. But I have to admit, rainy days certainly don't help me feel cheerful, while a bright sunny day can lift my spirits. Why isn't that a fallacy? I guess there's a question of causality -- while the weather isn't likely to respond to my feelings, no matter how I may wish that it would, it is pretty easy to see that our feelings often do reflect the weather.

Maybe that's why people think the moon influences werewolves and other shapeshifters? After all, just because the moon doesn't change phase when a shapeshifter shifts, doesn't mean that the shapeshifter won't respond to the waxing and waning up above, now does it?

Go ahead, write!

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)