It's funny, growing up in California, you often don't get that weather perspective that other authors might have who come from places with things like seasons. ;) I make brief mention of a drought in my novel - "there was a drought - there was always a drought" - and that's mostly it... ;D
Always a drought 😆 and I’ve never considered a drought in my writing before! It really does show how experience with setting changes the way we use it. New England has such extreme (and famously literary) seasons. I guess it has made me think about the weather a lot -- it also changes drastically by the hour; we are always on our toes!! But then it doesn’t have the notion of drought or desert climate or monsoon season or so many other things.
When we were in Bali late last year we were chatting to a local about the weather and the seasons and he said: "In Bali, there are just two seasons. Wet, and dry."
You sometimes forget that our concept of four seasons is not universally true.
Fascinating - kinda makes me wish I lived in a place with that much seasonal variety to attend to, but I couldn't have picked a more similar place to California than the Gold Coast of Spain... Our microseason last week would have been called, "Winter that feels just like Summer." 😂
Maybe - there are certain things we notice here, like if the sea is very calm or very wild; and sunsets in fall/winter are spectacular, especially if there are clouds, which are the canvas of the setting sun. ;)
This has all made me think about this a lot more. I'm sure it'll keep cropping up for me as it feels an intuitive way to connect a character in a deeper way to their world.
In the world of my Children of Shadows novella, the weather definitely reflects what the characters are going through, never mind the somewhat apocalyptic state of things.
When the characters are separated, the days are dark but sky-blue comes out when things get back on track in the fourth chapter. In fact I ended up using the varying colours of the sky as the language of alien magical power crystals in that world's mythology.
The lack of the animal side of the natural world is important to the story too, somewhat metaphorical for climate change. At the climax of the novel I've written that continues the story, the night-time sea against the white sand of the beach serves as the backdrop for the protagonist's own dark vs light battle. I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting now. I suppose the sun, moon and stars play a role too. And spoiler alert for future novels if they're ever released but there's a bird that acts a little more human-like, who turns out to in fact be... human.
Sounds great, Harvey. Love the idea of adding color to the way pathetic fallacy works. I think you can take this to a lot of different levels. Thanks for sharing!
Another cracker. Really love these and use so much from them, thank you.
Thanks Jon! Happy to hear it 😃
It's funny, growing up in California, you often don't get that weather perspective that other authors might have who come from places with things like seasons. ;) I make brief mention of a drought in my novel - "there was a drought - there was always a drought" - and that's mostly it... ;D
Always a drought 😆 and I’ve never considered a drought in my writing before! It really does show how experience with setting changes the way we use it. New England has such extreme (and famously literary) seasons. I guess it has made me think about the weather a lot -- it also changes drastically by the hour; we are always on our toes!! But then it doesn’t have the notion of drought or desert climate or monsoon season or so many other things.
Hah, I like that Troy.
When we were in Bali late last year we were chatting to a local about the weather and the seasons and he said: "In Bali, there are just two seasons. Wet, and dry."
You sometimes forget that our concept of four seasons is not universally true.
Also, I've found it fascinating to recently read of intricate descriptions of microseasons: https://72seasons.substack.com/p/what-are-microseasons
Fascinating - kinda makes me wish I lived in a place with that much seasonal variety to attend to, but I couldn't have picked a more similar place to California than the Gold Coast of Spain... Our microseason last week would have been called, "Winter that feels just like Summer." 😂
Haha. Maybe the climate is just in our blood. I loved living in Hong Kong EXCEPT for the weather!
Maybe a more even climate makes one more aware of these micro changes?
Maybe - there are certain things we notice here, like if the sea is very calm or very wild; and sunsets in fall/winter are spectacular, especially if there are clouds, which are the canvas of the setting sun. ;)
I think it’s probably not a bad place to live 🙃 ☀️
Sheer hell... 😈
I'm going to be somewhat lazy and link back to my comment on your previous post ;)
https://open.substack.com/pub/thematterhorn/p/pathetic-fallacy-in-fiction-episode?r=1w1mc3&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=46990108
This has all made me think about this a lot more. I'm sure it'll keep cropping up for me as it feels an intuitive way to connect a character in a deeper way to their world.
Sounds good to me 😁 That’s great. Yeah, I think we can push it to a different level. Some nice ideas in today and Tuesday’s comments.
In the world of my Children of Shadows novella, the weather definitely reflects what the characters are going through, never mind the somewhat apocalyptic state of things.
https://harveyhamer.substack.com/s/children-of-shadows
When the characters are separated, the days are dark but sky-blue comes out when things get back on track in the fourth chapter. In fact I ended up using the varying colours of the sky as the language of alien magical power crystals in that world's mythology.
The lack of the animal side of the natural world is important to the story too, somewhat metaphorical for climate change. At the climax of the novel I've written that continues the story, the night-time sea against the white sand of the beach serves as the backdrop for the protagonist's own dark vs light battle. I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting now. I suppose the sun, moon and stars play a role too. And spoiler alert for future novels if they're ever released but there's a bird that acts a little more human-like, who turns out to in fact be... human.
Sounds great, Harvey. Love the idea of adding color to the way pathetic fallacy works. I think you can take this to a lot of different levels. Thanks for sharing!