How to Avoid Clichés When Writing the Weather
How writing the weather into your scenes can affect your characters and scenes. Play with contrast and form but do try to avoid the clichés.
View of Mackenzie Beach, Tofino. Photo: Tanya Clarke 2017
In the Lower Air
How's the weather where you are?
Here in British Columbia, we’ve sweated through 40+C temperatures due to a heat dome that hugged the Pacific Northwest a month ago. The resulting wildfires destroyed a small town north of Vancouver, burning through it in less than an hour.
Elsewhere in the world, there's been torrential rain and devastating flooding. These extremes in weather affect our mood, our health and ultimately, our survival.
Write the Weather
This week, let's write the weather into our scenes. The type of weather provides a setting for your story, positioning your characters in a place physically and emotionally. An ordinary day might signify nothing extraordinary. And yet it might. You could play with the contrast here. For example, a body found on a bright sunny day or a wedding on a beach in the rain.
You could try placing your characters in weather situations unfamiliar for them. How they respond will impact their decisions. In turn, this will change the direction of your story in a way you might not have expected it to go.
Think about how the weather affects your characters physically. Try standing outside. Right now. How is it? Is it hot? If it is, do you find it comfortable or are you desperate for shade? What is happening to your body? Are you relaxed or tense? What sensations are coming up for you as you stand there?
Maybe the wind has picked up and a storm is on its way. Don't stay outside if it's unsafe! The temperature has dropped and clouds are gathering on the horizon. Does the change in atmospheric pressure shift something in your body? Does your head begin to ache? Can you sense the electricity in the air? Do you feel excited or nervous?
How about travelling somewhere in extreme weather where there's a sudden storm of rain or snow or hail. If you're driving through it, how does that feel? Are you scared? How does your body feel? Do you feel in control? Do you slow down or stop? What would your character do?
Avoid Those Clichés
Try to find unexpected ways of bringing the weather into your story without heading down a path of clichés and endless fog/rain/cloud descriptions. That's not what we're looking for here. You can avoid those clichés by not writing the first thing that pops into your head. Well, maybe write it down and then consider how you might write it differently. Does it always need to rain when someone is sad?
We experience the weather every single day but may not always notice it. Start paying attention to how the weather makes you feel. Try to bring those sensations into your writing. How might the weather affect the emotional health of your characters?
Lastly, how does geographical location affect the type of weather your characters experience? What are the cultural implications of climate on a country? Don’t forget, you can bring these ideas into your fantasy and science fiction stories to engage your readers in the world you are creating.
Until next time.
