Weather Thesaurus Entry: Sunrise

WEATHER & EARTHLY PHENOMENA are important elements in any setting, providing sensory texture and contributing to the mood the writer wishes to create in a scene. With a deft touch, weather can enhance the character’s emotional response to a specific location, it can add conflict, and it can also (lightly) foreshadow coming events.

However, caution must accompany this entry: the weather should not be used as a window into a character’s soul. The weather can add invisible pressure for the character, it can layer the SCENE with symbolism, it can carefully hint at the internal landscape, but it must never OVERTLY TELL emotion. Such a heavy-handed approach results in weather cliches and melodrama (a storm raging above a bloody battle, a broken-hearted girl crying in the rain).

SENSORY DESCRIPTORS:

Sight: The sky lightens in streaks of pink and orange and  clouds are lit from the bottom in an fiery glow. Sunrise intensifies with each minutes, growing brighter and sharper, and visibility improves as night is cast off. Reflective surfaces (lakes, pools, ponds, puddles) take on the color of the sky, becoming a mirror of light, and shadows dissolve. Objects in the landscape…

Smell: As the sun warms the morning, earthy odors will emerge–soil, grass, greenery. Flower petals open, releasing their scent.

Taste: No specific tastes are associated with sunrise, unless one is enjoying a coffee or breakfast in accompaniment.

Touch: When the sun first touches skin, warmth seeps into pores causing hair follicles to respond and lift. The feel of sun on skin is pleasing and the brightness as it rises will force one’s eyes into a squint or to close…

Sound: As the sun rises, birds grow active and bird calls begin to filter into the experience. In an urban area, there would be an increase in traffic sounds…

EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS:

Mood: Sunrise is often used as a transition in books, allowing the story to be anchored in the beginning of a fresh day or signify a new stage about to unfold. There is beauty in a sunrise which allows for reflection and thought on the big picture and also the internal landscape. Dawn is a wash of light across the setting, causing darkness to recede…

Symbolism: New Beginnings; entering a new stage or point in one’s journey; beauty…

Possible Cliches: Comparing the sunrise to one’s love for another…

Don’t be afraid to use the weather to add contrast. Unusual pairings, especially when drawing attention to the Character’s emotions, is a powerful trigger for tension. Consider how the bleak mood of a character is even more noticeable as morning sunlight dances across the crystals of fresh snow on the walk to work. Or how the feeling of betrayal is so much more poignant on a hot summer day. Likewise, success or joy can be hampered by a cutting wind or drizzling sleet, foreshadowing conflict to come.

Weather is a powerful tool, helping to foreshadow events and steer the emotional mood of any scene.

Need more detail regarding this weather element? Good news! This thesaurus has been integrated into our new online library at One Stop For Writers. There, not only has the information in each entry been enhanced and expanded, we’ve also added scenarios for adding conflict and tension. The entire thesaurus is also cross-referenced with our many other descriptive collections for easy searchability. Registration is free, so if you’re interested in seeing a sampling of the fully updated Weather and Earthly Phenomenon Thesaurus, head on over to One Stop.