This week: Weather Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
—Oscar Wilde
A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.
—Marcel Proust
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
—Charles Dudley Warner
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I've noted before that weather used to be a safe topic for conversation in polite company, but not any more: mention any sort of weather event, and inevitably someone will bring up climate change, and then the arguments start.
But I'm going to talk about it anyway, though only in the context of using it in your writing.
It is generally accepted that the worst opening sentence of any story ever begins, "It was a dark and stormy night..." As convoluted and cringeworthy as the full sentence is, it's not in itself a bad idea to open a story with a weather report (I would just advise against using anything simple like "It was sunny" in most cases; rather, be more active in descriptions).
But sometimes, the opening is the last we hear about the weather, when it could be used throughout the story.
It's been said that "climate is what you expect; weather is what you get." A lot of weather isn't notable for story purposes unless it's unusual in some way: rain in the desert, a particularly fierce blizzard, tornadoes seemingly coming out of nowhere, and so on. Such events can be considered characters in their own right, foils for the main characters to react to. In Fantasy, they might even be the caused by actual antagonists, such as wizards, mad scientists, or supernatural beings.
We can also think of weather events in stories as metaphors: an ice storm to indicate a character being frozen with indecision, perhaps, or a sunny day standing in for someone's good fortune. Or maybe a cyclone representing violent upheaval. And the ending of that weather event can drive home the emotional impact of the sense of relief a character feels upon resolving whatever issue was plaguing them.
One thing to note is that most weather has both a positive and negative side to it. Most people like clear, sunny days, but too many of them and you get drought. Few enjoy being caught in the rain, but rain is, of course, important for crops and for drinking water. A snowstorm might be an inconvenience, but it also carries a sense of renewal in addition to some of the benefits of rain. Even hurricanes can have their positive effects, clearing away what's old to make room for the new.
And remember, in Fantasy, we're not necessarily limited to sun, wind, rain, snow, ice, and so on; it can be fun to dream up otherworldy weather events to spice up the feel of the world you've created.
Whatever you use it for, I'd emphasize again to talk about the weather in concrete terms; that is, for example, instead of saying simply "it was raining," you might describe it like, "the rain fell as if from buckets, sending rivers of mud through the town." Or something to that effect (don't blame me for how bad that sentence is; I'm on a deadline).
Weather in the real world is usually beyond our control, but in Fantasy, we decide if it's raining or not. |
Some Fantasy for your reading pleasure, weather or not:
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Last time, in "Revolt" , I talked about the inevitable robot uprising.
Paul  : I was promised a flying car and commercial space travel to the moon and the asteroids by this time too.
Yep. I definitely feel betrayed.
And that's it for me for August! See you next month. Until then, stay dry and
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Fantasy: August 25, 2021 Issue [#10946]
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