Weather or not? by KM Rockwood

Elmore Leonard has presented writers with a set of rules to follow in modern fiction. The first rule of writing is “Never open a book with weather.” I suspect he had in mind openings like the infamous beginning to Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton’s 1830 novel Paul Clifford, the tale of a gentleman-criminal, which was actually quite well received when it was released.

He begins the book with this now-iconic sentence:

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

In honor of Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, the aptly named Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest has, since 1982, “challenged participants to write an atrocious opening to the worst novel never written.”

Information can be found at www.bulwer-lytton.com, where the “www” stands for “wretched writers welcome.”

And most of us are familiar with Snoopy, sitting on the roof of his doghouse with his typewriter, taking yet another stab at his novel, which begins, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Snoopy often follows it with another iconic sentence: “Suddenly, a shot rang out.”

But weather can play a tremendous role in a novel, sometimes rising to enough prominence to be a character is the story.

What would Wuthering Heights be without the winds sweeping the moors, and the storm which requires Mr. Lockwood to stay overnight, where he reads Catherine’s diary? 

Or Jack London’s tales without the unforgiving arctic weather? Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter centers around the town of De Smet in Dakota Territory, which, in the brutal winter of 1880-1881, is isolated by blizzards and the citizens face starvation.

Some “locked room” mysteries, like Agatha Christie’s Three Blind Mice, originate with a blizzard which strands a finite group of potential victims and perpetrators.

Ann Cleeves’ The Darkest Evening, a Vera Stanhope novel, is a more recent example of a story which revolves around a blizzard which limits the field of suspects.

As with any convention in writing, Elmore Leonard’s rule is something authors need to know how to use and understand what it is meant to accomplish.

Once these rules are mastered, the writer is in a position to both implement it and make exceptions.

I sit here facing the 4^th weekend in a row when my plans have fallen victim to potential stormy weather. How does weather affect your plans and your writing?