Comments on: Weather Thesaurus Entry: Sleet

By: Leslie Rose

Leslie Rose — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:46:07 +0000

Sleet has always struck me as a transition between rain and hail. Sort of a non-committal dump of cold.

By: Susanne Drazic

Susanne Drazic — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:03:10 +0000

Great post. So glad we haven’t had to deal with any sleet this year. Brings up feelings of fear because of how the road conditions get.

By: Traci Kenworth

Traci Kenworth — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:22:21 +0000

Nasty business this!! So many things can and usually do go wrong with this type of weather.

By: Jeanette Levellie

Jeanette Levellie — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:55:28 +0000

Wow, thanks for this excellent information! Your blog is a treasure chest for writers.

I appreciate you visiting my site and empathizing with my blogger rant!

By: Dane Zeller

Dane Zeller — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:08:12 +0000

Becca, I avoid using weather to indicate, describe or even hint at emotion or emotional states. In your comment, you explain precisely the pitfalls of doing so. You really make sense.

If I used "sleet," I would use it to aid in description of a scene. In one word it states temperature, precipitation, road conditions, visibility and could indicate the season.

Hmmm...it does indicate changing weather and circumstances, however. Things are not so certain in sleet. Danger is possible if ice coats the streets. If you're in a hurry to drive somewhere, anxiety is heightened as you peer through the tracks left by the wipers.

I'm cured!

By: Stacy Green

Stacy Green — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

For some reason, both of my books have taken place in warm environments, so I’ve not had to deal with any winter weather. But this is a great entry on dealing with some of the crappy wintery mix. Thanks!

By: Sherry Isaac

Sherry Isaac — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:51:55 +0000

Hi Angela,

A Winnipegger by birth, I do not like sleet. Too many walking-to-school memories, slipping, falling on behind, icy water soaking through the layers. Numbness on skin? You betcha.

But, never did I think to break down any weather element so completely. What a fantastic idea.

By: Bonnee

Bonnee — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:13:49 +0000

It’s definitely something to take into consideration, and I’ll admit to having fallen into cliches before. Never good, ay. 🙂

By: Sherrey

Sherrey — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:52:32 +0000

Great post! Something all writers need to be reminded of from time to time.

By: Angela Ackerman

Angela Ackerman — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:40:25 +0000

Great answer Becca--thanks! I've been offline doing the glamorous job of picking out and changing out toilet seats. Wow, I almost passed out from the excitement of it all. LOL.

Another issue specifically with the rain/tears thing is that crying has to be handled with extreme care. All too often we writers use crying too quickly or too frequently to show an extreme response to an emotion. If you think about it, it takes a lot to push us to tears in real life, so we really need to be careful when we apply crying in our work or it can hit the melodrama button. :)

Angela

By: Becca Puglisi

Becca Puglisi — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:10:05 +0000

Katya, I think that while weather can be used effectively as a symbol, you don't want to use it in a heavy-handed way when describing character emotion. One reason for this is that it starts to sound contrived. The rain example is a good one, because rain can depict a mood of sadness and can symbolize tears. But for the character's world to fall apart just as the clouds open up? It feels a little forced, because while it could happen, it's just as likely for someone to be overcome with grief while it's sunny or snowing or foggy.

The other reason you have to be careful tying weather too closely to emotions is because the typical comparisons have been used so often that it's hard to accomplish without becoming cliche. For the the most part, you want to avoid cliches at all cost, so it's better to come up with a fresh way to show what your character is feeling.

IMO, weather is best used to set mood, which has more to do with the reader's emotion than the character's. Mood-setting is delicate work and has to be done subtly, so by all means use the weather. Just do it quietly, and if possible, in a way that hasn't been done a million times before.

Does that help or confuse things more? :)

By: Donna K. Weaver

Donna K. Weaver — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:52:38 +0000

Awesome listings. The weather can really intensify the tensions of scenes, not showing the character’s inside but the mirror what’s going on.