Every writers secret shortcut

As a little girl I thought I secretly controlled the weather. I felt guilty when it rained, wondering what I did that caused the crying sky. When grandma told me that thunder was just angels bowling, the crash in the sky replaced shivers with triumphs of a strike. I was always taken aback at the myriad of characters I summoned in cloud form in an Autumnal sky. I winced when putting my foot on a vast field of perfectly untouched snow.

Weather is so integrated in our life, it effects us almost clandestinely. It communicates a sense of body, a sense of space and a sense of time. This is logical because that’s our experience of it physically. A life-long relationship with wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture and pressure has an omnipresence in our physical emotional human experience. You could even call it a myth builder. I am not the only one who crafted personal myths to process the world via weather. Rain on your wedding day, a rainbow after the storm, March comes in like a lion or out like a lamb, and your kids room looks like a tornado hit it.

The power that weather has to enact emotions or paint a metaphor is that power a writer yearns to harness. Weather is a prop with elbow grease. Sling some ink and start a snow storm in your book. You might cause an avalanche or you might trap the antagonist and the protagonist together in a cabin for the weekend. Inspiration is everywhere. Look around- we are sitting in mother natures mood ring.

If you want some tips on using weather in writing check out this post on  Word Play.