A prologue that I read recently has provided endless inspiration for me.
I’ve studied it many times, deconstructing the composition and trying to pinpoint what impacted me so strongly. The scene that is depicted seems innocuous; a sunny day in a park, families milling around, but the narrator is focused on several individuals apart from the seemingly ordinary setting. Ever so subtly, the narrator describes an almost imperceptible pall that comes over the scene, creating an uneasy dread in me. In less than four hundred words, the author had set the mood and rendered this reader unable to resist turning the page.
It was a powerful beginning and I want to write something as impactful myself.
I researched how to establish mood and emotion in writing. How many guides and resources have we all studied in our efforts to glean the secrets to writing well? The information was not new but I have a retention problem so it takes a few reads for me to get it.
I was reminded that focus on sensory details, the setting, weather, time of day all combine to create the mood you’re going for. The tiniest details seen through a character’s eyes can have a huge impact that hopefully ignites an emotional response from readers. Along with the author’s beautiful use of language, that’s what I liked so much about the prologue – the visceral response I had and the anticipation of what was coming next.
The mood, positive or negative, will be set by the characters’ differing experiences of the same place. A student excited to be taking his first flying lesson will experience airport surroundings very differently than some who is afraid of flying.
A suggestion I came across was to use a ‘mood board’ which I hadn’t heard of before. It seems like it would be an excellent tool so I’ve started collecting images and quotes to help me create just the right mood for my next short story.
You never know where new learnings will come from or when your next ‘ah ha’ moment will happen.
