Tuesday's Writer's Tip Using Mood - Emotional Tone - Janet Lane Walters #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Mood #Emotional Tone

When you're planning your story we've looked at type of story and the atmosphere of the story. The emotional tone is the next place to consider.There are many emotional tones to choose from but let's look at a few.

Laughter, sadness, fear, mystery, romance, strife and many more. When you start to plan your story you need to consider the overall emotion you want to evoke in your reader. Now you may combine more than one emotion with care. Combining mystery with fear and you can have a tense story that causes the reader to experience both of these. Or combind romance iwth sadness and you have a different kind of story.

So consider these things when writing your story. You may not find them during the rough draft but later when you are revising, finding the enotional tone will make a better story.

Tuesday's Writer's Tip - More on the Mood of your story-- Tone #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Mood #Tone

Another thing about establishing the mood of your book is tone,  Is the story bright or dark. To do this much depends on word choices. Today would be different. That's perhaps the opening words of the story. How do you expand this to make the story either bright or dark.

For bright, choose your wods with care. Sara glanced at the window. The bright sunlight filled her with energy. Excitement about the events of the day filled her with joy. Today was her wedding. These words express a certain bright tone to the word choices.

Now we look at the Dark tone. Sara glanced at the window. The bright sunlight didn't raise her spirits. A funeral should happen in gloom and rain. She searched the sky and saw no clouds. This wasn't right. Her mood sunk lower.

Both openings show what kind of story will follow. Words count when establishing a story's mood.

Tuesday's Writer's Tip Looking at Mood in your story #MFRWAuthpr #BWL Publishing #Writer #Tip #Mood

Setting the mood of a story. What form of mood will you use for the overall tone of your book. Not every scene has to follow the trend but take care when switching from one to another. So what are these forms.

Comedy means an amusing story with a happy ending. If you start a story in this manner, don't switch to tragedy in the second half of the book. Humor can be part of the story but it doesn't necessarily have to be funny for the entire book. Amusing us a better way to go.

Tragedy is almost the opposite of comedy. There is no happy ending. Think Shakespeare's tragedies. Macbeth is a one.

Melodrama appeals to the emotions often by exaggerations . Usually there is a happy ending but not always. The characters are usually larger than life.

So when you start your story you should decide on the form you will use.

Wedensday's Writer's Tip - Writing ABC - Uses of setting #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Having looked at all the aspects of setting from the general to the specific, how does one go about using setting in their story?

One way is to create an atmosphere. We've all read stories where there is a house described that embodies spooky feelings. That is one way but setting can also be used to contradict the emotional content of the story. Setting can show the reader in a foretelling way when something good or bad is about to happen.

Setting also can be used to establish a character. How he or she feels about a setting can create a mood. Does the place bring back memories of happier or less happy times. This is quite possible.

Atmosphere and mood are two ways to use setting. At times the setting can become almost another character in the story raising emotions in the reader. Memories of the reader that they can carry into the story. A hospital might bring certain feelings in the reader, perhaps of sadness or happiness.

So choose your settings with care and milk them for everything you can draw from the location. But also remember finding the perfect words to bring the setting to life is important. Don't bog your reader down with pages and pages of describing the setting. Find those words and objects that are telling and convey what you mean to say.