Writing Prompt: The Skill Builder: Two Sides to Description

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week’s prompt focuses on an exercise designed to work on a particular skill or technique, such as a POV exercise or character builder. Today’s skill: Description, with special emphasis on tone and mood.

Describe a storm from two perspectives—someone who loves it, and someone who fears it.
Write two paragraphs (under 150 words or so each) describing a storm. In the first, show it from the point of view of someone who enjoys storms and rain and gets pleasure or delight out of it, and reflect that mood in the words used. For the second paragraph, change the tone and mood to someone who’s afraid of the storm.

What else is going on in the snippet is up to you. It could be a couples’ first kiss in the rain or a child left alone at night. Use your imagination. 

If you need some refreshers on tone and mood, try these articles:
How to Set Tone and Mood in Your Scenes How the Wrong Tone Can Change Your Whole Novel Get Your Head in the Game: How Character Moods Affect the SceneLeave a Message at the Tone: Setting the Right Tone for Your StoryPlaying With Personification Atmospheric Pressure: Employing The Four Seasons To Enhance Atmosphere Painting With Prose    Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com