In a post on the Write Practice blog, Joslyn Chase offers advice for creating atmosphere in your writing. “There are many literary devices and elements of fiction a writer uses to impact the atmosphere of a literary work, including figurative language, word choice, similes, and personification,” Chase writes. In this post, she discusses how you can use POV and genre considerations to set a mood and establish atmosphere.
A close POV can help you effectively communicate mood in a way a more distant narrator cannot, because your observations and word choices will hew closely to your main character’s perspective. Your character’s mood – happy or sad – will color how they experience the story world, including what they notice, how they describe it, and how they react to it. Your MC’s emotional responses to their environment can help you create the atmosphere of your work.
Similarly, your choice of genre will help create atmosphere. Chase examines some examples of mystery writing to show how genre expectations naturally create a sense of curiosity and suspense. You might recall any number of science fiction works that left you with a sense of awe and discovery, or fantasy novels that filled you with surprise and delight.
