"Rules" on Writing Part Three-The Weather

Another "rule" of writing states that one should never describe the weather in fiction. The weather is there in our lives every day, always constant. It effects mood, and therefore I think it is perfectly fine to talk about the weather in literature.


Weather can actually be an integral part of the plot. The storm in Stephen King's THE MIST very much needed to be included so it could move the story along and set events in motion. Sure he could have said, "there was a bad storm outside." But wasn't it much better to see the details of the storm? To show the family sitting with candles in their home, to feel the fear of the parents as they watched the trees smack against the windows? This particular description of weather was so well written that even though it was 115 degrees without a cloud in the sky while I was reading it, I felt like there actually was a storm brewing outside.


Or how about the tornado in the WIZARD OF OZ? How would Dorothy have gotten to that strange and magical land if it weren't for a twister? How would the reader (or watcher) have felt the fear of the characters if the weather hadn't been described with great emphasis? Again, the weather was needed, and it's so much more fun to go into the details about the weather rather than just to write something simple like "it was windy," or "it was hot."

The weather is integral. Sure, some stories don't need anything about the weather included, because it really has nothing to do with the story. Most need a little description of what it's like outside. Others need a good chunk of emphasis on the happenings within the Coriolis effect. Hell, in some stories the weather actually becomes a character.

However, some literary agents hate the weather so much that they automatically dismiss a book and will read no further than the first sentence of chapter one if the author starts the story with describing the weather. I think agents who practice such subjective thinking are idiots who think they are some type of deity in the literary world but really are just stuck up pricks trying to tell the rest of us what they think good literature should be. You know what all you snobby agents who instantly think a book is crap because it starts with the weather? You're not only jerks, you're morons. I've read plenty of surprisingly great novels that start with boring old weather. Did I scoff at the author for starting the novel by talking about the weather? Obviously not. Of course dear agents, this is all my subjective opinion in an extremely subjective industry.

What I think it all boils down to is this; describe the weather when appropriate, but don't bore the reader with it and don't describe it when you don't need to. Weather is another one of those things in literature that every author must learn to tango with in every story, but I also think that's what writing is all about, learning to dance to the beat with your story.