It's Raining, It's Pouring
I live on the East Coast and over the past week or so we’ve been bombarded with wave after wave of rain systems. As I type this, lightning streaks the sky outside and thunder shakes my walls.
While long rainy days, even a week of rainy days, wouldn’t have bothered me three years ago (what self-respecting bookie doesn’t love to cuddle up on the couch/bed with a good book?), the little pirate does not grasp the concept of rain = not playing in the backyard or at the park. So while I insist that it’s rainy and wet and we can’t go out, he stands at out sliding glass door, pining away at the toys in our backyard.
And if being trapped inside with a restless two year old isn’t enough, it’s so dark and dreary I’ve begun to wonder if this isn’t a repeat of the Great Flood. Or, perhaps less dramatically, if maybe my husband moved our home from South Jersey to Seattle while I wasn’t watching. (He’s sneaky like that.)
All this rain has got me thinking about settings. Weather is its own setting, really. But I don’t remember using rain in my writing. Maybe, since it’s my world and I’ll do what I want, I’ve just nixed out rain completely. I am the queen after all. But maybe I just never thought about what rain could do to my story. While rain is wet, and well, makes people wet and ruins hairdos and gives the shivers if it’s cold, it also makes me feel closed in. Like when I’m driving and the windshield wipers are on. I can see clearly the brief moments the wipers go by, but then my surroundings are obscured again by droplets until the next swipe. Everything that remains untouched by wipers - the side windows, those weird spaces on the windshield the wipers don’t hit that make the windshield look like two mountain peaks - it all has that beaded water thing going on, so I get splashes of color but the world in my peripheral is indistinct. And the sound rain makes on the roof of the car, that pounding, like it’s trying to press you into the pavement. I end up sitting closer to the steering wheel, squinting, so I can maximize my outside-the-car view.
Sometimes I feel like weather’s only important in stories if it’s a plot device. A car slips on a wet road. Someone gets snowed in on a mountaintop. A heat wave ruins air conditioning at an ice cream shop. But that feeling of claustrophobia could add to a character's anxiety. Or a perfectly sunny day could brighten another character's outlook.
Have you used the weather in your writing? If so, how? Notice any weather in any of your favorite books? Anyone else trapped in the deluge in the East?
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22 comments:
I hear from Jane-o that it be drenchin' buckets in 'er piece a' West Virginia. She talks 'bout an ark and two by two animals... Tho, her DH, who be workin' on a nearby dam rescued a beaver yesterday, from a flood gate. My hero!
Now, rain here in California be a bit of a stranger. More's the pity, we could use the deluge.
In me stories, storms often play a part. One saw Miranda rescued...another afforded some hilarity as the captain stayed in the crows-nest hidin' from her questions... I use the rain quite a bit! I even use a hurricane or two, me books bein' set in the Caribbean, a'course.
Other things I write use the weather. A mudslide, a thunderstorm, lightning...
Nothin' like usin' a well placed bolt a' lightnin' ta advantage... ;)
One of the first things I decide in my books, is what season I'm in. In Jinan it was very hot. I needed to convey the weather on a tiny little island in the Mediterranean (Corfu) and it helped me set up so many scenes and layer it with another sense that I think it felt more tangible to the reader. :)
Anna Campbell's Tempt The Devil had the best, hottest rain storm EVER!
Marnee, I fell in love with water as a child. I think it sparked my initial interest in science. Maybe you could get one of those children's weather books for your youngster and encourage an interest.
He could observe the different cloud formations and their implication for the day's weather. The awesome lightning and thunder. Get him to count the cloud to cloud flashes and the cloud to earth flashes and measure the time difference between the flash and the clap of thunder in order to estimate the distance of the storm. Perhaps you have weather watch organisations he could join. Get him a child's weather station with a rain gauge, wind gauge, thermometer, barometer etc. There is so much to observe and admire in weather systems. If I could have him here in England for a couple of weeks I might turn him into a weather guru!
Living in England I have to like rain, otherwise I would emigrate to sun soaked California with Chance. Now, their weather may be boring, but the earthquakes are something else. I would get a mini seismograph to monitor the San Andreas just for starters!
I'd better not turn this into a dissertation on water, though I'm very tempted. Suffice it to say that all life depends on it and in the right setting it can be beautiful and romantic. I have been on the high fells in a thunder storm when hill sides turn into water falls. The rugged beauty and terrifying power is awe inspiring. Coming down from the fells on a hot summer day I have jumped into a lake to swim and cool off.
On the sea shore I can sit for hours watching the waves break and the surfers trying to navigate. Have you noticed on a beach where the tide comes in at an angle, that the surf from waves can leave fascinating 'pyramidal' patterns.
In my attempts at fiction, again it is water that holds the focus. The sirens enticing gullible humans. The lovers frolicking in the waves. The possibilities are boundless. As I said, life and therefore romance, is unthinkable without water. 8)
I'm trapped in your deluge ;) And I'm betting, if you were writing this last night, I was listening to the same thunder pound away and rattle the windows *g* Since we're water logged, we never get thunderstorms - it's been a while since I've heard one.
I love weather in books for the setting. I think rain or wind or snow can really emphasize a setting. Like you're saying -- add to the claustrophobia or anxiety. It's just one way to ramp it up a bit. I use rain a bit in my current WIP, to add to the tension. I should add in some wind or thunderstorms. Hmmm, are there thunderstorms in Ireland? Anyone know?
Great blog Marn :)
In the first beginning of Sadie's story, I told of how she first realized she was in love with one of the hero's of the series- by tornado.
I love love love to write about snow. And storms. It's the description and setting it makes for the book. To me, reading about a good storm scene is almost like being there myself.
Chance - We've definitely be thinking we need to visit Home Depot for some ark building and gather some supplies. It's been horrible.
But you definitely use lots of water. And with a great setting like the Caribbean, I can see why you would. All kinds of drama in a hurricane or a major thunderstorm at sea. :)
Tiff - I definitely decided at the beginning of this story that I wanted it to be in the wintertime, but I haven't been as good with the scene to scene weather.
And I need to read Anna Campbell's books. I keep meaning too. :)
I second, Sin... Great Blog Marnee!
I love weather in my stories. I know I'll end up writing a snow storm or thunderstorm in mine. It ramps ups the tension and brings out personality traits in characters that could stay hidden otherwise. You get to see a person's resourcefulness, playfulness, attitude in the face of adversity. You can also explore phobias, fears and childhood memories related to weather. To me it's like opening up a treasure box of ideas.
Q - I should try to foster the little guy's love of weather. In a few months he'll probably dig that stuff a little more. Right now, the most he's been interested in is jumping in mud puddles (some of my favorite childhood memories are playing in mud puddles.)
But thank you for your suggestions! I bet he'll love that stuff soon.
And sirens? That sounds like so much fun!
Hal, I believe there are thunderstorms in Ireland. :) That would just offset the already great levels of anxiety and tension in your WIP. And we must have been suffering the same thunderstorm last night. It was definitely loud and booming here. :)
Sin - Figuring out she loves someone in a tornado? Wow. I guess that a stressful situation like that would really make you get in touch with priorities.
:)
I wrote a steamy love scene once. It was 98 degrees outside with a hard rain storm. The characters were arguing, and he threw her up against a building and had his way with her under a broken drain pipe... water sluicing over them...Does that count?
My little guy is tired of rain also. He was supposed to have a baseball game tonight, but I think the field is probably under water. I'm thinking about building an arc.
Great blog Marnee!
Irish - I think you're right on! You can see how people react in a tough situation. I think that stuff is important for characterization. And it's a great way to do it if it fits into your plot.
Lis - wow, that sounds like it counts. LOL!! And I feel bad for the the kids missing games and stuff. Poor things. I hope the sun comes out soon. It's miserable.
Since I usually end up using real places and real times, I actually look up the weather that they had that day. (Obsessive? Yes. Yes I am.) It's nice for me, having never been to some of these place, to k now that I can get the frequency of rainfall, the cloud cover, the overall temperature, etc. Plus I'm paranoid someone will take one of the very few references I make to the actual date, figure out the date and be like "Oh, no way. I remember that day; it wasn't sunny, there was a freak snowstorm."
Um . . . because my stories REALLY HAPPENED.....
So I found out that it was raining all up and down Long Island the day I had my characters driving out to the Hamptons. And then I realized it was also August, and the Friday before Labor Day. And it's the LEI. So I stuck them in traffic at a standstill and started the rainstorm. Hm . . . nothing else to do. . .
(This is in Chapter 16 of Con Artist which is over on the group, if you wanted to read it, Marn.)
Good post! Since I'm still in the beginning stages of my first manuscript, I haven't included weather yet, but it is something to ponder.
Personally, I love the rain and do my best reading with the rain coming down and all my doors and windows open to hear it and smell the fresh clean air - its like it washes away all stress and I slip away into the world the author of the book I'm reading has created.
Jordan - Of course I'll check out Con Artist. :) I haven't been over there for a while, so sorry if I'm late on getting t you. :)
It sounds awesome, by the way. And I have to give you credit. I haven't been so curious as to investigate what happens during the times I wrote my historical. I should have probably. But I didn't. (Shame on me. Bad historical writer. If I get back to that I suppose I'll need to check it out.)
:)
Sabrina - I love when the rain smells clean and fresh here. The rain today (yes, folks, still raining here today...) is all sticky and humid. So it's warm (in the early 70s) and humid with that icky mist. :(
Guaranteed to frizz my already tempermental hair.
But I do love the storms you're talking about. And there is something calming about the sound of rain. Like the ocean. Just makes you feel better.
Good luck with your WIP!
Sabrina--usually weather's kind of an afterthought for me, too, aside from that one example above. In fact, for my last two MSs I went through after I was done with the first/second draft and added references to the weather in.
Ah, the trials and tribulations a' writin' historicals...if ya speak of a 'real' year, ya gots ta get the weather right.
Not like me, where I make it all up!
Jane-o be livin' in a 5th wheel right now...I asked 'er if'n it float!
Chance--the worst part for me is that I don't actually mention the year (in one of them, it's a contemp set in Oct/Nov/Dec 08) and I STILL worry about people figuring it out.... Like they're really going to check their calendars, "Oh yeah, December fifth was a Saturday back in '08...."
Well, there be the 'nazis' or any genre. The ones who will scurry ta the library ta find out if yer stretchin' the truth. The ones I used ta meet at sci/fi/fantasy conventions who gilled me on exact dialogue a' any episode a' any show I mentioned I liked... Or the costume nazis at RenFaires who try ta rip yer earrings out 'cause pierced ears ain't 'period.'
They be there! Ya jus' 'ave to decide if yer gonna cater ta their madness!
I say 'nay'! Cater ter yer own madness! Bwah ha ha!
gilled me? Jeepers! Make that grilled me!
I should email u about this.
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