Signs of Spring by Allison Symes

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos

Regardless of what the weather might be doing by the time this post goes out, we can say hurrah, spring is now back with us (well at least it is here in the UK!). I love the lighter evenings though the darker nights of winter do encourage me to stay at my desk longer and get more writing done.

But there is something about spring which simply lifts the mood and I was wondering if you use that as part of your characterisation. Can you show us in your stories how a character is “lifted”? Can you show how spring affects them? 

A reader will sympathise with a character who loves the spring flowers but is prone to hayfever (good potential for a humorous piece there I’d have thought. Bear in mind this is written by someone with a beautiful lilac in her garden which has a heavenly scent. Said writer can’t resist having a good sniff. Said writer ends up sneezing for ages afterwards! You would think said writer would learn but apparently not… Said writer does have the Piriteze on standby though!).

Metaphorically, spring can be the coming of sunshine after a period of darkness so how could you use that? What would be a period of darkness for your character? What would be their sunshine?

All stories need the right balance in them. There has to be conflict and resolution. Spring can’t happen without the winter before it and this can be reflected in our writing too.

Spring symbolises hope, amongst other things, and characters have to have some hope to drive them on to complete whatever it is you’ve set them as their task. Characters have to overcome obstacles in their way (and bear in mind sometimes that can be their own reluctance to go on a quest, stand up to evil etc).

I’ve always had sympathy with prophets like Moses and Jeremiah who didn’t feel they could speak. That they weren’t good enough to do what God asked of them. God proved them wrong! 

Can you show your characters overcoming reluctance like that and go on to achieve greater things than they thought possible? (Naturally this is a challenge for us too).

I don’t know if you have seasons in writing where you’ll have periods when you write loads and others where you don’t write so much. I know I write less when I’m severely tired so try to avoid that scenario as much as possible. I have learned to go with the flow though given it isn’t always possible to avoid those circumstances. 

I reassure myself I’ve been through this before, there will be times when the writing will pick up again, and in the meantime I do what I can. This is where writing flash fiction and/or blogs helps given these obviously have a far reduced word count when compared to a novel.

I hope your writing “springs forward” over the next few months and you enjoy that journey.