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The mood and atmosphere of a story is like the flavour of a soup.
The mood and atmosphere of a story is like the flavour of a soup. It's not the vegetable nor the meat, it's the background, savoury broth. My preferred genre for reading and writing is psychological suspense. A psychological suspense story requires a strong mood. When the reader begins they must feel the tone of threat and lurking danger. These create the undertone from which spring the murderers, paedophiles and horrors of the past that our main character must pit themselves against. The writer can select scenes for her characters that are narrow and dark - the cells full of disturbed inmates, the house normal on the outside and abnormal on the inside where a serial killer holds their victim prisoner. Think Hannibal Lecter. We can add violent weather - pouring rain, a thunderstorm, a dark night where no one is on the street and anything is possible. Or a happy public holiday where the horrors of murder are contrasted with the air of celebration. The frame of mind of disturbed characters- psychotic, desperate - is reflected in the world around them. It's not only the frame of mind of the killer which must be reflected in the mood of the story, the frame of mind of our heroine/hero must also be reflected. As they slide further into depression, anger and frustration this must show in the atmosphere. For instance, in deteriorating relationships with colleagues or partners, or in an internal dialogue which becomes increasingly bleak and self doubting. The heroine's own weaknesses have been stirred into action and we will see her struggle. An important aspect of the atmosphere of suspense is the feeling of enclosure. The crucible is small. The walls are tall and the characters are metaphorically trapped. The story must play out and the space the characters are enclosed in will appear to shrink. The author accomplishes this not with delicacy in tempering the mood and atmosphere - the killer and the story will creep up on the main character, and, of course, they will do the same to the reader! |
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