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Debate: Should you describe the weather in EVERY scene or skip it entirely?

Got into it with my writing group last night. One member swears by always setting the mood with weather, says it grounds the reader. Another says weather descriptions are filler and readers skip them. I'm torn cause I wrote a short story where rain was a big plot point (character lost umbrella and missed a train, whole story changed) but my other drafts with sunny skies just felt like page count padding. What do you guys do? Does weather matter or nah?
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2 Comments
murphy.blair
My rain scene in chapter three ended up being the whole reason my beta reader kept going, so I'm with the grounded crowd on this one. But I also learned to just skip the weather unless it actually does something for the story.
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felix147
felix14722d agoTop Commenter
Counterpoint - a good storm can set the mood even if it's not directly driving the plot.
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