How to Use July in a Story

I’m interrupting this month’s theme of speculative fiction to bring you ideas on how to use July in a story.

Fourth of July

The small town near where we live outdoes itself to create an old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration. A parade kicks things off, and anyone can enter it riding anything from bikes to classic cars to classic tractors. The fire department used to provide barbecued chicken for lunch. The town still organizes activities, like softball games, pie eating contests, and tractor pulls. They used to invite a group that did tractor square dancing, which is just as goofy as it sounds. A local singer gives a concert and then to top off the day, fireworks!

That small town would be a great setting for a middle grade mystery. A group of kids notice something strange during the parade, run all over town during the day, looking for clues, and then solve the mystery during the fireworks display.

Relationships

Family picnics during the Fourth of July are fertile settings to explore relationships. If I make the day especially hot, the heat can symbolize tensions between relatives, and then in the cool of the night, when the fireworks go off, that tension can be resolved, positively or negatively. If I am writing about several relationships, I can have both positive and negative consequences.

Freeing a character of some problem while he participates in Independence Day activities would be an effective comparison match. Maybe he is freed from a sin that has burdened him for years. Or, during a community picnic, he realizes the truth behind a misconception he had of another person. Or she could finally cut ties with someone who is a negative influence in her life. The climax of the story could occur during a community fireworks display, where the soaring fireworks are a symbol of the character’s new freedom.

Alternative History

If you aren’t familiar with this subgenre of fantasy fiction, it means some key event in history is changed and the story is based on that. What if the Confederate States won the American Civil War? What if the Russian Czar had beaten the Communists? What if there was no Independence Day in America? What had happened so that it never became a holiday? So many things in American history could have changed. Or maybe there is no American history because America didn’t win the Revolutionary War.

How would you use July in a story?

For more ideas on using the months as inspiration for stories, click here.