Crossposted from
fb_worldbuilderOnce again the quoted text comes from
30 Days of World-Building by
Stephanie Bryant. And here we go with today's exercise -
Day Two: The Physical Planet. What role do you anticipate weather playing in your story?
At times I imagine it will play a prominant role. One of the tribes in world (which I'm aiming for more than one story) live in a coastal desert where rain is a rare and considerable blessing but one that can be dangerous if your in the wrong place when it arrives. In another area (at the other end of one of this world's trade routes they are developing primative airships and airships and thunderstorms do not mix. It'd be criminal not to do something with that.
Do you have a lot of travel that you want to complicate with bad storms?
Well I don't know about a lot of travel... at least not in all the stories. I'm trying to avoid the cliched quest for something. But when travel is involved compliications due to weather will certainly arrive. Complications are good.
Are you going to snow in your mighty heroes?
It's not inconceivable at this point. The airship country is far enough north for snow and the enemy lands to the north are subartic. It's unlikely however unless I can think of something really good to do with such a thing.
Will there be a mighty battle, determined by sudden flooding?
Sudden storms possibly but not really because of the flooding.
You actually don't need to know right now. Your exerise for today is to jot down ten plot devices that relate to weather, and what you think they do to the story (for example: a snow-in can turn the mood very claustrophobic... or very intimate).
Ten - hmm...
1. Desert rainstorm mentioned above could turn the mood very joyful but frenetic as everyone turns their hand to trying to capture and store the runoff. Equally it could lead to ramping up the tension if the focus was on people caught in one of the dry river beds when the storm broke.
2. In a temperate UK type climate (aka soggy and mild) both prolonged drought (1976) or even more rain than usual (like last year or the great famine of the 14th century) can wreak havoc with agriculture since farmers tend to grow crops that like the climate and the temperate climate tends to not go to extremes. Since this is not a modern setting loss of crops will be dire and could breed a mood od desperation.
3. Ship caught at sea in a tropical storm. Asking for trouble and replete with tension. Especially if the ship is only at sea because they ignore advice that this is a bad time of year to sail these particular seas leading to a mood of recrimination where everyone blames everyone else.
4. Huge hailstones can cause real plot complications if characters are caught out in them. Even moreso if the precede a tornado. Never mind the Wizard of Oz. Tornados can cause chaos and spread a mood a terror.
5. An inopportune thunderstorm can force a hydrogen lifted airship into a race to land before it goes boom. Perhaps even in a place where they really don't want to. Mood would be tense (and tense is good) and depending on why they didn't want to land where they end up it could turn to horror or political skullduggery with equal ease.
6. Being becalmed at sea for a prolonged period could be every bit as serious as hurricanes in the long term (running out of supplies) with great potential for cabin fever.
7. Sudden floods can wash corpses out of cemetaries, contaminate water supplies and farm land and lead to pestilence, famine and death. Not to mention washing whole villages away. They also make travel difficult.
8. Travelling in a hot desert. The hot days and cold nights. The incessant sun beating on your head. The search for water... what if you can't find it. The desert maybe wideopen but in it's own way that mood could be claustrophobic.
9. Simply being inside listening to the incessent heavy rain going tap tap tap on the roof can be maddening. Especially if it goes on and on and on...
10. And of course good weather has its place. Moments of downtime and release are needed in a story or maybe you don't need bad weather distracting from other sorts of tension. Nice weather and tense scene might be a good counterpoint.
That took more than 15 minutes but never mind. :-)
See you tomorrow!