weather and words

I finished a scene where Ana does some escaping on a river in the pouring rain at midnight, and wrote myself into such a state of freezingness that I had to get up and go wash the dishes, just to warm my hands up. Then I made a pot of very strong tea to warm me from the inside out.

The total wordcount for The Taste of Magic is almost 70,000, with half of that written in the two weeks or so before Nano started. That means I'm nearing the end and the action is picking up a lot. Big important events are about to occur, character allegiances are about to shift in some major ways, and hopefully the ending will indeed contain all the thrills and spills I can cram in. And to signify to the reader that all this is on the way, the book's weather has turned nasty.

This is such a cheesy plot device, but it's also completely ingrained. No matter how hard I try to make sure the weather is Pleasant! even when the world is going crazy, rain or snow or oppressive heat or gawd forbid even a storm sneaks in when I turn my back for one second. And no matter how hard I try to convince myself that weather does actually have to happen in books, and that sometimes (like the rain on the river that I just wrote) weather plays its part in the plot too, I still know perfectly well I'm just being cheesy.

Still, I'm not proud. The rain stays. But I will do my darnedest to turn the weather mild and sunny for the big finale, see if I don't.