Writing in Time-March
Since I wrote about how you could use February to inspire a setting for your writing, I thought I would write about each month as it comes up. But I have a problem.
I hate March. As Patrick F. McManus writes, “God created March in case eternity should prove to brief.”
It’s a month with a split personality. Caught between winter and spring, it’s both and neither. There are no decent holidays or events for me in March. I’m not Irish, or live in Ireland, so St. Patrick’s Day doesn’t mean anything more to me that cute crafts from my kids. I’m not interested in basketball, so March Madness is boring. Lent is always partially in March. It can be a time of growth or depression, the religious observance underlining March’s contrary dual nature. Whoever came up with the lion-lamb imagery for March hit it dead on.
Easter in March would help, but it’s in April this year. And a March Easter runs the risk of being snowy where I live. Snow on Easter puts me more in the mood for caroling and wrapping gifts than hunting Easter eggs and celebrating renewal and redemption. March does have the spring equinox. If the darkness of winter depresses you, then the equinox signals the return of longer daylight.
So, what can a writer do with March?
I admit I hate March so much I have never set a story in it. But writing this blog has given me a few ideas. I could create a character torn between opposites — within his or her own personality, between two jobs or two friends, anything where the character must make a choice between two opposing things. If I wrote fantasy, I could use the spring equinox as some kind of magical day when two opposing forces clash with equal strength. Or I could write a storyline about a character’s miserable misadventures during a miserable month.
Do you like March? Le me know why and how you would use it in your writing.
