If I were to describe a rainy day in a story, how would I describe it exactly?

Now, this is when you get to show us what you can do. A novel isn’t the work of a committee. You write the description. Then you can ask us what we think of it.

I do remember hearing a speaker at a writer’s workshop say, “Don’t start your story with a weather report.”

Do you have any how-to books on writing? There are many, on all aspects of the process, and some offer what amounts to a road map.

Also note (a) that you don’t have to write from page 1 to page n. You can start anywhere and assemble it later, maybe even by writing first the scenes that you can envision most clearly; and (b) that many authors say that they began their rewrite by throwing out the first x pages, which they wrote to get started but which slowed down the opening to a standstill. If a reader stops before they “get to the good part,” they’ll never know there was a good part.

@Jeruba This has me thinking. Looks like I need to go to the store again! Thanks for the advice. It’s appreciated. Kindly.

Also and always, the best advice for a would-be writer is to read, read, read. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t, what you like and don’t, and notice how the author does it. Emulate the ones who are doing what you want to do.

It’s all right to be imitative at first. Later on, when you’ve mastered some craft and technique, you can put more effort into breaking new ground.

 
And don’t start with “It was.”

@Jeruba Your right. Especially with how much I still need to learn in high school. Thank you again.

You’re.

You’re welcome.

Pay attention in English class especially. You do, don’t you?

@Jeruba Definitely I have an 88 in English at the moment- lol

What’s the context?

If you’re writing a mystery or a horror story, you would write the description far differently than if you were writing a story about a wedding.

Rain by itself is just water. You have to set the scene, because rain is a tool to move your plot forward.

You could describe a dream, and the sound of dripping water comes into the dream more and more insistently until the dreamer wakes up to find it is really raining.

PS I recommend G K Chesterton’s essay “The Romantic in the Rain” for a highly imaginative description of rain.

@flutherother Thank you! I’ll do just that.

I would also point out that stories opening with somebody waking up are pretty thoroughly clichéd already. How many movies, for example, have an opening shot of an alarm clock? Also most of us don’t need a lot of help picturing rain.

By reading a lot, you learn what is already overdone to the point of pain.

@idktimmyturner The start of my story is where I want to introduce the rain. But what do I say?

Isn’t that exactly what an author/would-be author comes up with? Like @Jeruba said perfectly, ”A novel isn’t the work of a committee.”

Think of your 5 senses, then think about what each one experiences when you’re in the rain…the sounds, smells, feel of wetness, etc

Ask yourself questions.

What does it sound like?
What does it smell like?
What does it look like from the perspective of the character who is seeing the rain?
Where is the rain being seen from? Through a window? Looking directly up at the rain clouds as it falls? In the distance? Is it not seen at all, but only heard? If so, why is that? And how would the setting make the sound of rain different? Thudding on a canvas tent roof is quite different than pinging on a metal roof, or clacking against a window pane, or plopping down drop by drop into a puddle, or drizzling down a rain gutter.
What time of day is it?
What season is it?
Is the wind blowing too?
Is it a hard, fierce, relentless rain, or a niggling drizzle, or just a light spatter?
Was it a sudden downpour, or has this rain been going on for hours?
Is the rain seen as a danger, or an inconvenience? Or is it seen as a welcome sign that the drought is over?

Ask yourself exactly what kind of a picture you want to paint, then describe it.

It was a cold rainy day in April and the clocks were on strike so the antiquarian horologist texd the sexton, the sexton told the parson and the parson tolled the bell.

“It had rained like a motherfucker up in this bitch…”

@bob_ That’s what I’m talking about

First, is it important to the story, and if so, why? Tell us only what we need to know about the rain. If it’s just setting a mood, we don’t need much. If you want to practice your descriptive skills, great, do that, but don’t expect to hold a reader’s attention with a protracted nature report.

One earnest but misguided writer I know applied the guidance to “show, don’t tell” wholly and indiscriminately. He included a lengthy scene detailing the receptionist’s filing of her nails, one by one. He wanted to show she was bored and ignoring the waiting visitor. She made no other appearance in the story, and her nails were of no importance at all; she wasn’t going to break one and leave the fragment at the scene of a crime.

Guess how that scene affected the readers who sat through it while he read it aloud at an open mic.

@Jeruba I understand thanks again.