My novels are all set in summertime, my favorite season. In Promiscuous Mode, (a computer term) my
work in process, the protagonist, Laura, is consumed by problems and conflicts.
Weather symbolizes her issues. Just after she finds out the man who hired her
is dead, she encounters his funeral procession in the rain. More rain pours
down when a lowlife character is snooping on her life. Another incident is a
thunderstorm on a lake when Laura is fishing with a friend and his daughter. They
find an old boathouse to shelter in and of course something happens. More
conflict, more problems. During another storm, someone snoops around the house
where Laura has gone to keep a frightened young woman company. My husband says
the North Woods have never had such a rainy summer.
In Festival Madness,
the heat and dust at the Burning Man Festival echo the problems for main
character Emma. A pea soup early morning fog in the Adirondacks delays the
characters from their floatplane trip. Weather worms its way into
everything.
I use fog in World of
Mirrors, as well. A thick blanket of it fog hovers over the Baltic, and my
characters must cross the shipping lanes in a tiny sailboat with no wind and a
noisy motor. Bad guys are searching for them. Nothing good happens. I almost
scared myself writing those scenes.
My only novel with a winter scene is The Shadow Warriors. The protagonist passes information on a park
bench in the Boston Public Garden on a frigid day. No swan boats, no flowers,
just danger and drama. That’s good isn’t it?
Characters freezing, sweating, wet, bedraggled,
suffering. That’s what we like in
fiction. And the story can turn. Remember the thousands of daffodils that
became the first sign of spring in Dr. Zhivago? What a welcome sight after a
Russian winter.
Make weather an antagonist in your fiction, and you have
build-in drama and conflict. Man against nature. Hasn’t it always been that
way?
See what these bloggers have to say about weather and fiction.
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.
Helena Fairfax http://helenafairfax.com/
Dr. Bob Rich http://wp.me/p3Xihq-EP
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.
Kay Sisk http://kaysisk.blogspot.com
Rhobin Courtright http://www.
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.
Helena Fairfax http://helenafairfax.com/
Dr. Bob Rich http://wp.me/p3Xihq-EP
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.
Kay Sisk http://kaysisk.blogspot.com
Rhobin Courtright http://www.
Posts
You've used the weather a lot, but sounds great, and yes it is man against nature.
ReplyDeleteMan against nature is one of the themes to create conflict I taught to Introductory Creative Writing students. They amazed me every time with their inventiveness!
ReplyDeleteI've used fog as well. Once as cover for a man bringing contraband into Boston Harbor when the British were occupying the city and trying to strangle the citizens into submission. And now that I think of it, that's kind of symbolism as well - keeping things better not seen under a cloak of fog.
ReplyDeleteGood post. You use weather well in your writing and it sounds like you've used all kinds of weather to emphasize different points.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I liked the bit about man against nature; that's one of the building blocks we always learn at school. Weather is a force we have very little control over, so it's almost the worst villain a book can have!
ReplyDeleteHi Victoria, You have used weather a lot, but all to good effect. It is a fact of life that persistent bad weather affects our mood. anne stenhouse
ReplyDeleteJudith, Sorry, where did I get Victoria? Anne
ReplyDelete