Imagine that it is raining. Not a soft, gentle rain, but a downpour that rattles the windows and creates floods of water overflowing banks and filling gutters.

Imagine your character inside, sitting by the window, watching it all happen. She sees leaves torn from trees that bend, almost touching the ground. She sees branches break and tumble across the lawn. She watches people who run with newspapers over their heads, getting soaked as they dash from the shelter of one building to the next.

In your story, worse things happen. Think of the news stories that you have seen on television. Recall the devastation that follows. The homes destroyed. Cars carried away. Lives lost.

Write that story from your character’s point of view. You can choose first person, if that works for you. Describe the emotions your character feels as the storm impacts his life. What goes through his mind. What he wants to save and what he chooses to leave behind. Be careful not to make a list. Instead, weave it into the description, piece by piece, paragraph by paragraph.

This will not be an easy to story to write as we don’t like to write about those things that we fear. Tackle it anyway, for it will push you beyond your comfort zone.

The important thing to remember is that bad things happen to good people and those stories deserve telling.

Good luck!