After so many years of setting the clock back, you’d think I’d expect the changes.
But each fall I’m surprised how dark it is in the late afternoon. Every morning I’m surprised how light it is so early.
The darkness puts our whole family in a different mood. We light candles at suppertime. We feel sleepier at bedtime. And when I take my daughter to her scout meeting at 6 p.m., she gets the delicious sensation that she’s up really late at night and out on the town.
I’ve noticed lately, though, an aggressive attempt by stores to put me in a very particular mood.
The Christmas shopping mood.
It was November 3 and I walked into a store that was playing Christmas music. Whoa! There’s no way I’m ready for that stuff yet, y’all. I picked up some things for the kids last summer and that is it. The Christmas season starts after Thanksgiving. It does! But I kept running into stores that were selling the season awfully early.
These stores’ determination to put me in a money-spending mood was a slap in the face. It was not subtle. It felt very pushy to me.
I’ve read some books where I felt the writer abruptly and clumsily tried to force me into a mood: a tense mood, a frightened mood, a maudlin mood. It jumped off the page at me and I don’t think it’s because I’m a writer.
It’s like watching a poorly-done horror movie. You know the bad guy is going to leap out at you because of the scary music, heavy on strings, that’s loudly playing.
Subtle ways to create a mood:
Skillful (and, to my liking, brief) description of the scene’s setting: an abandoned, deteriorating house (unease). A crowded train with body to body people (stress).
Setting tone through dialogue. Obviously this would be two or more characters sharing more than just chit-chat with each other. There could be an urgent tone set, a joyful tone, somber tone…
Syntax: We convey our feelings about a person via word choice—choosing words with negative connotations instead of positive ones. Someone’s face has pity, not sympathy. Someone is smug, not content. A person is cloying, not sweet. The character contributes toward establishment of the mood—the reader feels suffocated by the closeness of the cloying character, e.g.
Weather: I’ve seen this overdone. But it can be used very effectively in unusual ways. We all remember what a beautiful day it was in New York city on 9-11. It just illuminated the horror that played out.
Light: The daylight savings time shifts play havoc with my moods. You could do the same with blackouts, houses with uncertain electrical wiring, uncovered ceiling lightbulbs creating sinister shadows, etc.
I appreciate subtlety in creating moods instead of having a writer lay it on too thick. Are you the same way? As a writer, how do you invoke mood?
Here in Cyprus, Christmas items used to arrive 2 weeks before the event. This year it was the beginning of November. It is subtle though.
In the UK my niece complained to one of the big stores in AUGUST, they played Christmas music and had gifts on display.
I dislike it when a book leaves nothing to the imagination.
I try and use ‘mood’ words in my dialogue to set the atmosphere. I scour dictionaries for new atmospheric words.
We are now in daylight saving here, and there is always something cosy about the evenings. Enjoy yours :)
Elizabeth – Oh, I agree completely with you about mood-setting!! It’s got to be done subtly. There really are lots of ways to convey mood without “beating the reader over the head.” I guess it’s because of my background in language that I am most drawn to your point about word choice. There are, for instance, so many ways to describe a person’s smile that can convey mood (e.g. a grin, a smirk, a plastic smile, etc…). And it’s those “light brush strokes” of words, setting, etc. that make all the difference.
Even here in Hawaii, we do have mood settings during our “fall and winter time”. We have dark clouds that frequent the mountains, rain, high surf, and cooler temperatures. All wonderful elements for mystery writing.
There is a small valley filled with Dutch colonials and Greek revivals as well for the gothic mystery lover.
I do agree all about setting a mood, no matter where you are.
Mood setting is important when reading a good book. It’ makes a difference whether you feel a part of the story or not. As for Christmas being pushed too early, yesterday trying to find a radio station to listen to I came across two stations already playing nothing but Christmas music.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
Hubster drove down to town on Nov. 1st, and they were putting up Christmas decorations. It’s probably unfair of me to judge, since I don’t celebrate Christmas (and in Orlando, I don’t think they even waited until after Halloween), but still …
As for my writing – you know, I’ll have to think. My books are so deeply character focused, that external mood-setters don’t seem to come into play much. I suppose I should consider that more often. I do recall writing a scene where the character was mad at the weather because she was miserable, and it was a bright, sunny day.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Great tips as always, Elizabeth. I especially liked what you said about the weather. It is a good thing to contrast a horrific event against something beautiful. I don’t always think of that when I am writing, but will probably be more conscious of it now.
One good thing about living so far out in the country is that I don’t go to large shopping malls to see all the Christmas stuff out already. The merchants in our small town are waiting until after Thanksgiving to launch the big Holiday push.
I think the biggest thing for me to do when it comes to setting mood is word choice. Everything else can’t come together for me unless I pick the right word. From there, everything else blossoms.
Subtlety is definitely something that affects a book. Some writers do put it on too heavy–word choice can be an effective way of setting the mood.
I try to be subtle.
I’m lazy and shop online so I’ve avoided most of the Christmas overload in the stores.
Nice post. The mood here is dark. Not my mind, but the season. It’s basically dark all the time now. I kind of like it, the dark winter has it’s own charm, with white snow and northern light and that kind of stuff. Maybe I’ll try to describe it some time, using the hints in your post >:)
Cold As Heaven
Oh but I like it getting lighter sooner!
Best I can say is I set mood with emotion. It’s how I view the world anyway – one emotional basket case at a time.
These are excellent tips for moodsetting, thank you so much! Now I feel the need to go do some Christmas shopping!
I like the comparisons Elizabeth. In my high fantasy I use every available trick. Sometimes its the weather. That’s because the villain can send storms. Sometimes its in dialogue, my favorite I think. Sometimes its in a single look.
In real life, it would be nice if we heard the twilight zone music, for example, before we stumble into a bad situation. But we don’t and our characters shouldn’t either. Once there in it, that’s a different story.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author
So true, so true, we need to use words properly to please the reader without irritating them.
The other day I was at Walmart and I was humming a song and thinking that I knew it. It was a Christmas song. Already?
DC
The music over the store speakers was such a subtle shift this year that I didn’t even notice it. My husband pointed it out to me after we left–but I had seen so many little things (wreaths and the like) popping up, the next phase didn’t even make a blip on my radar.
Subtlety in writing is an art. But it’s important b/c when you want something to hit hard, it must be in contrast to the subtler situations.
Michele
Southern City Mysteries
Oh, man–I HEAR you! I hate being hit over the head–either in real life or in a story. I by far prefer stuff I can only really put into place after the fact, but THEN totally fits. I like the word choice bit and characters noticing things that can have two interpretations.
Thanks so much for coming by, y’all! Having some work done in my house, so my internet is intermittent. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on mood and how you set it–I love to get new ideas!
In defense of those stores that get their Christmas stuff out so early (my mom works in one, so I know this first hand): A lot of them are getting that stock that early through no fault or choice of their own and they have NOWHERE to put it.
Like my mom’s store currently has room for 10 pallets of stock and on their next stock day, is getting 13. If they can put Christmas stuff out because they do have room for that on the floor, can you really blame them?
Sorry, off-track!! Great post, I totally agree. :)
Yeah, I saw a few Christmas goodies sneaking onto the shelves at the same time as the Halloween goodies. It is kinda lame. I don’t mind if they have pre-pre-Christmas specials ’cause that’s less money I have to spend on things, but normally it’s just over-priced Xmassy stuff. Even the 2nd hand shops do it.
On a completely other note, loved your post. Very cool. I’m adding it to my blog so I can reference it later.