Let Seasons Figure in Your Writing

 

Summer Flowers

It's the 20th of August with summer days dwindling to a precious few. September brings the official beginning of fall, but not until a month from now, so we can continue to enjoy summer days until then. 

We talk often about a sense of place in writing, but what about a sense of time? The time of the year can play an important part in what you're writing. You should try to portray a sense of the time of year in your fiction and your memoir or family stories. 

Let's look at what you might include:

A.  Summer:  flowers, heat, swimming, baseball, biking, hiking, mowing grass, mosquitoes, storms, certain foods eaten more in summer, roller skating, 4th of July, sweat, sunburn, convertible with top down, and more, picnics

B.  Fall: colored leaves, falling leaves, cool days, bonfires, Halloween, sweaters and sweatshirts, apple and pumpkin recipes, football, soups and stews, other foods eaten in the fall, school days, Thanksgiving, Christmas preparations in early December, fall flowers

C.  Winter:  snow, sledding, pro football, basketball, Christmas, New Year's Eve and Day, icy roads, skating, heavy clothes, foods eaten in winter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, bare trees, garden catalogs to read, fireplace, gets dark early, holiday foods, sleet

D.  Spring:  spring flowers, kites, lighter jackets, tornado season, warmer days, but still some cold ones, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, end of school year, graduation, May Day, lighter in the evening, 

There are many parts of each season that you can bring into your stories, memoirs, and poems. Noting all these things we think of at different times of the year will give your reader a better picture of when the story happens and lets them relate to the particular parts of each season. 

I once wrote a poem about summer days aiming at a children's magazine, but it's one adults can relate to, as well. My aim was to define summer in a simple way. 

Summer’s Song

Sing to me of

marshmallow clouds

and rainbow skies,

of baseball games and 

ice cream cones,

buttercups and

ladybugs

Tell me about

white sand beaches

and clear blue lakes,

county fairs and

lemonade stands,

lightning bugs and

thunderstorms

(c) Nancy Julien Kopp