The days continue to grow shorter and are filled with an
increasingly sharp, cool, crispness that bites the cheeks and gives the nose
that warm glow common in the winter months. I know most people dread the winter
and its short, cold days, but I am looking forward to it. Winter is a great
time for catching up on writing projects, my ever growing reading list, and gaining
a greater appreciation for the warmer months that inevitably will come again.
This got me to thinking; what is the best time of year in
which to set a story?
Fall is great in that you get a little bit of all the other
seasons in it. You have warm days for activities and outdoor settings. You get cold
nights for those eerie or romantic, snuggling settings. One can read a mystery
or horror story based on a cool fall evening to get that chill sent to your
spine. The character is surrounded by bare trees, trying to hide from who knows
what but quickly filling in terror when they realize the loud crunch of the
leaves at their feet is telling their pursuer exactly where they are.
What about summer? Summer is filled with fun, entertainment,
romance, parties, vacations…almost anything you can imagine can take place in
the summer. You can have rain or shine, steamy nights, or cool summer ocean
breezes on the beach. Everything appears unbridled, never ending, always
something new a footstep away. The tire on the bike she is riding pops, and along
comes a grandmotherly woman to guide her through growing into her own. Maybe a vacation
to the beach gone terribly wrong? Crabs getting into the picnic basket, or a
hand reaching out of the sand and pulling someone under to their doom. Sun
tanning anyone? We all know how Jaws ends…or do we?
Winter brings cold and snow. Oh, and Christmas. Even
Valentine’s Day gets a place here. Skiing in the mountains, or a Fargo like
setting? The log cabin with a hot fire in the stone fireplace, the characters
mill about the Christmas tree in the corner, each with a hot glass of something
or other, wearing tacky sweaters and remembering the embarrassments of parties
come before. Or…maybe…kids making a
castle out of ice and snow, and watching a dimensional door open to a new world
of fun and shenanigans…or a snow demon that keeps them sleeping with their
parents for a month.
That leaves spring…so full of promise. Spring is the season
of renewal; all that is seen is fresh and clean…we all like stories about
starting with a clean slate, yes? Helping mom plant a garden, a young boy and
girl find a pirate chest! Inside this chest are blooming flowers, the scent of
which grants you a wish. Maybe treasure? Or empty? Where did it come from? A
car getting stuck in the mud of a spring rain; no one around but…there is that
house over there. Odd how the fields around it are filled with the colors of
spring, but yet this house has snow on the roof. Knock knock…
