02 March 2012

Weather or Not

Last night I woke to the sound of wind howling and rain pounding on the roof. I love weather like this when I'm inside and don't have to go out.

The old writing clichĂ© about weather is, 'It was a dark and stormy night', and we all know better than to start with that.  Don't we?

We can use the weather to good effect in our writing, even making the same type weather do different work. For example, new lovers laughing together in the rain, a person walking alone after a break-up, a dark, wet street where streetlamps gleam eerily - this could be a precursor to a murder or a body being discovered.

Books and films have even used weather almost as a main character - The Perfect Storm, Twister, and The Day After Tomorrow are all examples of this.

While we don't want to sound as if we're writing a weather report, it is a way to build a mood, or foreshadow an important event.

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