The Impact Of Weather On A Scene
You may have began reading a scene and wondered why the author chose a blizzard in the middle of the night, or perhaps a warm spring day. Although these simple choices might not seem like much, weather details are extremely important when writing a scene.
Let me introduce one of my favorite video games, Until Dawn.
Now if you look closely, you will notice snow. This gruesome, yet enticing video game takes place in a blizzard. Can you guess what happens?
Death, death, and more death!
Think about it this way.
During blizzards or snowstorms, life is asleep. Animals are hiding, trees are without leaves, and a lot of plants are dead. Authors use blizzards, snow, and other deadly weather events to signify a macabre or melancholy theme.
Here is another example:
When I Googled spring, this is an image that comes up.
What does this image mean to you?
Happiness, love, warmth, relaxing times, or fertility.
Authors use spring and summer to represent happier, more romantic events, such as a first kiss. Spring could also represent a change in a character's environment or life.
Here is a guide for other weather events and their symbolic meanings in literature:
1) Spring:
Happiness, love, romance, warmth, fertility, sex or a major change in a character's life.
2) Summer:
Summer can have two meanings.
If it's a pleasantly warm day: Similar messages compared to spring. Happiness, love, freedom, warmth, fertility, birth, life.
However, if the weather is oppressively hot, like a 95 degree day, this can signify: tension, the beginning of a fight, a signal of bad events coming the character's way.
3) Fall:
The environment is going under an extreme change. The leaves are turning, loosing life, while the animals are scavenging for winter storage. This season represents a major change, usually into something negative.
4) Winter:
Last, the season that most authors use to represent death. In a similar fashion, a major storm can also signify death.
I hope this post gave you inspiration on how to choose a season for your novel or short story. What do you think? Would you change anything in this post? Post a comment below.
Kyla