Looking over the calendar, I find April may be more boring than March this year. With its two major holidays, Easter and April Fool’s Day, coming on the first day, there’s not much to look forward to in the rest of the month. But my kids’ spring break occurs in this month, and the weather in April present possibilities.

April Fool’s Day: The holiday presents a great situation for humorous, middle grade fiction. Maybe a competition between kids to see who can fool the most people. Or maybe a family could be engaged in playing practical jokes on each other.

Spring Break: A trip always has a lot of potential for storytelling. Whether it’s a family trip, a mission trip, trip of college kids, or retirees, the process of traveling in the spring can be exploited for both comic and dramatic effect. This year, my kids and I are traveling with my sister and her kids in their van to visit another sister seven hours away. By the time we get back, I may have more inspiration than I can handle

Storms: Where I live, in a temperate climate, April is the first month of the year when we usually experience thunderstorms. Storms are a great plot twist or metaphor. As a metaphor, a storm can mirror dueling emotions, desires, or ambitions inside one character. It can also underline the conflict between two characters or more characters. The storm can be a twist to heighten the tension between characters or force them to survive and reveal their strength and weaknesses.

How would you use April as a setting?