Thursday, January 10: Femme Fatale
WEATHER OR NOT
by Deborah Elliott-Upton
As nice as it is to find a brand new calendar with a brand new year to begin (once more) anew with perhaps not-so-brand new resolutions, sometimes inclement weather accompanies January like unexpected guests at a designated seating wedding reception.
Unfortunately, good weather or not, there seem to be a lot of loose ties that need tying in January.
Yesterday my appointment book was filled with necessary, but dull, non-fun meetings. Traffic was chaotic and the people I had to see with either were late, tedious or irritated when we finally met. Outside, the wind howled. Inside, my head throbbed.
“This weather is horrible,” I said to the lady pouring my coffee.
“It’s the static electricity,” she said.
I rubbed my temples with my fingertips. “What?”
“Static electricity’s caused by the wind,” she said with a shrug. “Causes everybody to get irritable.”
“Really?” I’d never heard that and I have no idea if it’s true or not, but it made sense when she said it. I believe she believed what she said. I would agree shocking yourself or someone else was irritating.
Her words made me think how often weather comes to play in our stories. Forces of nature, especially that working against man makes good reading. There are times when weather conditions do determine the outcome of a story. “Twister,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Key Largo” all depend heavily on weather reporting. Weather reports that do move the story forward are as wearisome to readers as writers who stop the action to share their character’s clothing choices. Many times I have put down a book and asked (usually out loud), “Who cares if her skirt is green or brown? She has a killer stalking her!”
Of course, there are times when it’s good to add personal descriptions. If the killer only attacks women with long hair (à la “Son of Sam”), then fashion choices are important to the story. Otherwise, I probably don’t care what kind of boots she’s wearing unless they tell me more about her character. (Is she wearing upscale boots or boots needing to be resoled?)
I mentally filed away the information concerning static electricity for use in a future story. Even if the information proves incorrect, characters could share a conversation about static electricity where one person believes it to be true. People don’t always know what they’re talking about, but an awful lot of them will defend to the death their right to say they’re right. (Archie Bunker comes to mind.)
Setting is as much about weather conditions as it is place. Surrounded by sand could mean a beach, inside a sandbox or in the middle of a desert. Sand stinging your eyes is both visual and something a reader can feel. Wind would be blowing that sand.
Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by.” – Christina Rossetti, “Sing-Song,” 1872
Wind blowing across water causes waves. Waves could wipe out a surfer, capsize a boat or gently caress lovers kissing on a beach from here to eternity.
Wind may cause static electricity and jar someone’s nerves to the brink of committing murder. I’m sure it could happen. At the very least it has in my imagination. The thought of writing that story is more palatable than attending another meeting.
Weather is good when it intensifies the plot, but we’ve seen authors who use weather as a substitution for plot.
One of the eeriest novels I recall was a (Koontz-like of not Koontz) thriller which featured a foul-tasting oily rain, people disappearing… chilling!
That reminds me of Elmore Leonard’s “rules of writing.” I think one of them was something like “Never open a book with the weather.” He was referring, I suppose, to the fact that beginning with too much description of any kind is risky. I find myself thinking of that anytime I start a story, either reading or writing.
And about half of Ed McBain’s 87th precinct books begin with a description of the weather. Of course, the city is a main character in those books and he is effectively describing its mood.
Living in the same windy country as you I too have noticed poeple’s moods deteriorate when the wind is strong. I’ve always thought it was because the wind is like a pushy person. Always there, forcing its way around over and through you. The persistance of it at times becomes overbearing as does too much, or frivolous, decription in writing.
Loved the visual you aptly presented with your “static electricity” comments. Whether weather
related, fallacy, or truth—the lady’s comment got your writer’s brain in gear in your usual and curious way!
Mark Twain opens one of his novels with an explanation that “there is no weather in this book.” But putting the weather in is one’s own decision.