TQ&EGtWGF: Chapter 12…Situation, Mood, and Atmosphere

So, here we are at situation. I can’t believe I have to do this, but before I define what a situation is, I have to define what a story is. The reason I have to do this is because this guide is, once again, not intended for the literary elite. This guide is intended for those who wish to write commercial genre fiction, whether that fiction is for sale, fanfiction, publication on a site, or just for your own personal satisfaction.

For the practical, non-literary elite purposes of writing genre fiction, a story is the whole of what you have written. That whole involves your characters inside a fictional plot, whether that plot is meant to make an underlying point or simply entertain the reader.

So what is situation? For genre fiction, situation is the puzzle, challenge, problem, danger, conflict, or entertaining scene your characters have been thrown into. Situations connect to make up the narrative of your story, whether that narrative ponders the secrets of the universe, is simply an episode in the life of your original character, or is both.

Last but not least, we’ll briefly go over mood and atmosphere.

12a: Constructing a Situation:

The construction of a situation in genre fiction will mostly depend upon the genre you’re writing. Let’s go over some types of situations:

12a1: Mystery:

A mystery involves solving the mystery. Yes, I know, duh. Your situations should thrust your characters into finding pieces of the puzzle. Description and setting are key here, but so is dialogue between characters. Use all of these to create the puzzle your readers will try to work out for themselves.

12a2: Thriller:

As I’ve mentioned before, thrillers should create suspense and excitement. Thrillers typically use a little bit of everything, including description, setting, dialogue, mood, and mystery. Situations in thrillers should heighten suspense, increase danger, and leave your reader wanting more.

12a3: Crime:

Situations in crime revolve around…well…crime. Setting, description, and character interaction are all important factors when writing a crime story. Dialogue is also a key component in building drama and suspense. Your situations should be tense and exciting, or you’ll bore your readers.

12a4: Romance:

Dialogue, romantic interaction, and description are key here. Setting is also important because you want the mood to be right for your characters to fall in love. You can unironically have your characters fall in love while searching through a garbage dump, but this is typically not an ideal situation for romance. Nevertheless, your romantic situations should advance the feelings or unrequited feelings of your characters toward each other.

12a5: Horror:

Situations in horror are self-explanatory. Scenes in horror should generate dread, fear, or simply be disturbing. The point is to disturb, terrify, or upset the reader. Use setting, dialogue, and detailed description for this end point. Be creative as you whack your reader over the head with your terrifying material.

12a6: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Westerns, and Historical:

Situations in these genres revolve around their settings and what your characters do in those settings. Readers who love these genres want to feel immersed in them. Describe your world with at least some detail when delving into these genres. What your characters do in these genres is up to you, so the situations are fluid, but setting and description are key.

12a7: Comedy:

Everyone is familiar with the sitcom. The sitcom is, of course, short for situational comedy. When writing comedies—and I’ve said this before—your situations need to be funny. That entertainment can come from dialogue, description, or setting, just to name a few. Your characters may be smarmy or witty through dialogue, doing something slapstick, stupid, inane, or out of character through description, or involved in a place or setting where they are a fish out of water.

Now, this advice is just the bare bones of comedy. As someone who does not write that much comedy, my expert advice is to experiment and use what’s funny to you. It may not be comedy gold for everyone else, but you will have readers who find it hilarious.

12a8: Action and Adventure:

Action and adventure need to be exciting, and that excitement can come from both action and setting. Your characters should be in the thick of danger or filled with the wonder of a new and interesting place when writing adventure.

12a9: War:

War should be heavy on detailed action, whether that action revolves around individual characters or vehicular combat. Readers who enjoy military fiction centered around war want to see the fighting in their own minds, so go crazy with it. Character interaction and dialogue take a side role, but don’t leave them out! They are a staple for any situation involving military combat.

12a10: Drama:

Drama requires interaction between characters or between characters and the environment around them. Drama should be heavy on dialogue, setting, or both. Your dramatic situations need to create a feeling of unease similar to horror, but that unease is centered around resolving the drama in question, whether that dramatic situation is resolved or not. When in doubt, watch a soap opera. They eat, breathe, and sleep drama.

12a11: Sports:

I don’t talk much about this genre, but situations in sports should involve the sport in question and should be heavy on description. Dialogue, whether between characters or focused upon internal monologuing, is important as well. What announcers have to say can also be entertaining. Otherwise, this genre is fluid in what situations you want to put into it. Setting is obviously important, too.

12a12: Religious:

Obviously, situations in a religious genre should involve the religion in question. Setting, dialogue, description, and mood all play into this type of story, whether that story is realistic or delves into the supernatural. However, make sure you do your research first before you plunge into the divine.

12a13: Erotic:

Do I need to describe situation for this genre? Actually, I do. Erotic fiction centers around sex or always has sex somewhere in the background, but the situations within it are fluid. You can merge this genre with any other, and you can tell a story along the way, but don’t forget your readers. They may expect something you don’t deliver, and you won’t meet their expectations if you don’t know your demographic.

Some readers want more story than sex, while some readers just want the sex. It’s up to you to figure out who you’re writing for, so your situations will be centered around story or sex once you make that determination. However, description is incredibly important in this genre, much more so than setting or dialogue, but the latter two take on more importance if more story and less sex is what you’re shooting for.

12a14: Superhero:

Situations in the superhero genre are so variable that they cross into all other genres, but usually the situations in this genre involve fighting a villain or a group of villains. You can study the superhero genre by reading comic books or graphic novels, or you can just watch this genre on TV or in a movie. You’ll get the gist of what you wish to write by doing that. Description and setting are key here, while dialogue takes a back seat. Your readers will want to be plunged right into the action, especially if that action takes place in an interesting setting.

And that, my friends, makes up situation. When in doubt, think about your chosen genre and focus on what feels right for that genre. Think outside your own little box. If you want to write action, be descriptive. If you want character interaction, dialogue is important, as is description in the actions and reactions of what goes unsaid. Remember, your focus should be on what makes that genre work. Your readers will come back to you once you’ve figured this out.

12b: Mood:

Mood is the emotional response you want your readers to feel. Mood will shift in novels or novellas, but for short stories, the mood is usually consistent, as it becomes more difficult to change mood due to a short story’s length.

The mood of a story or scene can be something like happiness, nostalgia, or tension.

Mood and theme can be closely tied together, especially if you’re going for a lighthearted theme or one filled with dread. Otherwise, the mood you’re trying to convey can be shown in several different ways.

Here, we will briefly go over mood and setting, tone of POV narration, and descriptive word choice.

12b1: Mood and Setting:

Your setting can dictate the atmosphere of a story, but it can also affect the mood.

Take a gander at the most infamous line in all of genre fiction history:

It was a dark and stormy night.

We can tell from the line above that the mood is going to match the atmosphere inherent within this setting. We have a downcast mood along with some tension because of the weather.

Now let’s try something different:

The meadow was spotted with dew that gleamed in the early-morning light.

We get a peaceful feeling from this passage, something brought on by both the meadow and the fact that it’s dawn.

These are just two examples of setting affecting mood, but there are many, many ways setting can affect mood. You’ll just have to experiment.

12b2: Tone Around Dialogue and Action:

The tone surrounding your character’s dialogue and actions can and will affect mood.

Let’s look at an example:

“Come on, get in,” growled Tony as he shoved the little punk into the back of the police cruiser.

We have a hostile tone here from Tony. Obviously, this sets the mood as angry.

Let’s try this again:

“Come on, get in,” sighed Tony as he ushered Carson into the back of the police cruiser.

In this example, Tony is more frustrated than angry at his charge. We can see the change in mood here simply by the way Tony’s dialogue tag and action description work. The mood changes from anger to frustration.

12b3: Descriptive Word Choice:

How you say something also makes a big difference when generating mood. This is similar to tone around dialogue and action, but the difference is in general description rather than what a character says or does.

Here’s an example:

The Wilsons lived in a cabin out by the lake. Mr. Wilson had lived there with his wife, Maria, for forty years.

We have a general description of the Wilson residence and an equally general description of how long Mr. Wilson has lived in that residence, so no mood is really established.

However, if we change a few words:

The Wilsons lived in a quaint little cottage by the lake. Mr. Wilson had lived there with his one true love, Maria, for forty years.

We’ve changed “cabin” to “quaint little cottage.” We’ve also changed “wife” to “one true love.” These two changes bring about a change in mood, that mood being one of happiness and contentment for the couple in question.

12c: Atmosphere:

Atmosphere is the overall feeling a setting gives. The time period and place of the setting, along with the time of day, contribute to the atmosphere, and this atmosphere can go hand in hand with mood.

Here’s an example of atmosphere:

The worst part about being down here was the lack of sound.

Sheila turned her headlamp left and right to spot any sign of the others, but there was nothing down here but cold, damp stone and this narrow, twisting passage. She was afraid now, because this underground cave just kept going down, always down. Still, she was positive the others had gone this way… They had to have gone this way. There was no other way to go.

The general atmosphere here is one of an enclosed, in-between space, and this connects with mood to create fear, tension, and unease.

These are the basics of mood and atmosphere. I haven’t really gone into depth with these two subjects, mainly because this is genre fiction, so mood and atmosphere should be inherent within whatever genre you’re writing.

The only time you need to worry about mood and atmosphere is if you do not believe the mood or atmosphere matches the subject material, unless you intend it that way. You could, for example, set a horror story in a bright and sunny field of flowers, and this would belie the atmosphere and mood of the setting on purpose. Otherwise, your mood and atmosphere will, as I’ve previously mentioned, generally match the genre you’re writing in.

12d: In Closing:

Situation, mood, and atmosphere are simple things to understand once you stop trying to make them sound more complicated than they are. Situation is what your characters are dealing with. Mood is what you want your readers to feel. Atmosphere is the feeling given off by the setting.

All three of these can work separately, but they usually work together. A situation gives your characters something to do, mood gives your readers something to feel, and atmosphere helps surround the entire scene with the right emotional texture. When these three elements match your genre, your story will feel more natural to your readers. When they do not match your genre, you had better know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

As always, don’t overthink this. If you know what kind of story you’re writing, you’ll usually know what kind of situation, mood, and atmosphere you need. Build the situation, create the mood, establish the atmosphere, and then let your characters walk into whatever trouble, romance, mystery, horror, comedy, adventure, or bizarre nonsense you’ve created for them.

The image for Chapter 12 of TQ&EGtWGF was generated by artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI.