Friday, November 02, 2012

Howlina Day 2 - Physical Planet

As I said, I'm building only a country so the actual Physical Planet will be Earth, but I'll do the exercise anyway and see what I come up with.

"Your exercise for today is to jot down ten plot devices that relate to weather, and what you think they do to the story."
Okay, so I was wrong, I have to quote the website a bit.
Again, this is backwards.  I know what she is doing here.  She is trying to provide ammunition, she is trying to get you to think outside the box, but again I need to do it backwards.  She also provides some questions that presumably will come up later:

"What role do you anticipate weather playing in your story? Do you have a lot of travel that you want to complicate with bad storms? Are you going to snow in your mighty heroes? Will there be a mighty battle, determined by sudden flooding? You actually don't need to know right now."

That is actually more my speed, because again I already have my mood, I don't want to think about unconnected plot devices.  I think I already have some.

But then, when I need additional plot devices as the story goes along I will probably want to look them up and use them.  Who better to ask than myself?

  1. Flood - rivers swell, stranding characters, making characters that need to be rescued, that have their metal tested, allowing heroics to be done against non-human enemies
  2. Monsoon - constant pouring rains frustrate the cleanly-minded, make travel difficult
  3. Lack of Monsoon - the monsoon's unexpected late arrival leaves characters hanging, waiting, anticipating
  4. Draught - desert and blight stricken lands widen, another threat to characters that need to be rescued or have their strength of will put on trial, surprising you with their resilience
  5. Storm at sea - what becomes flotsam and jetsam?  Who is lost?  What promises are offered for a calming of the sea?  Could find you an uncharted land.
  6. Blood tide - a sudden death and destruction of the fishing
  7. Avalanche / Rock slide - this could expose things, maybe that's what precipitated the great migration
  8. Fog - things are hidden, crimes may be committed, blindness and confusion
  9. Hurricane - destroys what we have made.  Preparations for hurricanes may show a need for ingenuity, resilience and engineering prowess, rewarding the prepared.
  10. Eclipse - not strictly weather, but nature related.  Could allow bank robberies, show that a character is particularly clever.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wish I had the energy and mind you have, Bill. Love you so much, Auntie Char. xoxoxoxox ;-p