Writing Tips – What Is Mood?

This is post #9 of 11 in the series “Writing Tips For Authors & Bloggers”

Writing Tips – What Is Mood?

People talk about the mood of a piece of literary work, what do they mean? Sometimes you may hear tone and mood mentioned. Are they the same thing or different, and primarily what does mood have to do with writing in the first place?

Mood is the emotions that you feel while you are reading. Some literature makes you feel sad, others joyful, some make you angry. The main purpose for some poems is to set a mood.

Tone reflects the author’s attitude toward what he/she has written, and mood refers to the reaction, the feel readers get from the written work. In nonfiction articles and books, facts are the basis of the piece. Readers will respond to the mood they create. The topic or subject of the article, what details are focused on, the author’s tone and the writing style all work towards creating the mood.

In fiction writing there are many genres, each requiring special handling. The theme, plot, characters, tone and setting all help create the mood. Each scene portrays the characters point of view and emotions. A scene or a chapter may feel romantic, funny, scary, mysterious or full of suspense, this is the mood.

When the work is crafted by a master, you the reader may feel many moods throughout the book. Some chapters may make you feel light and carefree; another chapter may leave you in tears. Sometimes you can feel the fear of a character to such a degree that you actually are fearful yourself and find that you are looking over your own shoulder. This is what mood does for writing, just as it does in movies and music.

How do you, as an author create the mood? It is actually quite easy, yet at the same time takes practice and skill to set the mood or atmosphere exactly the way you want the reader to feel. You need to let your reader know what the character is feeling, without directly telling them. In the sentence, “She was scared as she opened the envelope.” The reader is told that the character is scared but the feeling isn’t felt by the reader. Changing the same sentence to; “Her hands shook, and her lower lip quivered as she tore open the envelope.” You feel her fear even though you were not directly told that she was scared or fearful. That is what creating the mood or atmosphere is meant to do; the story should capture the reader’s emotion and make them want to keep reading and turning pages.