Putting Mood and Atmosphere in Your Fiction
Write Better Now
Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about creating mood and atmosphere in your fiction. This (gasp!) might be the last post about that. I know! I know! The horror!
Over on jenjdanna.com, there’s a pretty good round-up blog on “How to Create Mood and Atmosphere in Fiction” where it says to use a checklist.
I have to tell you that I tend to do this in final revisions. I’m a pretty spare writer in my first drafts and I’m not full of visual sensory details. This is probably because I’m half blind. When tI was born they thought I was truly blind. I’m not. But the world was very blurry in my first year of life before I had glasses.
This, I think, is why I tend to fold in those details later. It’s also, I think, why I’m always shocked when people say, “I could see everything in the story just unfolding in front of me.”
In that post, Jen J Danna has some tips. I’ve put in four of them below, all are direct quotes.
“Use all five senses when describing a scene: Many writers depend only on sight to describe a scene, but don’t forget the other four senses. There’s a whole world out there based on scent, texture, sound and taste. People who are visually challenged can give wonderful descriptions all without the sense of sight because they depend on their other senses for information.
“Don’t write a checklist: Some writers will include multiple sensory descriptors, but it’s done in checklist form (Visual cue? Check! Auditory cue? Check! Tactile cue?...). As a result, these descriptions totally lose their emotional punch.
“Don’t overload the front end: Pay attention for ways to pepper description through the action in a story. Don’t spend the first five pages in description simply because you spent a month solid worldbuilding. Find ways to weave that description through the novel in judicious amounts.
“Use the mood of the narrator to translate the scene: The same character will view the same location in two drastically different moods in different ways. Use these details to highlight the character’s emotional state.”
Her tip about the checklist, I obviously love and employ, but another one that’s important to mention is about not overloading the front end.
You really shouldn’t overload the front end, the back end or the middle. You want the reader to experience the setting and mood as the character and narrator experience it.
More Links About Mood
