Weather As Character

by Janis Patterson

As you probably know, I'm out of the country now, enjoying my Very Big Trip, so I'm reprinting one of my more popular blog posts from not-too-long ago. I'll be back in October and remember, I'll be writing about the VBT in my newsletter, in case you want to subscribe! There's a sign-up box on my website. 

Picture a bright blue sky glowing with golden sunshine and dotted with friendly, fluffy clouds. Now picture dark grey looming clouds hanging so low you can almost grab a handful of them, while an icy wind scours the land with frigid teeth.

Which would you think of as setting for a lighthearted romantic comedy and which for an angst-filled mystery where terrible things lurk just under the next breeze?

Admittedly, those are two extreme examples, but weather does affect our perception of genre and tone. Now before you jump all over me crying that so-and-so did a terribly horrifying story set on a sunny beach or a rom-com in a storm-lashed castle, I will agree with you. There are always those writers who can take a trope and turn it on its head with great effectiveness. A truly skilled writer can do almost anything – as all of you skilled writers know – but the stormy rom-con and the sun-drenched murder have been done so often that they are almost tropes in themselves. 

It’s a lot harder to take a pleasant, sunny location and make it a place of crime, apprehension and horror. I say let your setting work for you – sometimes. Never do anything exactly the same way every time. Keep your reader on her mental toes. And let’s face it, it’s easier to ratchet up the tension in a dark and shadowy place where who knows what is lurking in that lightless corner we must traverse, just as it’s delightful to see the hero’s eyes crinkle in appreciation on a sunny beach. Proper use of the weather can almost turn it into a character in and of itself, and give both depth and foreshadowing to your story.

People have certain expectations and reactions to the weather. I say use them, or, if you use them in reverse, do it whole-heartedly. One of the most romantic scenes I’ve ever watched was the end of the old movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, where George Peppard (a singularly interesting bit of casting) and Audrey Hepburn find the cat and declare their love in an ugly NYC alley in a pouring rain. Switch upon switch upon switch. 

On the other hand, most readers have certain expectations; I’m a firm believer that as writers, especially genre writers, we don’t have to re-invent the wheel. At least, not every time.

October is a Month of Change

At least it is around my neck of the woods which is the foothills of Central California. Right now, the weather can't make up it's mind if it's fall or summer. We've had a week of really chilly weather and then it pops back up into the 80s and 90s.

When my kids were young and still went trick or treating, you could always count on it being cold by Halloween. Dressing them warm enough under their costumes was always a challenge.

How the weather will be for up and coming outdoor events is always a mystery. First up, I'm headed to Manteca on October 12th for the Great Valley Bookfest. In the past, this has always been a rather warm venue. No telling what it will be like this year. And the same can be said for the following weekend when on October 15th, I'll be at the Taste of the Arts in Visalia--also an event that has always been a bit too warm. We'll see what happens this year.

Sadly, I lost two friends in September, and will be attending their celebrations of life. A big change for their loved ones. I am at the time in my life, when losing friends happens way too often.

Though October is a month of change, good things and bad, we need to be thankful for the days we have and to spend time with friends and family. Keep on enjoying life and doing what makes you happy. I'm blessed to have a big family and that I get to see most of them often.

I'm also thankful that I still enjoy writing and talking about writing. I'm working on a new Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery and of course promoting the latest Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, Bones in the Attic.

If you haven't yet, be sure to try Bones in the Attic. 

Blurb: The discovery of a skeleton, a welfare check on a senior citizen, and a wildfire challenge the Rocky Bluff P.D.

Buy link: https://tinyurl.com/yxpd8mxy

Weather As A Character

 by Janis Patterson

Lately we as a country have been having extreme weather – record snows, ice, drought, heat waves, all sometimes seemingly of Biblical proportion. Now I’m not going to get into the global warming hoax/fact discussion. I’m going to talk about the weather as a character.

Uh-oh, I can hear you saying, she’s totally lost it this time. I don’t think so. All day every day we are all affected by the weather in some way, from a sudden rainstorm simply ruining a outdoor gathering to the effects on our food supply by some far-away weather event. If the weather has this much effect on our real lives, affects events, our actions, and our thoughts and emotions, why should it do less for our characters?

Bulwyer-Litton, one of the more overwrought writers of the late 19^th century, began one of his books with the immortal “It was a dark and stormy night…” Hackneyed and unacceptable to modern audiences (other than Snoopy the dog) it still sets an unmistakable tone and emotional image in just seven words. Not bad.

Good writers use weather as they use setting and personalities – as a part of a whole. The weather can be as much of a character as the hero and villain. Will the unprincipled villain catch the hero? Will the possibly traitorous sidekick help or betray the hero? Will the weather help or hinder the hero’s journey?

We’ve all been at some outdoor function when the heavens have opened and poured rain. We’ve all been at a solemn occasion such as a funeral where the sky is blue and the winds gentle, creating a merry atmosphere totally at odds with the sadness of the occasion. And, I dare say, the opposite is true. When the weather and the occasion are of equal stylistic weight, the emotional punch is doubled. Of course, a good writer can make opposing styles work, but it takes a great deal more effort (and skill) and can dilute the wanted reaction.

Unlike in real life, we can bend the weather to our desires, and that can make the weather a writer’s best friend.

Think of a romantic screwball comedy. Do you think it would read as profoundly, as lightheartedly in the middle of a destructive rainstorm and flood? Or the body-strewn climax of a dark noir thriller – would it have the same impact on a sunny afternoon in a daisy-strewn meadow as on a cold and snowy street?

If you want a tense scene where the hero/heroine is being stalked by an efficient killer intent on his destruction, which is more emotionally effective – a sweet garden, full of sunshine and pretty flowers or in the chiaroscuro shadows of a deserted shopping mall?

Now of course there have been very successful exceptions to my theorem, but not many. Some writers can take any so-called ‘rule’ and turn it on its head. I’m not one of them, so I go with the tried and true but put my own spin on it. First of all, it’s a lot more work to put (for example) a sweetly romantic scene in the middle of a violent hurricane. In such a situation the writer must work against type – which admittedly can be effective – but can also make a visceral connection with the desired feel of the scene more difficult for the writer.

Humans are hard-wired to connect with the weather. Writers should use this as a method of deep and emotional  communication with the reader. Treat the weather like a character and make it serve your story.

April Showers

As I write this, I'm listening to the cars splashing through the rain running down the sides of our streets. Alby River, my husband calls it. I'm drawn to stories that depict weather. Maybe not as another character, like Twister or The Day After Tomorrow, but as a part of the feel of the story.

Torrential rain isn't just for the tropics. The rain here in the Midwest sometimes comes down so hard, it's impossible to see the roads. Driving on days like that, I just stay in what I believe to be the middle of the road. And hope the storm passes soon. I always scoffed at the history stories about the mud the wagon trains had to deal with after a rain storm. I was wrong.

Life's a little like those torrential rain storms. In your face destructive. Then, once it's calmed down, the apologies come. I didn't realize you were scared, or on deadline, or really trying to put your own spin on things.

And yet, sometimes, a gentle rain is a blessing. Farmers bless the powers that be for giving the crops a much needed soaking. The rain clears out the pollen and pollutants, giving us sweet, clean air to breath. A little rain in your life can make you focus on the things that are really important, or see things clearer.

"It was a dark and stormy night" sets the reader up for a certain type of story, just like the bright sunny day, gives the impression of a different type. But what if you switch the mood?

In Shawnee Holiday, A Bull Rider Novella, the storm that hits town early causes all kinds of havoc. But it's where we find ourselves after the storm that makes the difference to us, and our characters.

Cash Dillon, former pro-football player and owner of The Pancake House, is hours away from paradise. A week on a Mexican beach–no responsibility, no worries, and no schedule. When his delivery driver is stuck on another run, Cash takes one last delivery up the mountain.

June Palmer is home visiting her grandmother, but when her high school crush delivers their meal, it feels more like a Shawnee reunion. When Cash crashes his truck minutes after leaving her cabin, she has to figure out a way to get him down the mountain and to safety without revealing her hidden feelings.

Exclusively available at Amazon

COLD!

by Kaye George

Whether you believe in the science of climate change or not, you’ve gotta admit, it’s cold! Just how cold is it? OK, you can finish that one.

Here are some records, to make you feel warmer--maybe.

In connection with the people marooned at the bottom of the earth recently, you probably read that the coldest temperatures on the planet have been recorded in Antarctica. No surprise there! The official coldest one is -128.6 F in 1983. However, a satellite got a reading of -135.8 F in 2010.

In the range of what is humanly imaginable, there’s the -80 in Prospect Creek, Alaska, in 1971. Maybe you can’t imagine this, but I can, having lived in Montana. Granted, I have only experienced -80 as the temperature WITH wind chill. But without, it was -40. Brrrr.

Here are some wimpy record lows. 46 (that’s +46) in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Then there’s 40 in three different spots in Puerto Rico. Those are looking good right about now.

Wanna go for highs? Maybe that would help? Our country holds the world record. I didn’t know that! It’s 134 in Death Valley, California, in 1913. The record high at the South Pole, by the way, is 9.9. Another reason to stay away from that place.

Jeopardy! is offering a chance to win free National Geographic trips to exotic places. One of them was to Antarctica. I wonder how many people logged in to compete that day. One? Two?

How does any of this relate to writing or reading mysteries? This is GREAT weather to do both, provided you don’t have to go to the library, book store, or office supply shop to get material.

Info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_weather_records

Photo from my back yard

A Week on the Road

A Week on the Road

                                               By Randy Rawls

 

        Sometimes I have to remind myself how tiring travel is. I left South Florida last Thursday morning, heading for Cape Fear Crime Festival in Wilmington, NC. I should have known not to trust that small map I had. It's a lot farther than it looked. Anyway, made it to Santee, S.C. before deciding to employ common sense and find a place for the night. With that accomplished, I looked at gas prices. Wow, so much cheaper in S.C.--at least 30 cents a gallon--than in South Florida.

        On Friday morning, I pushed on and landed in Wilmington in the early afternoon. Met with some of the CFCF gang on Friday evening for a pizza party. Joyce Lavene and Judy Nichols provided pizza and colas. Several other authors supplied stories about our crazy world of writing. I won't mention the jokes that peppered the evening. Judy regaled us with stories of her adventures on Jeopardy. If you missed it, she won big.

        Saturday morning, too early and too cold for this old South Florida body—temperature dropped to 22 degrees overnight—I had the first session. Did my BOOT CAMP FOR WRITERS, which seemed to be well-received. One person assured me she was heading into rewrite after listening to my list of evils. As I do at any appearance with writers, I offered to critique the first 10 pages of anyone's manuscript—if that same anyone wants to hear the brutal truth. A couple of folks stepped up and said they'd take a chance. I'm looking forward to receiving their work.

        The conference continued through the day, and although attendance was small, it was a fun day. Judy and Joyce came up with a gimmick I haven't seen at any other conference. They set up a Skype connection with the Guests of Honor. First up was William Bernhardt. It was a no holds barred interview and Bernhardt hung tough and answered every question. In the afternoon, the Skype session was repeated with Alexandra Sokoloff. She, too, was totally candid and fielded some tough ones.  I may have witnessed the future of conferences. No expensive Guests of Honor on site, just Skype sessions. Having run SleuthFest a few times, I can hear the cash register kajinging with savings.

        When the day wrapped up, we hugged our goodbyes to those who had other places to be, then the rest of us met for dinner. A fun day at a fun conference with fun people.

        On Sunday morning, I was on the road again, heading for my hometown of Williamston. After a couple of days there, I was en route again. Arrived home this afternoon (Wednesday) and now sit here reporting to you, looking forward to an early bed tonight and a late rising tomorrow morning.

        If you live within commuting distance—and who doesn't since airplanes took over the skies—consider Cape Fear Crime Festival for next year. I am.

 

 

Those Dark and Stormy Nights

It was a dark and stormy night...Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, may have been overly melodramatic with this pearl of fiction, but it wasn't a bad idea. The weather can be a great way to set the mood of your story or provide complications to the plot. One blogger listed a number of ways the weather can be used symbolically, such as:

• Rain: cleansing, renewal, mixed emotions, depression
• Thunderstorm: anger, danger, strong emotion
• Blue Skies/Sunshine: hope, happiness, absence of trouble, purity
• No Wind  or humid: stagnant, unable to  move forward, smothering
• Windy: change, things moving too quickly to grab onto
• Snow: inner coldness, sadness, cleansing, covering the bad, a quiet calm, purity
• Blizzard: overwhelmed, trapped, helpless
• Fog: unknown, fear, confusion, foreboding danger

Despite Elmore Leonard's famous rule "Never start a book with weather," it has been done successfully by several authors. He went on to explain that its use should be related to how the weather affects the characters in the story.

Hurricanes have been particularly useful to mystery writers. Randy Wayne White's Dark Light, a Doc Ford mystery, involves the retired CIA agent in the aftermath of a Category 4 hurricane that ravaged the Florida coast. Others have used the massive storms to create havoc for their protagonists.

Thunderstorms, snowstorms, floods, and heat waves have provided backdrops for novels. If you're using one of these meteorological wonders, though, it's best to do some research to make sure your facts are right. Strange things happen during these storms, but sometimes they're a bit too strange to make it in fiction. If you've never been through a hurricane, it's a good idea to talk to someone who has. Of course, everybody has a good thunderstorm tale.

Have you read any good weather-connected books lately?

Chester Campbell

Beginnings by Mark Troy

The perfect is the enemy of the good. This is especially true in story beginnings. I recently had a conversation with a writer working on her first novel who was getting nowhere. She had rewritten the first chapter over and over, never getting past it. That was her problem. She knew a strong beginning is important to a story, but she got herself stuck trying to make it perfect. She was never satisfied enough to move on, or, if she did try to move on, her efforts on the second chapter failed to produce the same level as her first.

Her problem had two causes. First, she failed to recognize that any story takes multiple drafts to assemble. Second, she didn't realize that, until the final draft, the primary function of the first chapter is to get the writer to the second chapter. It should be good, but not perfect.

A first chapter is like the icing on a cake. It should catch your attention and entice you to try it. When do you put the icing on the cake? At the beginning? No, you ice the cake when all else is done. The same goes for the first chapter of the story. You write that first chapter, the one that will hook the reader, last, when the rest of the story is done. A perfect first chapter will be a scene as close to the ending as possible. It will set a tone that will carry through the story. Until you have finished the story, you can't know where it will end or what the tone will be. Okay, you have some ideas about both, but you don't know enough to write the perfect beginning.

My friend's problem aside, what makes a good beginning?

Some years ago, Elmore Leonard famously put forth his ten rules for writing, one of which is, "Don't start with the weather." Leonard's rules, and particularly this one, have been the subject of heated discussion on writing groups ever since. Somebody, it seems is always ready to take exception. The pronouncements go like this: "There are no rules for writing.;" and "I'm a writer, nobody can tell me how to write;" and "Rules are made to be broken;" and "Why can't I start with the weather if I want to?" With the possible exception of the third one, all are correct. (Ask any rule maker if he makes them to be broken.) All of the arguments miss the point that these are not really rules anyway. If Leonard, instead of calling them rules, had called them "Some principles which have made me the most popular author since Will Shakespeare," there would be little controversy over them. If, instead of saying, "Don't do this," he had said, this is what works, he'd have a lot of adherents.

So what works? First, Stories are about characters. We read to learn about them. We don't read to learn about weather or scenery, so start with what's important; start with a character.

Second , we want to learn how the character changes, so start with the first change. Romance and confessions editors say to begin with the day that is different. The Hollywood maxim is begin with an arrival. Editors of pulp fiction say begin with a fight. No matter how you state it, the advice is to begin with change.

Third, you need to hook the reader with a strong image. What makes a strong image? Verbs.

Consider the opening of Ken Follett's The Key To Rebecca. "The last camel collapsed at noon."

Six words, but it creates a powerful image of a character in a fight for his life. Six words with one powerful verb--collapsed, one adjective--last, and no adverbs. Even though no character is named, we fear for him because he is out of camels, which means, in the desert, that he is out of luck. Another writer might have begun with the scenery, but not a master like Follett. We know where to find a camel. We don't need a description of the desert, because we have the image in our heads. Another writer might have begun with the weather, but not Follett. What else kills a camel in the desert, if not the weather? It's not until 350 words later, that Follett tells us how hot it is.

In summary, a good beginning has:
1. A character
2. Change
3. Active verbs.

Don't worry about making it perfect, just make it good enough to get you to the next chapter. Save perfection for the final draft. Oh, and don't start with the weather.

Mark Troy
http://hawaiian-eye.blogspot.com
http://www.marktroy.net