Do the seasons in your story line up with the one we're in? I tend to do this without even really thinking about it. My novel is a cold-weather story, which usually makes this time of year more productive for me when it comes to that project. What season are you in right now in your story? Is it easier to write about a season or the weather when we're in the middle of it? How do the seasons affect your writing? I think there's just something about being cold and hungry that really makes me push myself.
The main portion of Book 1 spans a couple of years, and the climate is like north-central North Carolina where most of the action takes place. There's rarely any correlation to the weather where I am here in the desert southwest.
So far my WIP hasn't had any weather that's matched up. It's been friggin cold in Canada but I'm writing about sunny L.A. or Canada in the summer. In fact there is no real 'winter' in my book the weather stays as symbolic as a tv series 'perfect' unless symbolically needed to be otherwise. That's hard for me to do because I love writing about rainy days and I didn't realize rain is so rare in California.
for me i think its the opposite.... its been freezing and icy these past few days. one of my WIP takes place in the summer just as school lets out (MC is 12). in my main WIP (the one I've been working on since college), they dont even have "cold weather" because its a desert planet. the nights get chilly but its never icy. I hate the cold, and it shows....
In my own work, what little there is of it, the seasons don't correspond to where we're at. In my reading-for-pleasure though I like to read things that compliment the season we're in.
Not something I've really thought about but as I'm setting my story on another planet is it possible it doesn't have seasons?
At the moment I've been doing research into Pacific cultures, which tend to have more than four seasons and considering my taste for European fantasy, I've been looking at combining it with the idea of seasonal fae courts. As for writing, I tend to get less done during winter due to personal reasons, and it tends not to affect the chronology of my work as I don't think I'll ever complete anything fully.
The issue I personally face is that my settings get locked into having only one season, perhaps based on the actual weather when I created that place, or what I envision the climate there being like. To be fair, there is little relevance to seasons in my current writing project, an urban fantasy novel set mostly on a fictional planet. But to me it's always a beautiful summer day (or night) in Jason Pecke City, in Gherkin it's always a mild and muggy spring morning, in Dunlun it's perpetually cloudy, foggy, misty, rainy or all four, and in Three Wings City there always seems to be a tropical rainstorm on the way.
That's an interesting question. We do, indeed, tend to include some aspects of our experience in our work, even if it's only a point of view of one guy on the backdrop. Why not the weather? I started to write by cold weather... it is also frosty in my work. To be honest, I also began to write 1 year after the triggering event, because it took us one year to work through the issues. Could have been another season, we could have recovered faster.... coincidence? German for coincidence is Zufall. It means that something "falls to you". Is everything we think of, everything we write a "Zufall"? How much do we rely on our experiences? How much wishfulness does flow in? hehehe
It's not rare, at all, during rainy season, which starts right after Christmas and goes to mid-to late March. (When I was a kid it always seemed to start the day after Christmas, right on cue, and went into April, so it's changed a bit.) Also, when the sky does open here, the raindrops tend to be gigantic, so even running out to the car you get drenched. Light rain is pretty rare here except during "June gloom" squalls at the beach.
I have used the rainy season as my WIP is around DC and I remember when I was there a cold chill would blow by and ten minutes later it was raining. In San Diego it was so cold that a newscaster warned it was going to be around 45F so bring your animals inside if you don't want them to freeze. I rarely have to close my bedroom window., so everything I write is perfect weather with a hint of rain.
I can relate. I feel more inspired in cold weather, which makes me naturally more productive. Listening to the strong winds and the rain gets me in the zone for some reason. The cloudiest the scenery gets outside my window, the clearer the scenes of my story become in my mind. There is something magical about winter and autumn. The smells, the colours, the sounds. I love summer, but it makes me lazy. I'd rather enjoy myself doing more active stuff and have fun with friends. Good weather also makes me somewhat unfocused. When I write I'm usually inspired upon more light-hearted or experimental stuff, satirical and comedic shorts. Hunger whatsoever is a must for good writing! One of the greatest mysteries of the universe. Maybe because when I'm in the zone I try to keep myself there without having to deal with any earthly distractions. Who needs food? All I need is a cup of coffee and cigs.
That is weird, I'm always able to sit down and write when I'm hungry, but at any other time I have difficulty organizing the plot into story
The weather tends to match the mood of my story and it is something I do think about. Weather can be a good conflict for my characters to over come so I never neglect to think about it but it has to fit into my world. I have to look at the planet I've created and ask myself what is logical.
An educated guess would be that when you are hungry your parasympathetic system is inhibited (anti-cholinergic) and your sympathetic system is stimulated making you more intellectually alert.
