Writing Tip: Weather In Your World

[Mark]

Writing Tip: Weather in Your World

If you are writing an epic that spans the globe of whatever fantasy or SF world you have created, sooner or later the subject of weather will come up. And if you do indeed have an entire world to deal with (or most enough of one) then it is not just enough to start sprinkling random storms about. For your world to be real, for your reader to be convinced that it could be an actual place, then you have to have at least some idea of the general weather patterns going on.

The best way is to start with a comparison to Earth's weather patterns, then extrapolate from there. If your world has just a single basic terrain and climate type then things are easy. A desert planet will have desert type weather- usually dry, hot, with cold nights, and some pretty vicious wind storms to stir things up. A water planet will have turbulent seas, gales, hurricanes, etc., while a jungle world would be rife with heat, humidity, and a while lot of insects (if you don't think swarms of insects can be part of the local weather, go to the Florida Everglades sometime).

For a more varied world then things get more complicated, but not overly so. Just break down the world into different regions, such as the above desert, sea, etc.- then treat each individually. Of course, things can get more complicated, things can interact. Moons will affect weather, so if your world has multiple moons then they can shift weather patterns and ocean waves in all sorts of ways. Storms can become both more numerous and more violent. High Gravity world? That does wonders for keeping a storm like the Red Spot on Jupiter going for quite a while, so that too can affect the types of weather patterns. Or for a fantasy world, you can have areas of intense magic that can affect the local weather as well. In general, you can just break it down to components. First figure out how any moons might affect things, then after that is done add in effects for gravity, magic, and each such in turn.

And you don't need to be limited to normal Earthly weather either. For instance, if your world has magic then it can have storms that have magic within them; clouds of glittering lights that rain down and cause certain magical effects. Or a mountainous terrain with high winds could inspire storms of twisting winds and miniature tornados lying on their sides. Be inventive.

The best way is to first take the things that you definitely want in your world and map them out, then figure out the weather patterns you want to be around them. Then, with this as a start, you need to figure what could be causing these pre-determins climates, what their sources might be, then how that would in turn determine what other terrain types could be lurking on your world. Like bootstrapping your way from one element to the next until the whole thing is complete.

For instance, if you want a continent where its west coast is always being pelted by storms coming down from the northwest, then that could mean either there is a jet stream weaving its way around various other land masses, or there is a small island continent further out West causing the storms to go around the north of it to come down from the direction you had determined. Such a constant stream of storms would also affect the trade routes, as ships would sail more southward to avoid these storms, which in turn could affect your plot.

You don't need to get things down to an exact science- and weather science isn't exact anyway- but just enough to keep things plausible, or at least give you an excuse to have in there what you want.

Maldene
Maldene II: Mysteries Of Olde
Cyberdawn: Beginnings
Mark Anthony Tierno

[Penelope]

Excellent post. Thank you.

[V.M.]

What an excellent post. I thought carefully, and researched geological details when building my world of Vimar, but I didn't think about weather. My bad!
The next world I build will have weather patterns, too. (I love world building, It's a bit like playing God.)

[Mark]

V.M. wrote: "What an excellent post. I thought carefully, and researched geological details when building my world of Vimar, but I didn't think about weather. My bad!
The next world I build will have weather pa..."

It's what I get for having a Physics degree and methodical mindset; I tend to have far more notes in my Maldene World Book that I'll ever use in the stories.

[C.C.]

Was to going to leave this re-post alone, though apparently others seem to think there is some valid point. IMO, no there isn't.

Weather in a book is a plot motivator, scene setter, topic of dialogue. There is zero need to reconstruct whole climate cycles for this. I look out my window, it's sunny, it's raining, I'll put the coat on. Winter maybe some snow or frost, gloves and a scarf. I climb a mountain it's sunshine in the valley, perhaps raining, snowing up top or not. The weather can change in a few minutes going from pleasant to hellish in a heartbeat. You might only need to consider perhaps the current terrain type, event duration, if this is earth. Alien worlds who cares it's your world mechanics. Think Cermatoria in the Chronicles of Riddick.

Arctic : Frostbite, blizzards, wind, sleet, low light, summer, winter
Tundra : Pretty cold, snow, wind, sleet, longer days, partial seasons
Temperate : Everything, whole ball of wax
Sub-Tropical : Rain, sun minimal seasonal change
Tropical : Rain, rain with sun shafting through the canopy, 90% moisture, minimal seasonal changes
Desert : Dry, arid, depending upon location night frosts, bit of rain or snow once a year, decade, century.

Go on a pick'n mix from there. Honestly major climatic events are far more important. Oh, winds from the east, west, northwest who cares if it doesn't affect the plot say it's sunny, rainy, overcast, blustery, whatever there are plenty of adjectives available.

Blade runner, rain, rain and yet more rain. Doesn't make the place unreal, unbelievable it's a scene setter.

World events happen all the time, you don't see them, don't know they occurred yet the characters can still suffer or die. Are you going to plot out entire geological timelines for undersea quakes, land slips, volcanoes, forest fire, flash floods, meteor impacts, etc.. All change, affect the local and regional weather. You do not get a memo or text to prepare. We have fully satellite coverage and still cannot accurately predict how a hurricane or storm front will affect the local area, just a %. The planet's orbit (distance, passage, rotation), gravity, axial tilt, moon(s) (size, numbers, mass, proximity), % land mass ratio, altitude, air density, humidity, % cloud cover and a thousand other things interacting in the complex math of fluid dynamics which will alter things every minute of every day for every year. Past history is no guarantee of future events.

Currently we are climbing a mountain to assault a complex, goes from day to partial night, rains, turns to drizzle and gets chilly. A trinary system we will never visit again or the world. Half the place is a winter wonderland, the other a scorched wasteland due to an aggressive axial tilt, we are at the melting interface. Why on earth would I waste time plotting a year of this all out.

Weather incidents have duration, so if it starts to rain it likely stops at some point. Clouds in the east or west are no more valid an indicator of impending rain than wetting your finger and holding it up. Freak waves out in the ocean or near the coast for tsunami can wreck any vessel, flood whole land masses. That is an event worthy of a tale, what is not worth knowing is if last Tuesday at 10:20 it rained for five minutes unless it relates to the plot. Wind goes from a gentle breeze to hurricane force ~150Mph. Saturn its over 1000, one of the exo-planets they have at over 7000.

Honestly if you had made this all up as you wrote I seriously doubt anyone would notice nor complain it was not believable or credible. Weather is part of the plot, a driving force not a background research project unless that is how you wish to spend your time.

[Mark]

C.C. wrote: "Was to going to leave this re-post alone, though apparently others seem to think there is some valid point. IMO, no there isn't.

Weather in a book is a plot motivator, scene setter, topic of dialo..."

even listing such minor details as "half the world is a winter wonderland, the other a scortched wasteland due to an aggressive axial tilt" is itself planning out your weather. As opposed to just random helter-skelter whatever goes and alienating readers for whom it does not make any sense. And oh yeah, readers of SF and Fantasy tend to be a brainy lot, so having at least a little internal consistency is always good.

[C.C.]

Fear not Mark, just out causing mischief as always. :)

I will say it's a partial description of the world and system in the current book, a scene setter and will last no more than a chapter or two. Implications beyond that regarding the harsh environs of top and bottom you infer yourself (mental image). Perhaps I was thinking of a ice-cream cone. I needed a place for my secret conference and how to reach it by less obvious means. Just as easily it could have been an oceanic world or an arid desert planet. We have those too in the first two volumes. Though if I think to mention actual weather, climate it is only where the characters actually are at the time, not the planet as a whole.

[Mark]

My own needs arose from the fact that not only do I have the entire world mapped out (as in, wrap it around a globe) but one element or another of the story eventually crosses through just about every major location on said world (13 novels in the series and a couple hundred characters, if that explains things). As such, having a lot of stuff prepped ahead of time really saves on the writing time.

[C.C.]

I fear you are conflating geography with weather. A temperate or arid world is not the same as enduring the wicked torments a dust storm. That is a transient event, unless you are suggesting this never ends. If as you say 13 novels I would expect the world, singular globe to be detailed and evolved, if spanning several generations. A small hamlet blossoming to a village or town over time or hastily abandoned. Building of a cathedral such as in Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. But an hour, day or week of torrential rain, snow or baking sun requires no further explanation or reference, unless perhaps the incident washed away a building or two. That might be worthy of note and later reference in passing conversation. Our hobgoblin of consistency.

[Mark]

Both geography and weather play into things. It's a really big planet with lots of different climatological regions, just like our Earth has different such regions. Also a few unusual types of weather patterns and storms that said geography, planet size, and number of moons make possible.

[C.C.]

Really, one tiny globe ;)

17 systems in my little corner with 197 habitable worlds and moons. Trillions of people, three vast empires spanning tens of thousands of systems. :) So far we've maybe covered 5-10% of the primary region with little teasers of the empires.

I write start to finish, no layout, chapter headings, precis, pre-plotting. I have tried working it all out beforehand, but it's not for me. I drop the characters into situations and see where it leads, how it evolves. I don't insert chapters after the fact nor wholesale rewrite or re-order. I do add extra elements and minor details, tweaks after the initial draft.

The first is a hero's journey there and back again. The second picks up immediately after with a personal account of war. The third, a rebellious tale spanning multiple realms. Largely a single POV with inserts for this trilogy, but nothing to stop it spreading out to others in the future. Easily we could do as Mr Lucas and write, expanding to prequels, sequels with some or none of the characters involved. I fancy a detective series for one character or fill in the background for some incidents left deliberately obscured. My reference is what I have written at the time.

Various spots around our globe are our inspiration writ large.

You are, I am sure, happy working your way, I tread a different path. Neither is right nor wrong. My annoying little additions are there just to open up the debate. :)

[Mark]

Oh, 13 books but also a 2-book prequel... just because I could. :)

[C.C.]

I like you Mark. Take care. I tease because of Covid madness talking to myself and the cats. I'll leave this thread alone and go back to what I should be doing. finding new ways to put my Keira in peril. Half way, end of April maybe, out by July, August. Perhaps I'll find something in the next epistle to moan about. :)

[Mark]

C.C. wrote: "I like you Mark. Take care. I tease because of Covid madness talking to myself and the cats. I'll leave this thread alone and go back to what I should be doing. finding new ways to put my Keira in ..."
My opinion on the covid fear-demic would be a whole different thread.
If you want to see more of me and what I've done in my own scribblings, just go to www.maldene.com
Maldene II: Mysteries Of Olde