• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
    • About WHW
    • Press Kit
    • Resident Writing Coaches
    • Contact Us
    • Podcasts & Interviews
    • Master Storytelling Newsletter
    • Guest Post Guidelines
    • Privacy Policy
    • Charities & Support
  • Bookstore
    • Bookstore
    • Foreign Editions
    • Book Reviews
    • Free Thesaurus Sampler
  • Blog
  • Software
  • Workshops
  • Resources
    • List of Resources
    • Recommended Writing Books
    • WHW Descriptive Thesaurus Collection
    • Free Tools & Worksheets
    • Grab A Free Show-Dont-Tell Pro Pack
  • WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Weather Thesaurus Entry: Lightning

December 15, 2011 by ANGELA ACKERMAN

WEATHER is an important element 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: Blindingly white jags that fork and branch off of the main strike. Lightning can travel from the earth to the clouds, from clouds to the earth, or from cloud to cloud. Lighting strikes may occur singularly, with many seconds or minutes between them, or they may occur seemingly continuously for a period of time. Lightning may be accompanied…

Smell: rain, an electrical/ozone smell, burning

Taste: heat

Touch: The surface of a lightning bolt reaches temperatures hotter than the sun, so a bolt can wreak serious havoc on whatever it hits. People struck by lightning express many different physical sensations, but the common complaint is burns at the entrance and exit points. Electrical burns…

Sound: Thunder may follow lightning if it is within hearing distance. Other storm sounds may be evident…

EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS:

Mood: Lightning accompanies storms. As such, it often fills people with a sense of foreboding or impending doom. Lightning is insanely fast, its power and destructive potential beyond our ability…

Symbolism: power, nature, God or fate…

Possible Cliches: greased lightning, lightning never strikes the same place twice (which apparently isn’t true)…

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.

ANGELA ACKERMAN
ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    March 14, 2012 at 9:47 pm

    The thing saying that lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice is not true because in some cases the lightning has struck in more then once in the same place it is very scarey at times but nature is nature and we have nothing to fear

  2. Kelly Hashway says

    December 17, 2011 at 9:27 am

    You’re right. There are a lot of cliche ways to use weather. We have to be careful to avoid those.

  3. Stina Lindenblatt says

    December 17, 2011 at 12:02 am

    I love thunderstorms, but I’ve seen the devastation lightning can cause. A few years ago a house in my neighborhood caught on fire when it was hit by lightning. 🙁

  4. C.R. Evers says

    December 16, 2011 at 5:03 pm

    Another great post. YOu guys RaWk!

    That picture gives me the shivers too. I’d freak if I saw that in person!!!!!

  5. twentysomethingfictionwriter says

    December 15, 2011 at 10:40 pm

    Love this picture. I have character that can manipulate energy and this definitely gives a good representation of what he could do with something like this. I can so image this picture in my MS.

    http://twentysomethingfictionwriter.blogspot.com/

  6. Becca Puglisi says

    December 15, 2011 at 9:37 pm

    Excellent point, Susan. I didn’t think about the hair-standing-on-end detail.

  7. Carrie Butler says

    December 15, 2011 at 6:17 pm

    I can’t stop staring at that picture. So cool! 🙂

  8. Kelly Polark says

    December 15, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    Cool post!

  9. Susan Flett Swiderski says

    December 15, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    I LOVE that picture. And as long as I’m safely inside, I love the sheer raw power of lightning. It’s exciting, adrenaline-inducing, and better than any man-made fireworks. Couple other things about lightning: it sometimes pulses multiple times from cloud to ground and back again. That’s what makes some strikes seem to last longer than others. Also, when it strikes nearby, every hair on your body stands on end, and you feel a distinctive tingling. (Yeah, I was a little TOO close that time.)

  10. Heather says

    December 15, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    I’ve been guilty of the ‘fast as lightning’ comment. Love this, it gives me so many great new ideas!

  11. Angela Ackerman says

    December 15, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    That picture alone gives me shivers! I absolutely love lightning. 🙂

    Christopher Lloyd FTW!

Trackbacks

  1. Weather Thesaurus Entries Collection | Writers Helping Writers says:
    October 11, 2013 at 1:30 pm

    […] Lightning […]

Primary Sidebar


Welcome!

Writing is hard. Angela & Becca make it easier. Get ready to level up your fiction with game-changing tools, resources, and advice.

Follow Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Subscribe to the Blog

Check your inbox to confirm! If gremlins tried to eat it, you might have to check your spam folder.

Read by Category

Grab Our Button

Writers Helping Writers

Software that Will Change the Writing Game

One Stop for Writers

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS® · Copyright © 2023 · WEBSITE DESIGN BY LAUGH EAT LEARN

Cookies are delicious and ours help make your experience here better. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with our cookie use. Cookie settingsGOT IT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. More on our Privacy Policy here.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT