Sunblock
Chicago is known for its biting winters. People save their parking spaces with lawn chairs. Ice lingers in the space between street and sidewalk, stained black with exhaust fumes. Snow falls in April, and I usually don’t mind, perhaps because I’ve lived here my whole life. There does come a time, however, when even I ache for a sunburn. Winter lasts forever in the Midwest. A change of pace wouldn’t kill anyone. Chicagoans would find just as much pleasure in complaining about a sudden shift in weather as they do complaining about the six-month winters, which only proves my theory. A day of 60-degree weather would please everyone, because come Valentine’s Day, most are ready for spring break trips to a tropical island somewhere.
I often receive horrified responses when I admit to enjoying winter. As a writer, I find the season invaluable. In my last post, I admitted to conversing with my characters. Usually, my characters appear to me in dreams or during passing periods, but between the months of November and April, while snow falls in sheets, my walks to school inspire me most. Because when I see a man racing against a blinking stoplight, two daughters in tow, stumbling across the ice, what am I as a writer to do but to invent a plot for him? So, he’s a teacher, unhappy in his job, barely pleased with his marriage. He wants to earn a graduate degree in music composition. He writes concertos while his Shakespeare class takes a pop-quiz. Perhaps it’s an exercise for the literature-obsessed, but without the need for a distraction during a freezing morning walk, I think I would always wait for my characters to find me. Does that make me lazy? Maybe, but my most enduring stories were born that way.
Not all writers feel inclined to do this, however. I like to say that there are two extremes—the character writers and the situation writers. Certainly, someone can fall between these two labels. I do, at least. But situation writers can have just as much luck with the dismal winter months as character writers do. What screams plot more than a car skidding over an icy street into a lamppost or a bank or a person? Nothing. And oftentimes, the best characters arise from graphic situations like the one I just described.
Yes, Chicago winters test the soul, but doesn’t the best art come from suffering? (Don’t worry. I’m half-kidding.)
Only four weeks until spring break.
Shelby Brody, Editor-In-Chief
Tags: fiction, Polyphony H.S., teen blogs, writing, young writers