Roadtrip to NaNo: How Setting Can Act as a Character In Your Novel

November is nearly here! To get ready, we’re taking a Road Trip to NaNoWriMo. On the way, we’ll hear from writers about how their cities can inspire your novel. Today, volunteer Municipal Liaison Cadence hits you with more than a few thunderstorms from the Twin Cities:

Here in the Twin Cities, we spend November bundled up tightly: days are spent drinking steaming cups of coffee in order to keep our fingers from freezing to our keyboards. If you’re thinking about your novel’s setting while writing in either Saint Paul or Minneapolis (which are collectively referred to as the Twin Cities), the frosty weather is the first thing that might come to mind. In fact, weather is important wherever your novel is going to be set! Is your novel going to start out during a cold, snowy winter? How about a thick and tropical summer? Or maybe you want to go with the traditional ‘dark and stormy night’?

Beyond the seasonal setting of your novel, you can use the weather to set a mood. Maybe your character is having a hard day—her girlfriend just broke up with her and the gears on her bicycle won’t shift. You might as well throw in some dark clouds, and perhaps even a thunderstorm or two to reinforce the mood. Need a still, quiet feel? Consider a crisp fall day—where the only sounds to be heard are the crunching leaves beneath your character’s feet. The weather affects everyday life in a tangibly rich way. Paying attention to the surrounding climate will give your narrative a more robust and true-to-life feeling.

Remember also that the weather can act as a character in your novel: interacting with your other characters, changing the tone, and even creating situations that move the plot of your novel forward.

For example, if your novel is a romantic comedy, you can use that snowstorm as a plot device to get your two main characters snuggling under blankets for warmth. Or, perhaps there actually is a scary thunderstorm, which knocks the power out during a particularly heated fight. If you’re writing a gritty crime novel, maybe a freak tornado comes through town, which levels your main character’s house and forces him to stay at the same motel as wise-guy Vinny.

I challenge all of you to use weather to your advantage in this year’s novel (bonus points if you add a meteorologist!). After all, even if your story is set in outer space, there’s bound to be a meteor shower or two, right?

Cadence is a photographer as well as a writer. She has no spare time, but if she did, she would spend it knitting, reading and writing—all while drinking coffee. She was born and raised in Saint Paul, MN where she lives with her husband and her two kids (5 and 3). She also happens to be a Municipal Liaison for the Twin Cities region of NaNoWriMo.

Photo by Flickr user slimcoincidence.