Prepared by: Rhéal Nadeau
Posted on: October 26, 2003
Reposted on: September 25, 2005
"Everyone talks about the weather but no
one does anything about
it."
Weather is a big part of our lives. We
hope for favourable weather,
curse bad
weather. Weather is a background in our lives, and sometimes a major
influence
or threat. We admire a sunset or a rainbow or the play of sunlight on
clouds;
we fear blizzards or thunderstorms.
We already have an exercise dealing with
weather as an active factor
in a story
("Au naturel" - person versus nature conflict). This exercise will deal
with
weather as part of the setting (of a story, poem, essay, etc.)
First of all, think of weather you have
seen or experienced:
anything from a
lovely cloud formation to a major storm. What was special about that
scene?
How would you describe it? Think of several examples, before you pick
one to
use for the exercise.
Of course, nothing should be in a story
unless it serves the story,
so think
how that type of weather might affect the character(s). For example, a
snowstorm will mean something different to an avid skier than it does
to
someone trying to get to an important appointment. A happy person will
see the
beauty in the colours of autumn leaves; a sad person might view the
falling
leaves as melancholy omens of things ending or dying.
So, the exercise: write a scene (no more
than 250 words) in which
weather is
described through a character's point of view (first or third limited).
Don't
tell us directly what mood or situation the character is in, but let
the reader
find out through the description.
When critiquing, in addition to any
standard comments on the
writing, tell us
how well the description worked for you (could you see/feel the weather
being
described?), and what you learned about the character through that
description.
Rhéal Nadeau's wrap-up
Posted on: November 1, 2003
A busy week, although it did seem like the
number of submissions was
below our
current average. On the other hand, a lot of critiques for those
submissions!
The level of success at meeting the
exercise goal was mixed. The
intention was
to have the weather front and center, and through that description
learn
something more about the characters affected, just by how the weather
was
presented. Some submissions did this very well; in others, the
characters were
front and center, and the weather was just an element of the background
(or
sometimes barely present at all. I would urge members to do their best
to
write within the limits of the exercise - there is a reason behind each
one (in
this case, both to learn to use weather as part of the setting, and to
provide
character information indirectly - often the most effective way of
doing so.)
That said, the submissions as a whole
showed both the variety and
impact of
weather, and the many ways it can be used in our writing. I hope we
will all
keep in mind how much weather can contribute to our writing, if handled
properly.
Rhéal
Web site created by
Rhéal Nadeau and
the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.