This is the first of a series of advice pieces I want to do this year. It will (obviously) consist of four articles (actually it might contain a fifth if I choose to do a Christmas special – Christmas is so different from the rest of winter), one for each season, The reason I am choosing to do this is that sometimes I get frustrated when reading a book and wondering what time of year it is supposed to be set. I became conscious of it reading The Passage last year and feeling that the novel had a very autumnal atmosphere to it. Though that was probably more to do with the theme and the landscape suffering a slow death than anything else, it got me thinking about how we define the seasons and portray them in our prose.
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<a href="https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/fresh-2/. I love the feeling of new life that goes with it. It is probably the only time of year that I feel compelled to leap out of bed… not even in the summer when everything is at its height because the new life has finally arrived. I also love the cold air reminding you that winter isn’t quite gone yet. It is – in many ways – a rather erratic and wild season. When the weather is good it has great atmosphere; when the weather isn’t so good it can really wake you up.
Have you noticed the atmosphere of spring? The electricity in the air? The disappearing cold-ness? the buzzing of insects, the smells, the optimistic birdsong? Now ask yourself… has that ever been vividly expressed in any fiction narrative? No, I can’t think of any examples personally. So how do we write what spring feels like?
Atmosphere
For me, there is a kind of electricity in the air on a spring day. The sun glows but in the shade it can be quite chilly and when the wind picks up you’d be quickly reaching for a thin jumper. Everything feels alive, awake, confident. Use words to describe this atmosphere: vibrant, energetic, electric, exuberant.
Smells
Spring is a veritable goldmine of odours. If you have an area of scrubland near you visit it and really experience the smells (obviously I live in England, if you live somewhere else, visit an area that typifies your countryside). For best results try somewhere away from major roads. Spring is alive with the smell of blossom. In England, I’m always surprised to note that gorse blossom usually smells of coconut (it does, try it!). The smells that really define the season are: fresh-cut grass, blossom, rain (which has a unique freshness at this time of year and the smell of the post-rain dampness which is also unique), the earth smells loamy
Sights
The most noticeable is the sun. In spring it has an energetic glow, finally shedding its annoying stabbing of winter (anybody actually like the winter sun?). It glows a golden yellow with renewed passion. The sky is a brilliant blue, almost electric and the clouds are big and puffy, they billow and move across the sky quite quickly. Insects are everywhere, particularly bees and there is a vigour that they tend to lack in the summer and autumn. And don’t forget the maybugs and butterflies.
Sounds
Undoubtedly the most obvious sound of the season is birdsong. It is joyous and optimistic and it is quite easy to imagine that they are all fighting to outdo each other and sing the loudest to attract a mate. Other sounds include the buzzing of bees (to a lesser extent, wasps), the never-ending sound of lawnmowers, of children playing outside. Think of a light wind whistles through tall grasses and try to describe the sensations.
Tastes
By that I mean think about how your (or your character’s) diet might be different in the spring that the summer or winter. I tend to drink more white wine (red wine I prefer in autumn and winter), golden beers (stuff with less body and lighter flavour – I never want ale or stout in spring or summer), tea (more refreshing than coffee) and fruit juices in the spring. I tend to want more salads and fish. Though in writing narrative, what your characters are eating or drinking might be less important in the portrayal of the season, if you are writing a period piece you will need a greater attention to seasonal availability of food types.
Touch
How does the ground feel? It will be soft, the soil will give way beneath your feet; it might spring back but it won’t suck you down in the way that it might in winter. A warm sun on the face might be accompanied by a chilly breeze so bare arms might experience goosebumps. Your skin will also tingle with the sunshine whether you wear suncream or not. The clothes you wear will also feel different. You’re not likely to wear woolly jumpers or jeans and more likely to wear thin cardigans, loose-fitting cotton trousers, skirts if you are female. All of these will feel different. Again, this may be less important depending on what type of fiction you are writing.
So over to you, what signifies spring to you? How do you identify the arrival of the season?
Love this post 🙂 It’s funny, seasons always play a major role in ALL my stories. Whether winter, summer, spring…the climate and weather make for great description and becomes a character or force in and of itself to describe how it’s affecting the characters/story. Great goal!
I agree; I’ve always been conscious of what the climate ought to be like in stories set in a natural environment. For example my completed novel is set in spring/summer. The sequel around Christmas and into winter. Seasonal weather in prose can be used as a superb metaphor. I mentioned above that The Passage has an autumnal feel to it and that book was metaphor heavy
Ah, this will have to go in my writing tip folder. A nice exploration of the season!
Turkeys.
This morning when I took my dog for his walk, I could hear the turkeys calling to each other across the vineyards. I put Alby, my dog, on a leash, thinking he would want to chase them, but he never got the urge. In the pre-dawn dusk, we could hear them, but not see them. When we got back to the house, Alby wanted to stop and graze (he eats grass, and not to throw up, he just likes to eat grass, go figure). So we stopped. I kept hearing those damn turkeys and they were close! It was getting lighter, so I should be able to see ’em, right?
I looked up.
There they were, sitting up in the big oak tree that over hangs the cottage we rent. Black against the pink sky, they looked like pre-historic, fat, birds waiting to descend upon us. But they just kept gobbling to each other.
Anyway, once the turkeys come around the farm, you know it’s spring.
lol! What a sweet story. Wild turkeys might unnerve me as I’m really only used to seeing them decapitated, frozen and plucked in the supermarket. Even more worrying if they are sitting in a tree staring at you… Daphne De Maurier wasn’t from your part of the world was she? 😉
Turkeys roam these parts in huge packs. Alby won’t chase ’em when they are all together. If there’s just one, he’ll attack, but never when they are ganged together. They can be kind of scary, but they are just glorified chickens.
Daphne De Maurier? I don’t know. I’m in Santa Rosa, CA – Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. It’s a nice place. 🙂
Sorry, I was making a joke. Daphne Du Maurier wrote “The Birds”, the short story on which Hitchcock’s film was based. I don’t think she ever left England 🙂
I guess “The Turkeys” wouldn’t have had quite the same impact though.
Oh yeah! But you know what? The Birds *was* filmed near here. Whenever we go to the coast (about a 40 minute drive from us), we drive right by the church in the film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_locations_in_Sonoma_County,_California).
This has some very good evocative ideas within. And you’re right, gorse does smell of coconut, but I always think there is vanilla there too. Off to take a look at summer now!
Just realised that as it is the end of August I need to start thinking about Autumn now. I’m going to do five in all, including a Christmas special
Yes, you need to get cracking if you are to get three in before the end of the year.
I can offer a sound – I was on Dunwich heath the other day and the broom seed pods were beginning to pop in the heat of the afternoon sun. I actually wondered what the sound was at first, so long since I’d heard it
I’ve never heard that, I will have to keep an ear out.
This is great advice and I’ve never thought of writing in this way before. Thanks for answering the challenge in such a creative way!
Thank you very much! I cheated a little, this article is a couple of years old now but seeing the prompt reminded me to tweak and update it a little 🙂
So you are just following the advice of the Daily Post piece earlier this week about reposting older work, with a twist. Great idea!
Aaah, never thought of that one!