Seasons

[Colleen Thomas]

It's snowing outside. The big, heavy, wet flakes that cover rooftops and decorate trees in no time. Looking out my window, I though to try and describe it, just to see if I could. While doing so I realized winter is my favorite season to write about in my stories. There is something about a stark, bleak, gray landscape that fires my imagination.

I remember a thread once where Doc M was discussing mood, symbolism etc, and how we probably added a lot subconciously. Like having it snowing or raining outside when we just felt it was right. perhaps not also realizing it was very symbolic of the mood or scene as we did so.

In procrastinating on trying to describe this, I got to wondering about seasons. Does anyone here find themselves choosing a favorite season to set their stories in? If so why? What's the draw in your head that makes a story set in fall or summer appealing?

As I said for me it's winter. I don't know what the draw is, except I love describing the landscape when all is still, silent and sleeping.

 

[cloudy]

I'm not sure about the season thing, but I know I tend to include water a lot in my stories...it seems to be a recurring theme for me.

I have problems sometimes (you know this, Colly) trying to capture the "spirit" of a place, much like I did with my story set in New Orleans. I want the atmosphere right, and it really gripes me when I can't get into words the feelings that I have.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I've specifically mentioned a season in any of my stories. Hmmm......

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I'm not sure about the season thing, but I know I tend to include water a lot in my stories...it seems to be a recurring theme for me.

I have problems sometimes (you know this, Colly) trying to capture the "spirit" of a place, much like I did with my story set in New Orleans. I want the atmosphere right, and it really gripes me when I can't get into words the feelings that I have.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I've specifically mentioned a season in any of my stories. Hmmm......

Some places almost demand a season. I don't really think of New Orleans in winter when I think of New O. It's always those sultry summer evenings. With New York, I can't help but think of a blustery winter day, with the wind whipping down the concrete canyons.

 

[cloudy]

Some places almost demand a season. I don't really think of New Orleans in winter when I think of New O. It's always those sultry summer evenings. With New York, I can't help but think of a blustery winter day, with the wind whipping down the concrete canyons.

Excellent point. When I think of home (Santa Barbara), I don't think of the endless drizzle of rain in January and February....it's the warm days, and cool ocean breezes that come to mind first. And, yep, New Orleans begs for sultry.

 

[~photoguy~]

think you have snow ?

here's what I have to deal with ... (attached)

needless to say.. this is NOT my favorite season to write about !

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Thinking back, I can't now recall if I actually call out the season or weather in any of my previous stories.

But in my latest monsterosity, I have the story taking place on a snows weekend in Boston. And I did take a little time in the beginning describeing the look of the city during a snowstorm. Maybe I'll go back a look at it more closely now.

I know what you mean about some places just seem to inspire certain seasons. Having lived in Boston for several years durring college and then worked on the waterfront for several more, I always associate Boston with winter. Snow covered buildings, slush covered sidewalks and the constant, cold wind off Boston Harbor.

 

[impressive]

Does anyone here find themselves choosing a favorite season to set their stories in?

Interesting. Other than Halloween, I don't think I've nailed a season (other than "rainy season" in Costa Rica). Gonna have to chew on this one.

 

[matriarch]

A season was essential for my story, 'Summer Outing'. For obvious reasons. But the action would not have worked had the river been frozen over, and the characters had 8 zillion layers of clothes on.

I like summer in stories for just that reason...thin, revealing clothes, easy access.....I'm a sucker for outdoor sex .....in my stories.

I did think about a winter one, but never got round to writing it.

Maybe one day.

 

[cantdog]

I've been writing stories about "pickup sex." Young people who have no place to go and have to improvise. I like to have high summer if I want them to have it easy. But most of the time I want to challenge their ingenuity and add the possibility of discovery, so I have winter coming on (40 Days of the weasel).

In other stories, the plot or the chosen setting dictated the season for me. Rainy-day outdoor sex, camping-- summer (Encore). Kid comes home over summer break, from his college, to find his room being used by an adventuress-- has to be summer for that (You Can't Go Home).

But for indoor sex, I only mentioned the weather one time, when Jip and his Haitian girl need lots of white noise to cover the sound of Violet Mullaney coming into the room (Jip, Chapter 1).

cantdog

 

[tolyk]

Bruce, thats nothin. Check this:

 

[rgraham666]

It seems to me that fall is my favourite season, at least for the 'climax' of my stories. My long ones at any rate.

Fatima had it's climax in the fall.

Bill and Ruby was set in a single fall day.

I didn't mention the season but now that I think about it, The Orange Slip climaxed in early fall.

In my short pieces of smut, I never mention the season. Except for A Treat for Halloween. A Halloween story has to be in the fall.

My next piece (if I can get my lazy ass in gear) is set over about two years, and I'm making sure I mention the seasons so the time passing is apparent to the reader.

Why I set stuff in the fall, I have no idea.

 

[Penelope Street]

There is something I like about winter

When choosing a season for a story, I most often will use the one I am experiencing; I write summer scenes in the summer and winter scenes in the winter. I'm not sure if that's what I'm in the mood for or if I'm just being lazy and don't want to bother trying to describe the crunch of snow while I can hear the air conditioner whirring in the background.

Still, there is something I like about winter. Always have.

I grew up in the southern U.S., so I never got to experience much 'real' winter until I was an adult. Perhaps for that reason I've always found something romantic about winter. Perhaps it's the crispness of the air letting you know you're alive. Maybe it's how pure the snow looks. Could be it's how nice it feels to snuggle with my love under a couple of quilts. Perhaps winter is my favorite season for all those reasons.

Or maybe it's the sadistic satisfaction of knowing all the mosquitoes that pestered me last summer are dead. Yeah, that's probably it.

Take Care,
Penny

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm always aware of the season and the weather in my stories, even if I don't mention it. Even if it's two people in a motel room, I know what it's like outside.

Winter's deep and intimate, summer's easy and sensual, spring is wildly exciting, and fall is melancholy and manic. Fall's especially good for sex stories because there's the implication that their love will deepen as the cold comes in, and they'll have each other through the dead of winter. besids, people who live in temperate climates know that autumn is every bit as exciting as spring; maybe more so. Spring is so sloppy early on.

In fact, maybe you only pay attention to the seasons and the weather when you live in a place where they demand to be noticed. If I lived in Southern California or Florida, I doubt I'd pay much attention to the season in my stories, because the weather's always pretty much the same.

So for us who have to put up with 4 seasons (& it's snowing here too now. Been snowing all day. Ten inches on the way, they say), at least we have the compensation of seeing the varying moods of nature. Each day has its own personality.

---dr.M.

 

[cloudy]

I'm always aware of the season and the weather in my stories, even if I don't mention it. Even if it's two people in a motel room, I know what it's like outside.

Winter's deep and intimate, summer's easy and sensual, spring is wildly exciting, and fall is melancholy and manic. Fall's especially good for sex stories because there's the implication that their love will deepen as the cold comes in, and they'll have each other through the dead of winter. besids, people who live in temperate climates know that autumn is every bit as exciting as spring; maybe more so. Spring is so sloppy early on.

In fact, maybe you only pay attention to the seasons and the weather when you live in a place where they demand to be noticed. If I lived in Southern California or Florida, I doubt I'd pay much attention to the season in my stories, because the weather's always pretty much the same.

So for us who have to put up with 4 seasons (& it's snowing here too now. Been snowing all day. Ten inches on the way, they say), at least we have the compensation of seeing the varying moods of nature. Each day has its own personality.

---dr.M.

I think you have a good point. I grew up in SoCal, and now live in Alabama....neither place has much in the way of actual seasons, although there's more here than what I grew up with. Maybe that's why I don't pay much attention to it in my stories.

 

[TheEarl]

I remember a thread once where Doc M was discussing mood, symbolism etc, and how we probably added a lot subconciously. Like having it snowing or raining outside when we just felt it was right. perhaps not also realizing it was very symbolic of the mood or scene as we did so.

The name for that is 'pathetic fallacy' btw - My character's depressed, so it's raining outside. Interesting name for a literary technique; anyone know why it's called that?

The Earl

 

[Guest]

 

[gauchecritic]

Pathetic fallacy

The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example, angry clouds; a cruel wind.

(Dictionary.com)

Something other than human being pathetic (having pathos: knowing your feelings) which is obviously a fallacy.

Something else to ponder possibly, that age has something to do with it. Maybe the writer or the character.

Young = spring, winter = old etc.

I've used weather specifically but not seasons.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

thanks for the replies everyone. After shoveling through a foot of snow to get my roomates car unstuck, I am not so enamoured of winter just now

 

[Guest]

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Where are you Colly? I thought you were in NYC and there's no snow on the other side of the Hudson.

I live right outside of west point military academy. A litle town called highlands.

 

[Guest]

 

[Colleen Thomas]

That explains a lot.

Now I'm just wondering how I got the notion you lived in the big apple

I say I live in NY. to a lot of folks NY is just the city. It's not unlikely you got it from someone who thought I meant NYC

 

[R. Richard]

The season may or may not have a lot to do with a story I write. However, if I write an exhibitionist story I always like to have the option of send a character on an outdoor romp. Thus, I like to set exhibitionist stories in summertime weather.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Pathetic fallacy yes, but I think this goes beyond the obvious tropes with Lear raging in a thunderstorm or the unknown monster lurking in the fog. Season and weather give tone and mood to a story, and have a lot to do with setting the entire context for the relationship, whatever it is.

The meeting of two people on a summer lawn surrounded by fireflies doesn’t mean the same thing as if they’d met huddling in a doorway in a blizzard, and I think it’s a meaning that goes beyond an obvious connection to the weather. I don’t know how it is where you live, but here, people don’t act the same in different weather, and describing the weather is kind of like setting up the scenery for a play.

I remember a book by Peter Straub called Ghost Story. It was really a rather non-remarkable horror story, but Straub had the brilliant idea to set it in the winter-frozen streets of some New England town: a veritable ghost town (kind of like it is here now, as a matter of fact.) And didn’t King do the samew thing in The Shining?

To me the weather and the seasons are extremely sensual, and being sensual, they’re also very sexy. It might be a fun exercise to take one of your stories and radically change the weather and see what it’s like.

---dr.M.