My husband went out to get the newspaper this morning, and he was met by a surprising sight. A tree in our front yard had gone down in a severe thunderstorm we had last night. We'd had tornadic activity about 10 days ago. After that storm, the tree was leaning but still standing. Last night's high winds and driving rain made the poor tree give up and keel over.
So, what does this have to do with writing? Weather like storms and storm damage are interesting and sometimes, exciting, situations to put in a story or novel, even a personal essay or a poem. Mother Nature offers a lot to write about when it comes to weather of all kinds.
Adding storms to your story allows for some great description as well as emotions like fear, anger, sadness and more.
Describing a storm gives you an opportunity to create a vivid image for your reader. Think of the possibilities of a storm at sea on a small ship, a tornado on a farm, an earthquake in a mountain village in a foreign country, a blizzard on a ranch, lightning striking and causing fires, and so many more. Write about these weather situations so your reader sees it clearly and feels like he/she is there.
When difficult weather scenarios are in your story, it's a perfect place to up the emotional part of your story. If the protagonist is living through a storm of some kind with life-threatening qualities, he/she is going to feel and display fear and maybe anger that he/she is in this situation. When writing about how the person feels, don't tell your reader, show how the man/woman is feeling. If you can show, rather than tell, your reader is more likely to also feel some emotion.
For an exercise today, choose one or more from the following list and write a paragraph or two using vivid descriptions and showing your reader the emotions being felt:
blizzard
storm at sea
tornado
earthquake
ice storm
mudslide
forest fire
severe thunderstorm
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