Good morning everyone. Today is an interesting task that oddly enough I find really helps build in some realism into even fantastical stories. It is going to sound a bit strange, but bear with me. We are going to look at the calendar. Now Some of you may be working in completely fantastical worlds and others of you are working just with this one. The truth is, it is the same Task, just with different names and it is useful to everyone.
Often times when we write we focus on our plot elements and our emotional journey but write as though our characters are in a vacuum. We may think of weather if we need it to rain, or if we are writing a winter based tale we may remember our characters need coats. I find that when planning it is really helpful to take a moment and think about the calendar for your story. If you aren’t entirely certain when you want your story to take place, take a moment and list out the months of the year. Then add various things of note for each month.
These can be family birthdays, holidays, both national, religious or personal. You can even go on one of those everyday holiday pages and find out when National doughnut day is and add it if you think it might be useful.
You can add in weather bits for the months as well. I find just thinking about the basic weather for the month when I am writing can really help me add grounding elements to my story. Now for Bob I would add things like birthdays and even his wedding anniversary. This would help me as I have a few family dinners that I would probably include as a way to show out of office tensions between Bob and his father in law. As those would be useful. I might add in national doughnut day as well. Bob realizing that it has arrived when he realizes he no longer cares about staying. He could bring in a box to share with the office. Just knowing that could help me decide when in the year I want to settle my story. It also lets me decide how I want to deal with big family holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving in my story (or place it outside that time of year all together as I don’t want to deal with it).
While those are Bob Examples, if I were writing a fantasy story, I would decide how many months in the year and then name them possibly with notations so I could keep the weather straight. For example…
Barat (like January)
Where our MC lives it is a snow and ice covered wasteland from Gerna to Lucan (November to February)
New Year isn’t celebrated until the ice melts in Fexal (March – around mid month, see notes under Fexal)
Nothing moves, people love off stores and tell tales by the fire. The wood for the fire is stored in an adjoining hut and there is a temporary covered pathway the covering woven from branches before the hard frost and covered over with animal hides. Remade each year as part of a family festival (see notes in month of Mosdal)
Taking a moment to figure out what time of year your story starts can help you see all the little details and the every day sorts of things. Some of you may need to only figure out where your story starts and make notes about that past of the year where your character is, others will need to figure out more of the calendar so they can weave details in. It will depend on your story, but for today’s task…
Task 33: Place your story in a time of year and figure out the details of that time of year and maybe how they might impact your character or the world around them.
Happy writing!
Ten til Midnight 