It was a dark and stormy night…
Let’s take this clichéd weather phrase as segue to the following question: How important is weather in fiction? As usual, the answer is: It depends.
Sometimes apocalyptic weather is like a main character: tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, volcanoes raining down ash and pumace, and other dangerous events often become villains in thrillers. I still remember from my three-year-old book reading experiences a story about a little red fire engine who had to perform in the middle of an ice storm. Yeah, that’s not a novel (anyone remember the title?), but the story clearly resonated. Readers should realize that books their children read can have a lasting effect, and that’s why they offer such a good ROI for publishers.
Somewhat later I read Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and other pioneers of British mysteries. Some Irish stories too. It wasn’t surprising that they often contained bad weather—that area of the world is known for it. Also Scotland, and its bad weather is common in Ian Rankin’s work—snow as well as rain. (We lucked out on our trip to Ireland—see the pics on my website—because we had sunshine every day except one for two weeks, an unusual occurrence that let us enjoy the emerald fields of the Emerald Isle along with the splendor of the wild surf along the western coast).
Some of those old British classics I love to hate (i.e. NOT the mysteries) have prose almost as bad as the cliché in the title. Weather is just part of the setting, so authors can overdo it sometimes. But how many times did Noye’s Fludde appear in those old English mystery plays? (There’s a great vocal piece featuring a kids’ choir with that title by Benjamin Britten—Noah’s Flood would be the modern translation.) Weather events are ubiquitous in literature, old and new.
Weather can set a mood too because many people react emotionally to weather—sadness, fear of impending danger, future promise indicated by a rainbow, and so forth. That’s why bad weather can be such a good villain and good weather can create romantic euphoria.
I’m a fan of using Goldilock’s Principle in using writing elements: never too much, never too little, but just enough. We can always use weather in our stories as long as we follow this principle. But we might want to change “It was a dark and stormy night…” to something minimalist like “A heavy rain fell…” or “There was fog on the Danube…” and then get on with the story!
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Comments are always welcome.
Rembrandt’s Angel. What if Dame Agatha had brought together Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot to solve a crime? She never did, but in this novel, Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone, from the Art and Antiques Division, and Bastiann van Coevorden, Interpol agent, become 21st century versions of Christie’s famous characters. Esther becomes obsessed with recovering a Rembrandt the Nazis stole in World War Two. Bastiann has to rein her in at times. A romance blossoms between the two as the pursuit of the painting turns into a lot more. Available in ebook format at Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc) and in print format at Amazon and your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it).
The sequel, Son of Thunder, will be out this year, also published by Penmore Press.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
