Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, Jan 22 2010
It's raining in this scene, but the sun is shining
We had a rain shower this morning after days of rain. What was different this morning was that the clouds were directly overhead, but the sun had begun to shine in other areas of the sky. The sunlight gave an odd glow to the falling rain and forced a completely different mood when I stood and watched it out the window. I thought of the way we present a stormy time in writing fiction. A mood of gloom can be pervasive through whole novels, but if we want to give the reader a sense of the hope behind difficult times we can always show events, even sad events, with a side lighting of sun and hope. Weather is a powerful metaphor in fiction anyway. Using it to reset the mood on an otherwise angry, romantic or lonely scene can leave the reader with an entirely different sense of what is going on in a story. It could add hope. It could add irony. It could be done with natural light or it could be done with a lantern, a campfire, candles or lasers. It depends on the setting, the genre and maybe even the characters themselves. Filmmakers and play producers use lighting to their advantage all the time. Why shouldn't writers?
posted at: 15:57 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
We had a rain shower this morning after days of rain. What was different this morning was that the clouds were directly overhead, but the sun had begun to shine in other areas of the sky. The sunlight gave an odd glow to the falling rain and forced a completely different mood when I stood and watched it out the window. I thought of the way we present a stormy time in writing fiction. A mood of gloom can be pervasive through whole novels, but if we want to give the reader a sense of the hope behind difficult times we can always show events, even sad events, with a side lighting of sun and hope. Weather is a powerful metaphor in fiction anyway. Using it to reset the mood on an otherwise angry, romantic or lonely scene can leave the reader with an entirely different sense of what is going on in a story. It could add hope. It could add irony. It could be done with natural light or it could be done with a lantern, a campfire, candles or lasers. It depends on the setting, the genre and maybe even the characters themselves. Filmmakers and play producers use lighting to their advantage all the time. Why shouldn't writers?
posted at: 15:57 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
