By Annette Dashofy
As I write this, I’m sitting at my desk, looking out my window at the drab, pale gray sky, the stark leafless trees, and the rain dripping off the gutters on my garage. It’s late January, so the only color is the green steel roof of said garage.
On the other hand, the book I’m writing is set in July, so my characters are dealing with heat and humidity.
All of these thoughts about weather have me pondering a question, which occasionally comes up in conversations with other writers. How important, if at all, is the weather in your books? I was stunned the first time I was told that I shouldn’t include mentions of it.
Seriously?
I grew up on a farm, and keeping a weather eye out, listening to each day’s forecast, was vital to success. You’ve heard the saying, “Make hay when the sun shines.” When a farmer cuts hay, it needs to have a couple of days to dry. After the first day, the farmer uses a “rake” pulled by his tractor to turn the cut grass and let the other side dry. Only then can it be safely baled. Damp baled hay molds. Even worse, the moisture ferments, causes heat, and can combust. Barns have burned to the ground as a result. Hence, we had to wait for a string of dry days to get out into the fields and mow.
One of my series is set in farm country. In the other, both main characters spent their youth on farms. It only makes sense that they are observant about the weather.
Beyond that, weather creates some amazing obstacles for our characters. Icy roads hinder pursuits. Snowstorms blanket crime scenes. Rainstorms wash away evidence. I pulled out all the weather stops for last year’s twelfth Zoe Chambers Mystery, Helpless, when I set a downgraded hurricane loose on Monongahela County at the same time a killer came to town. Flooded roads hindered the police and the killer. Torrential rainfall and high winds played havoc at every stage of the story.
I admit, I wouldn’t want to write that kind of tale every time. But the storm definitely raised the stakes for my characters.
I also enjoy reading books in which the weather plays a big role. I’ve always said two of my favorite authors are Julia Spencer Fleming and Craig Johnson. Both of their series frequently find our heroes dealing with blizzards and other inclement weather.
Is it just me? Fellow writers, do you include the climate in your stories? Or do you think the weather detracts from the tale? Readers, how about you? Would you rather not hear about the rain pelting Zoe’s ball cap or temperatures so cold that her eyelashes freeze? Or are you like me and enjoy shivering right along with the protagonist?
Like all tools, weather can be good or bad. If I'm hearing about it for paragraphs on end, and it's slowing the book down, that's a bad thing. I've read that, but it is rare.
ReplyDeleteBut if it enhances the setting and sense of time and place, I'm all for it. I've read books that made me sweat in winter and shiver in summer, and loved them.
And I enjoy books where the weather becomes another antagonists for the characters to overcome. I wouldn't want a steady diet of them, but I enjoy them when they are done well.
I agree 100%, Mark
DeleteOne of the first things I after I started writing fiction as an adult was to use weather only in the service of the story. It can be used well, and it can be necessary, but it's not a gratuitous thing to throw in.
ReplyDeleteYou do it beautifully, Annette, and I agree about Julia Spencer Fleming as well
Thanks so much, Edith.
DeleteWeather plays such a huge role in several of your stories I enjoyed reading. HELPLESS certainly stands out with the hurricane & floods. Another one I remember reading is a Christmas short story involving an ice storm, a colicky horse and a mother going into labor at Zoe's home after crashing the couple crashes their car nearby.
ReplyDeleteGrace, that was one of my favorite short stories! And talk about life imitating art! Days after I finished writing it, we got hit by a major ice storm with power outages. Thankfully, there were no mothers in labor or collicky horses in the real version!
DeleteOh boy, that is no fun. Ottawa gets plenty of freezing rain. We got 2 rounds of the icy stuff on Thursday & Friday. Treacherous roads & sidewalks but fortunately we did not lose power.
DeleteGrace, I can withstand ANYTHING as long as the power stays on! :-)
Delete"You should never" when it comes to writing rarely means you should never. It's more of a caution that many newer writers tend to overdo it, so one should use as appropriate -- and as Edith said -- only to serve the story. The same can be said of all description, dialog, etc.
ReplyDeleteIn my third Seamus McCree, Cabin Fever, weather and dealing with it was a central issue and a metaphor for Seamus's mental state.
Which is a perfect reason for including it, Jim.
DeleteI'm with Mark. Weather can be overdone. But in skillful hands, it adds to the story.
ReplyDeleteI used a snowstorm at the end of HEAVEN HAS NO RAGE to impede both the villain and protagonist in their goals.
Weather can definitely through a monkey wrench into our characters' lives!
DeleteThe story beginning that one suspects was targeted by the admonition about weather:
ReplyDeleteIt 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.
Of course, Snoopy used it to great advantage with the opening of his never-quite-finished novel:
“It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed. Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up."
Hahahaha!!!
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ReplyDeleteSince I tend to set my stories in place of extreme weather (Florida and northern Maine) the weather is a voiceless character, source of conflict, and of tension. As a reader, I love well-handled weather scenes. It’s a shorthand for how the characters handle life. And speaking of Julia Spencer Fleming – I bought her first book for it’s cover. Temps in FL were approaching 100 with 100% humidity, I was in Barnes & Noble and spotted Through the Evil Days. The snow-covered roofs dropped my mental temperature by ten degrees. I bought the book and became a huge fan. Hum…weather as a marketing tool?
ReplyDeleteShe has great covers! And while I hadn't thought of it as a marketing tool, hey, why not?! ;-)
DeleteI think "you should never" means unless you do it right - which you certainly do. To me, weather belongs where it belongs. A beach or snowstorm story need it. Receiving a phone call in a locked room, perhaps not so much. Sometimes, it simply is the subtle thing that helps with a story's twist... at least I found that to be the case in a story I wrote years ago for an anthology titled, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night --- my story, Grandma's Tears needed a reference to weather, but only for a line, but it made the difference in the twist.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Debra.
DeleteMaybe I'm an outlier, but I almost always enjoy weather in books. It drops me directly into the setting. And, as mentioned, some books rely on the weather as a plot device. What would THE SHINING have been without weather??
ReplyDeleteI've heard THE SHINING mentioned every time I bring up this subject, Lori. It's a great example.
DeleteMy current WIP takes place in January, in Ohio, with three feet of snow on the ground. Snow, ice, sleet, graupel. Cars are the color of road salt. Everybody wears a parka and boots with a tread sole.
ReplyDeleteI love that, Margaret. It plants me right there in the setting. Speaking of...I need to run my car through the carwash.
DeleteI think weather is very important to setting. December and January is not the same in say, Minnesota or Alabama, and neither are July and August, for example. Lilacs don't bloom in Alabama naturally, but they do further north. People in different regions have different reactions to specific weather events. An inch of snow somewhere up North causes people to shrug their shoulders and go on with life. Here in Birmingham, a forecast of an inch of snow sends people flooding to the grocery store for bread and milk and schools closing in droves.
ReplyDeleteVery true, Nancy. Weather can give readers a good look at our characters through their reactions to adverse conditions.
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