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How to Describe a Tornado in Creative Writing

A lot of people are nervous about writing a novel. They think it’s some sort of magic that only a few individuals can pull off. While there is some truth to this, anyone can write a novel and there are plenty of talented authors out there who would love to have your read their work. Hopefully, this article will help you find the confidence to do the same.

Start With The Weather Condition

The first thing you need to do is start with the weather condition. A little strange at first, but think about it for a second. If you’re going to write about tornados, surely you’ll want to begin by giving some insight into what they are and how severe they can get? Weather is a very dynamic topic and you wouldn’t want to dive right into describing a sunset, would you? No, you’d want to start with the interesting stuff and let the reader figure out what’s going on. So, to begin with, you need to describe the weather condition surrounding your story. Otherwise, the reader won’t have a clue what’s happening. Here’s an example from my own work:

“The air was cool but not cold, as though the giant sweater that had swallowed the world had finally decided to shed its warmth. A layer of fresh snow covered the ground. The air was crisp and smelled of pine and eucalyptus. The sky was an amazing, vivid blue with a sprinkling of puffy white clouds, as if a giant glass of cloudy blue milk had been poured over the world. It was a beautiful day, but then, beautiful days were all too rare in this weather.”

The Dark And Light Colors

Now that you know the weather condition, you can start describing the scene. In the previous example, I used a combination of both dark and light colors to paint a picture of a clear, sunny day on a mountain. Dark colors, like navy and charcoal gray, are incredibly useful for this kind of thing. They create a sense of foreboding and menace, which is exactly what you want for a scene like this. On the other hand, light colors, like white and yellow, can be used to highlight the beauty around you. If you want a more conventional description, you can use a plain old sunny day, but try to find a way to make it work for your story. Remember: your goal is to make the reader feel like they’re there, in the story, experiencing it with you. So, play around with the different colors and see which ones best describe the mood you’re trying to evoke.

The Size And Shape Of The Storm

Once you’ve established the location and what type of day it is, you need to describe the storm itself. Most importantly, you need to establish its size and shape. This is going to determine, to a large degree, how you should portray it in your story. There are three basic shapes that most tornados follow: round, funnel, and wedge. Knowing which one you’re dealing with will help you determine how far you want to go, in terms of the damage it can cause. For example, the wedge-shaped tornado is mostly confined to the Midwest, but it can cause a lot of destruction due to its sharp edges and tendency to cut through everything in its path. Here are some terms and descriptions you might want to include in order to make the whole thing more vivid:

“The tornado was a massive, dark brown swirling mass of debris and death, the likes of which the region had never seen. It was over a mile in diameter and quite possibly comprised of a hundred or more individual tornadoes, the deadliest of which had a combined strength of over 500 winds, strong enough to rip the roofs off of houses and snap trees in half.”

The Feel Of The Place

Now that you know the basic shape of the tornado, you can start giving it details that make it more individual. Remember: your goal is to give the reader a strong sense of place. It starts with the look of the weather and then builds from there. Here are a few things you might want to include in order to evoke the proper atmosphere:

“The forest around me was alive with the sound of rushing winds as they clashed with the tree branches, tearing at the leaves and coating everything in a fresh dusting of snow. It was a beautiful, terrifying sound, the roar of the wind and the pitter-patter of the rain mingling into one. I wanted to dive in and hug every tree I passed.”

There you have it. Now you’ve got a basic idea of how to write a novel. Of course, there’s a lot more that can be done, but these are some of the basics. Of course, if you’ve already gotten this far, you might as well go for it. The sky is the limit.