nature | Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Inspired by Winter…

Don’t get me wrong, I do more than my fair share of complaining about the bitter cold, the shoveling of icy slush, the power outages, and the bad driving conditions. But, there are parts of winter that I adore.

The Stillness.

The soft static of snow falling on snow. Or the eerie songs of coyotes serenading the moon, and each other.

The Beauty.

Drifts of diamond-dust sparkling in the sunlight. Twigs sheathed in ice. Pale apricot dawns and mysterious blue twilights.

The Clarity.

Winter allows me to “see the forest”. By that I mean, without all the greenery, I see the contours of the land, the rocky outcroppings, the trunks of trees, and the sky between them.

When I’m writing I sometimes get lost in my own story’s “foliage”, the pretty words, the symbolic imagery, the characters’ personality quirks. What I need then is a fierce cold snap, followed by ruthless wind gusts. Strip all those leaves away so I can see the rise and fall of the plot. I review my work without luxuriating in “the pretty”, instead focusing solely on the action, the turning points, the skeletal remains of the story. Because that’s often the only thing that survives in the reader’s mind.