Since everyone in my orbit is talking about it anyway, let’s write about the weather!
The Prompt
Write a story in an environment where the weather is so extreme that it shapes everything: actions, metaphors, hopes & dreams…
Tips
- As with every story, you should probably start with a character who wants something, but can’t have it…yet. The obstacle to their dreams doesn’t have to be weather-related, but everything else about the environment should be soaked in it.
- You could write about an alpine community, snowed in for the winter. Or you could write about a bush community in high summer in Australia, coping with the kind of heat that has weather reporters searching the Pantone index for new colors.
- Think about how language reflects reality, especially in static communities. If you’re from a seaside town, your metaphors tend to include fish and gales, and you use onomatopoeic words like ‘blustery’. What will your local residents sound like?
- Consider having an outsider come in to the community either as your protagonist or their foil, to act as the reader’s avatar as we meet this new community.
- This is a short story, and if you’re going to Write On Wednesday, its probably going to be a short-short story, so limit your cast. One or two people, one or two settings.
- What important moment will act as the fulcrum in your story, the thing everything turns on?
- What will change? Or not change?
Leave a comment to let us know what you wrote about today. If you’re brave enough, post your story or leave a link (remembering not to publish online a story you might want to submit to a publication)