Natural Disaster as Plot

Hurricane Irene had me thinking how as writers we use natural disasters as plot for our stories. Allison Brennan used an earthquake to engineer a San Quentin prison break in her series that had Killing Fear as the first book. Nora Roberts had wildfires and smoke jumpers in Chasing Fire. Jennifer Blake wrote of the real hurricane that took out Isle Diernere in Midnight Waltz.

Why choose what is a tragedy to many as a plotline for a book? Disasters bring out the best in people and the worst in people. To show that in a book is to touch on true human nature. The danger of the situation strips people of pretensions. It shows them in all their glory, for who they truly are.

Does your character loot the store? If he loots the store, is it for money and big items, or for diapers and baby food for the child in the upstairs apartment? Does he leave a note for the owner that he will pay later? With his address and phone number.

Does your villain use the storm and chaos to try to do in the hero? Is the hero more vulnerable because the heroine is somewhere in danger and he must get to her?

Man against nature is the oldest conflict in the world. How we deal with it says so much about us as people. Do you pound the steering wheel of the stalled car and curse the heavens or do you get out and push the car to dry land?

What ways have you used nature or natural disasters in your writing? Do you enjoy disasters in your reading or is it too real?

Jill James

The Sendai Earthquake and the Issue of Control

Plates shift, earthquakes rumble and oceans roil…all natural events over which we have no control. The human and economic toll in Japan presents us with a shocking example of how we’ve failed to predict and prepare for the effects of natural disasters. The event reminds us, once again, that control is an illusion.

For those of us who write, the concept of control is a common theme and focus of conflict for our characters. Our heroes and heroines struggle for power over their destinies, even as nature, social/government groups, both big and small and individuals throw new challenges in their paths.

In fact, as writers, we ramp up conflict in order to test our characters as well as to build their strengths. Once our stories end, with growth arcs complete and couples bound solidly to one another, we’ve created men and women who are prepared to handle any conflagration, natural or unnatural.

But plate shifts, big earthquakes and tsunamis? I don’t know.

Some are saying that the Sendai earthquake was the worst tragedy to befall Japan since World War II. When we see how Japan pulled itself, phoenix-like, out of the horror of World War II, we have to take heart. They are tougher, smarter and more unified because of the challenges they’ve faced before. Like the fiction characters at our story’s end, the Japanese will handle this crisis and move ahead, stronger than ever.