Writing Winter

Published December 2, 2025

By Deborah Brewer

Brr… Writer, it’s cold outside. At least it is here in the Pikes Peak Region. The winter holidays are upon us. Frost is in the air. And we find ourselves buried in snow (I wish), huddled for warmth, clinging to thoughts of hope, endurance, and redemption. Or, if that’s a little bleak, it’s also the time of year we surround ourselves with thoughts of love, tradition, pets in cozy sweaters, and holiday spirit. In either case, winter offers writers plenty of inspiration.

Are you plotting a holiday romance? A murder in a remote mountain chalet? A snow queen fantasy? Let me offer you a few tips to write winter to your best advantage.

We can start with Elmore Leonard’s famous line: “Never open a book with the weather.” It sounds unequivocal, but here’s a lengthier version of the quote.

“Never open a book with weather. If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead, looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.”

So, yes, write weather wherever you like, says Leonard, but write it well.

Four Great Ways to Incorporate Winter into Your Tales

1. Forced Proximity and/or Isolation

The forced proximity of being snowed in or visiting family for the holidays allows characters to be pushed to their ethical and psychological limits. Stuck with each other, they have few choices: build a wall, eliminate someone, or work it out. Then again, left all alone, they may discover that they’re their own worst enemy.

2. Narrative Deadlines

In seasonal stories, the holiday itself often acts as a narrative deadline, forcing characters to work together to meet an obligatory challenge, like rescuing a holiday event for mom. Or perhaps a less obliging character has that nettlesome, little job to get done before the springtime thaw.

3. Sensory Details and Atmosphere

Make the most of sensory details and atmospheric descriptions—a warm fireside, sparkly lights, or a holiday trivia night. All these affect a protagonist in powerful ways. Through their senses, yes, but also in how they confirm or deny a character’s nostalgic leanings or less celebratory world view. Does a warm fireside contribute to or contrast with their mood? Do twinkle lights spark happy memories or traumatic ones? Does a remembered winter factoid become the sleuth’s unlocking clue? 

4. A Natural Antagonist

The winter environment can be more than scenery. It can be your story’s primary antagonist. A weather system may not have a motive, as a proper villain should, but natural forces are not without their inclinations. Severe cold weather requires protagonists to maintain focus on survival.

Advice from a Weather Expert

Long-time PPW member, Benjamin X. Wretlind, is a multi-genre, speculative fiction author, a retired U.S. Air Force weather forecaster, and a life-long weather nerd. His writing craft book, Creating Atmosphere with Atmosphere: How to Use Weather as a Literary Device, is a practical guide, written in a non-scientific way with literary examples, exercises, and a little humor.

Find his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Atmosphere-Weather-Literary-Device-ebook/dp/B0BTWB62QQ

I asked Benjamin for a few words of encouragement for those of us grappling with putting winter weather on paper.

Winter is so unlike other seasons. It can feel tricky to write because it’s so easy to default to “cold, dark, miserable,” but there’s a much broader range in winter. It can evoke feelings of calm, clarity, fresh starts, even a kind of quiet joy. Or, conversely, it can stir up loneliness, restlessness, old memories, or that heavy feeling that comes when everything feels frozen in place. So if you’re wrestling with getting it on the page, try zooming in on what your character would actually notice in that moment. Maybe it’s the crunch of snow under boots, or how breath hangs in the air, or that strange hush after a storm. Little details like that hint at what’s going on inside the person moving through it. Winter doesn’t have to box you in, and in fact opens you up. It’s a mood you get to shape, not one that’s already decided for you.

Find more from Benjamin X. Wretlind on his website: bxwretlind.com

A Self-Study Glossing Method

Here’s a fun way to learn about writing. Acquire a copy of a winter-setting book you feel comfortable glossing, aka, scribbling notes in. Cuddle up in a cozy spot, read and/or skim the book, and circle or underline all the best wintery passages, as well as those that might have been written better. Employ exclamation points and asterisks for those really stand-out lines. The aforementioned is my own improvised approach. If you’d like to use more scholarly techniques and symbols, you can find a plethora of information online.

Some Wintery Books for Glossing

Here is a selection of books with winter settings in a variety of genres for your consideration. I haven’t read all of the books on the following list, but I did research each one. If you have PPW membership access, please consider sharing your favorite wintery book suggestions in the comments section below this blog post on the PPW website.

Middle Grade

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 1950, C. S. Lewis, Fantasy. Snow witch.

The Long Winter, 1940, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Historical. Prairie winter.

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, 2018, Karina Yan Glaser. Fun family. Holiday deadline.

Young Adult

The Holiday Switch, 2021, Tif Marcelo, Forced proximity at work in a cozy inn.

Fantasy

The Bear and the Nightingale, 2017, Katherine Arden. Folklore. Atmospheric.

Literary Non-fiction

Arctic Dreams, 2001, Barry Lopez. The Arctic is a wonderful, but perilous place. 

Romance

Lovelight Farms, 2021, B. K. Borison, Sweet romance. Sensory contrasts, cozy vs. cold.

Frigid, 2024, Jennifer L. Armentrout. Hot romance. Forced proximity.

Science Fiction

The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969, Ursula K. Le Guin. A planet called Winter.

Broken God, 1992, David Zindell. Isolation in an icy world.

Mystery and Thriller

The Mistletoe Mystery, 2024, Nita Prose. Cozy Mystery novella. Holiday spirit.

The Sanatorium, 2021, Sarah Pearse. Locked room mystery. Isolated location.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, 2021, Alice Feeney. Psychological thriller. Forced proximity in Scotland.

Western/Adventure

The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, 2002, Michael Punke. Nature is relentless.

Poetry

I couldn’t find an anthology as comprehensive as this online collection of winter poems from the Poetry Foundation. Print out or hand-copy a few and mark them up. You can also search their site for poems related to specific holidays.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/144637/winter-poems.

Don’t forget to check out Benjamin X. Wretlind’s website here: bxwretlind.com. He’s got a great blog and lots of fiction to brighten long, dark winter nights.

Happy winter writing, everyone!

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Reference for the Elmore Leonard quote: “Elmore Leonard’s rules for writers,” a review of his book, 10 Rules of Writing, on theguardian.com, 24 Feb, 2010.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/24/elmore-leonard-rules-for-writers

Deborah L. Brewer joined Pikes Peak Writers a decade ago, seeking help with a cozy mystery. When the novel was completed, she stayed for the camaraderie. Now she’s writing short stories. An editor for the PPW 2022 anthology, Dream, Deborah contributes to Writing from the Peak to help fellow PPW members write better with more enjoyment, and ultimately, achieve their writing dreams.