Sometimes when you’re writing it can be hard to let your reader know what you know. Sometimes you can sense the seasons changing, but how do you let your reader know it’s no longer winter or summer? How do you get them to feel the change along with your characters?

Here are a few tips that might help.

• Weather – A mention of snow falling outside would be a big hint that it’s winter. Or if you mentioned the hot sun your readers would probably think summer. Thunderstorms can be in any season, so don’t count on them to clue your reader in.
  
• Clothes – If you are someone who loves to describe what your characters are wearing, mention of a cozy sweater, or light cotton dress might help show the season. Light jackets or rain boots are fun, but they can be used in fall or spring (or winter depending on where you live).
  
• Nature – Mention leaves crunching underfoot, or bright flowers bravely opening their faces to the sun. Grass that needs mowed or that might be turning brown from the heat could indicate summer. Bitter wind, ice, sleet, snow, all indicate winter.
  
• Food and Drinks – If your character is one of those crazy people who only drink coffee all day everyday, then you might have to get creative with pumpkin flavor, or peppermint. Or maybe iced coffee for summer. Otherwise bring out lemonade, watermelon, pumpkin pie, corn on the cob, soups and other types of food and drinks that might fit the season.
  
• Personal Feelings – If it’s summer your character might be sweating, or finding the heat oppressive. In the fall they might be tucking hands into pockets of their favorite jacket and dreaming of bonfires and s’mores. If it’s winter, they could be shivering, ducking their head against the biting wind, or slipping on patches of ice. Spring might make them basking in the sunshine, exclaiming over new flowers, and digging out their lighter clothes.
  
• Say it! – Sometimes you just need to come right out and say it. The summer sun, the winter storms, spring flowers, the chill of fall.

Now there are a few things you should NOT do.

• Don’t overdo it. A little can go a long way in describing things. Don’t keep stressing the same things over and over.
• Don’t get too creative. Don’t get so zealous about new ways to say things that you leave your reader wondering what you are talking about, or worse, jerk them out of the story.
• Don’t assume your readers got it the first time. Mention a season more than once, but at different times. You don’t want to overdo, but sometimes readers forget what season the story is in, or they somehow missed that first clue. Tuck in a variety of different clues and hints here and there.

So, get out your rain boots, your sunglasses, you leaf rakes, and your winter gloves and set up your seasons for your story! Drop hints, tell outright, and make your readers feel the changing seasons.

Did you find any of these tips helpful? Have you ever read a story where you weren’t ever quite sure what the season was? What is one of your favorite ways to share about seasons in your writing?