Talent and Skill Thesaurus: Predicting the Weather

Choosing a talent or skill that fits with your character’s personality, lifestyle, and values can go a long way to helping them break free of the common stereotypes seen so often in fiction. This thesaurus will help you find the perfect quality or two that will show readers your character’s uniqueness while also acting as an asset when it comes to goal achievement.

When choosing a talent or skill, think about the personality of your character, his range of experiences and who his role models might have been. Some talents might be genetically imparted while others are created through exposure (such as a character talented at fixing watches from growing up in his father’s watch shop) or grow out of interest (archery, wakeboarding, or magic). Don’t be afraid to be creative and make sure the skill or talent is something that works with the scope of the story. 

Predicting the Weather

Description: To observe signs in nature (cloud formation, air pressure changes, animal behavior, plant growth patterns and the color of the sky, etc.) and interpret them in a way that predicts shifts in weather.

Beneficial Strengths or Abilities: Strong eyesight, hyper awareness of one’s body and subtle shifts that will indicate air pressure changes (headaches, swelling joints, a perception of increased pain, etc.) a strong sense of smell (to detect ozone, a metallic-like…

Character Traits Suited for this Skill or Talent: focused, observant, alert, cautious, organized, responsible

Required Resources and Training: For a character to build this skill, they would do well to have a lot of experience in nature, and the opportunity to notice minute shifts in animal behavior (bees disappearing from flowers, swallows flying close to the ground…

Associated Stereotypes and Perceptions:

This is a skill that many survivalist have. It is also one that will come in handy for any occupation that relies heavily on weather variances, such as a ship’s captain.

Scenarios Where this Skill Might be Useful:

• working as a wilderness guide for others and being responsible for their safe travel from one location to the next
• Planning battles in war times
• situations where shelter from the elements is key to survival…

TIP: Choose a talent or skill that makes your character memorable and helps them achieve their goals.

If this is something you’d like to learn more about, you might find these resources helpful. You can also see the full collection of talent and skill entries in their entirety at One Stop For Writers, where all our thesauruses are cross-referenced and linked for easy navigation. If you’re interested in seeing a free sampling of the Talent and Skill Thesaurus and our other descriptive collections, head on over and register at One Stop!