We all have things that make us feel good; things, which bring us, comfort, or lift our heart. Maybe it’s a snatch of song, the scent of cookies baking, watching kittens play, the sound of a baby’s delighted laugh. The first snowfall and the quiet hush of peace and beauty it brings to our heart. It’s all about atmosphere. Sometimes atmosphere is something that happens, other times it’s something we invoke.
When I’m not in the mood to do household tasks, but know it has to be done, I play music with a strong beat and rhythm. Want to set a party mood, music again. Music and scent has always been a big thing in my life. Music makes me feel good, adds energy and can reset my mood. Music is a tool I’ve used to give the atmosphere of peace and serenity after an argument or so my baby could sleep. After a stressful day out in the world I long for the comfort of home. I light my scented candles, turn on music, change into something comfortable—lounge pants, oversized shirt, a pair of soft socks or barefoot. If it’s cold and dreary, cooking special foods for dinner which call upon memories of growing up or happy times. Surround myself with cozy things to snuggle to on a cold winter’s night, a funny movie, the smell of popcorn, a down comforter, a cat in my lap, a dog at my feet, and my family around me. A plate of homemade cookies, the snap and crackle of a fire all are atmospheric things of comfort I deliberately set up in my environment.
How do you set the atmosphere in your writing? We want to show not tell, so how do you show the mood and tone surrounding your characters? Dialog will show but what do you do with your ‘scene’ that gives a clue to your atmosphere.
What makes you feel good, brings comfort, invokes happiness or laughter?
At the end of the day or the close of a long week, what does your mind leapt to that spells comfort? How do you give that to your readers? How do your characters or scene reflect that?
What sets the mood of fear or caution? What suggests anger or danger without a word being said?
What comes to mind: Seeing a cowering dog, tail between its legs, dark clouds boiling on the horizon, circling of vultures over a copse of trees, or a house shrouded in fog on a dark night, maybe footsteps in the night behind you. The squeal of tires, crash of broken glass; what comes to mind as you approach a door and hear the screaming of obscenities and a thump against a wall.
Setting atmosphere and emotions are important in our stories. Our characters represent real life. We want to touch our readers with something they identify with. We want to touch their emotions and their memories with our writing. It’s your readers’ emotions and memories that help layer your stories and make your characters multi-dimensional.
When you need to set a particular tone or mood, what do you do to put yourself there first? Sound? Touch? Scent? How do you set your scene so your readers feel and see it, without drowning them in words?
The group No Whine, Just Champagne will exchange ideas about invoking atmosphere in our writing during our live discussion on February 5, 2009 at 9:00pm ET. Hope to see you there!
© Sia McKye 2009 all rights reserved
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Comments: 144
(I thought I was making a feeble joke, but now that I think about it, that is how I invoke atmosphere -- choosing words with the right sounds and connotations to create the feeling I want.)
Looking forward to the discussion!
I put myself in the scene emotionally first - and then draw a picture using the senses. After writing poetry for a number of years, I also make conscious use of alliteration and assonance (the consonant or vowel sounds) in my fiction to create the desired effect.
I look forward to joining the discussion.
Thelma, I've mentioned before, one the biggest influence in my writing is not another author, but poetry. I love the slide of sounds, inner rhythms...
Another tool to invoke atmosphere is metaphors and similes and can be used to convey ideas as well as offer striking images.
Pat, I use humor frequently to either accentuate another emotion in a scene or a transition.
That's why I consciously use certain terms and brief descriptions
I use the mountains in all my books, but the Rockies, not the Smokies. They've been in the background my whole life, and so they are in the background of my character's lives. I try to find ways that the mountains influence them and ways to use the mountains to evoke atmosphere.
One of the most subtle methods for influencing emotional response and establishing a setting in the quality of the words used. The timbre, the actual aural qualities of the words can be a great vehicle to elicit the response in the reader without their overt knowledge. Softer sounding words for emotions of the heart, harder sounding words for moments when you want to cause a gut wrenching or hardened response.
Hope someone has smelling salts for Sia. I'm so very rarely serious or talk about real writing ideas. :-)
that's a good point Mike. I like that and I use that too, soft sounds and rhythms for the heart and harsher sounds and words, choppier sentence structure for harsher emotions. That's what I meant too when I said that poetry is and will always be a strong influence on my writing. Poetry is all about emotion...
Mike, you're absolutely right -- the sounds of the words are important. Maybe that's why I need quiet, so I can hear the sounds they make. I don't like lengthy descriptions, so every word I use has to do double duty -- to describe and to invoke.
Ever since I ended up on the internet and met so many authors who are all trying to write, publish, promote, I've become committed to writing what only I can write -- the stories only I can write, the articles only I can write -- because otherwise, why would anyone read something I wrote as opposed to something anyone else wrote? It's not just the stories we tell, but how we tell them that make them what only we can write.
I was listening to an interview with a painter today who said he is a studio painter rather than plein air because nature was too distracting to him! (Wind, bugs, heat, etc.)