Today we were looking at how authors use the weather to help the reader visualise the setting and how they also often use it to hint when something bad is about to happen.

J. K. Rowling often uses this technique in the Harry Potter stories and we looked at her description in the build up to two different Quidditch matches. In the first match the author focussed on how ‘perfect’ the weather was, with clear skies and only a light breeze.  Gryffindor went on to win this match.  In contrast, we looked at a match in which, in the build up, the author was drawing attention to how the ‘wind reached howling point’ and the rain was lashing down. Harry almost died in this match when he was attacked by the dementors.

We then went on to plan our own stories, using the weather to set the scene and cause tension in the story. We had lots of great ideas and we will continue with the write up tomorrow.

Miss Donaldson 👍🏼