• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
    • About WHW
    • Press Kit
    • Resident Writing Coaches
    • Contact Us
    • Podcasts & Interviews
    • WHW Newsletter
    • Guest Post Guidelines
    • Privacy Policy
    • Charities & Support
  • Bookstore
    • Bookstore
    • Foreign Editions
    • Book Reviews
    • Free Thesaurus Sampler
  • Blog
  • Software
  • Workshops
  • Resources
    • List of Resources
    • Recommended Writing Books
    • Find your Favorite Descriptive Thesaurus
    • Build Your Tookit
    • Grab A Free Show-Dont-Tell Pro Pack
  • WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Creating Mood In A Scene Using Light and Shadow

August 22, 2016 by ANGELA ACKERMAN

What’s one of the first things a person does to set the mood at home for a romantic evening? She turns down the lights. This simple adjustment is a big step toward creating a calm, receptive atmosphere. Just as the amount and quality of lighting will influence the way people feel in real life, we can adjust the mood for both characters and readers in our stories by playing with light and shadow.

Most everyone has familiar places that they’ve visited in daylight. But enter that same place at night and it becomes unfamiliar, with a totally different feel. By changing the amount and quality of light in a given place, you can shift the mood without changing the setting. For example, consider an example from a classic, L. M. Montgomery’s description of Birch Path, a recurring location in her Anne of Green Gables series:

AGG1

      It was a little narrow, twisting path, winding down over a long hill straight through Mr. Bell’s woods, where the light came down sifted through so many emerald screens that it was as flawless as the heart of a diamond.

One can easily envision this scene under the trees. The green-tinged sunlight gives the scene a lighthearted, cheerful feel, and though the season isn’t mentioned, late spring or summer is inferred, simply by referencing the light.

But the same path traveled later in the day by a character in another frame of mind can look and feel vastly different. Here is Birch Path again, traveled by a more mature Anne in the third book of the series:

AGG2

 Anne felt lonelier than ever as she walked home, going by way of the Birch Path and Willowmere. She had not walked that way for many moons. It was a darkly-purple bloomy night. The air was heavy with blossom fragrance—almost too heavy.

The darkly-purple light, combined with Anne’s loneliness and the cloying odors, give the scene a heavy, melancholy feel that wasn’t there before.

(Do keep in mind this example is sourced from a classic, and when writing for a modern audience, we’d need to be careful about wandering too far down the flowery language path–pun intentional!)

Because light and shadow lies within the realm of universal symbolism, people tend to respond to light in a feral way: well-lit areas are deemed safer, putting us at ease, while darker spots have more weight and feel heavier both on the body and the spirit. When setting the mood for a scene, carefully consider the lighting. How much light is there? Where does it come from? Is it hard or soft, comforting or blinding? Is it constant and totally revealing, or does it allow for shadows and hidden places? Questions like these will serve as a guide for how to light a scene in order to set the desired mood.

Keep in mind however that light and shadow may represent something entirely different if one has taken the time to set up personal symbolism. Light itself may represent pain, exposure, risk, or danger to a character who lives safely below ground, or by the necessity of survival, is only able to come out at night. One needs only to look at vampire, werewolf, and demon fiction to see this played out within a story.

TIP: Should you adapt the universal symbolism of light and shadow to something personal which fits the personality of your point of view character or the reality of the world upon which the story is built, make sure to set this up so the meaning is always clear to readers.

Want more ideas on how to set the mood? Save this checklist to Pinterest.

The Setting Thesaurus_Mood Building


Becca and I have a love affair with powerful description, the kind that does so much more than paints a picture for readers. Creating Mood is only one of ways setting can make your scenes rich and more meaningful.

If you’d like to find out how to also use it to characterize the story’s cast, reveal critical backstory naturally and effectively, steer the plot, reinforce emotion, provide tension & conflict, poke at your protagonist’s emotional wounds and gosh, SO MUCH MORE, we hope you’ll check out our new Urban Setting and Rural Setting Thesaurus books.  🙂

The Setting Thesaurus Duo

Happy writing!

A & B

And, if you’d like more information on creating mood, visit Jami Gold’s terrific blog. 🙂

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Characters, Description, Emotion, Mood and Atmosphere, Setting, Setting Thesaurus Guides, Show Don't Tell, Uncategorized, Writing Craft, Writing Lessons

About ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lita says

    February 17, 2021 at 9:17 am

    Excellent, as always. Thanks, Becca and Angela.

    • BECCA PUGLISI says

      February 17, 2021 at 11:58 am

      Happy to be of service 🙂

  2. Darlene Foster says

    August 28, 2016 at 12:50 pm

    Excellent information, as always. Thanks!!

  3. Mary Kate says

    August 22, 2016 at 12:20 pm

    One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned as a new writer was that straight description is almost never as powerful as description filtered through the lens of the point-of-view character. These are perfect examples, thanks.

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      August 22, 2016 at 1:22 pm

      Yes, absolutely! When you filter it, you get the emotional slant of that description. A character who is afraid will see the world much differently than one that is content, or filled with gratitude, or elation.

  4. Paul Vitols says

    August 22, 2016 at 12:04 pm

    Okay okay, I’ll buy a setting thesaurus! Question: my own epic-in-the-making, The Age of Pisces, is set in the ancient past (48 BC to start with). Would your Urban Setting Thesaurus have anything to offer the creator of ancient urban settings? Or should I stick with The Rural Setting Thesaurus?

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      August 22, 2016 at 1:19 pm

      Both of the thesaurus books have high level lessons on how to use description effectively, so we recommend using them as a pair, but that said, for you, Rural will likely have the most value as far as the entries go and that volume contains the natural settings (rivers, mountains, deserts, forests, etc.) However, with the urban volume, keep in mind that while clearly a historical book won’t use the exact same description as a contemporary setting, the elements will be the same in the sense that urban areas, past or present, will still have streets, law enforcement and government buildings, cultural influences, entertainment venues, construction, etc. and so you can use this volume to help you layer realism in any setting. 🙂

      Hope this helps! And thanks for wanting to give it a test drive. 🙂 We hope you love either or both, whichever you choose. 🙂

  5. Carol Baldwin says

    August 22, 2016 at 8:28 am

    This was a great post. Just added it to my Pinterest board and my class wiki. Thanks.

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      August 22, 2016 at 1:21 pm

      Awesome! Glad it will help 🙂

  6. paula cappa says

    August 22, 2016 at 8:19 am

    I love prose that creates mood and scenes that I can sink into. But I have to say that the “darkly-purple bloomy night” would read as purple prose to most modern readers today. Your Rural Setting Thesaurus looks fascinating though. I’ve got to get it.

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      August 22, 2016 at 10:04 am

      Paula, I agree–this example does walk the edge and if there was too much of this, it would definitely be purple. That’s one thing we definitely do need to remember when sourcing the classics, so I should probably add a disclaimer. That said, I also love the creativity if it, of thinking past the common, so that’s why I included it. 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. Writing Links Round Up For 11/28-12/3 – B. Shaun Smith says:
    December 5, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    […] Creating Mood In A Scene Using Light and Shadow […]

  2. Monday Must-Reads [08.29.16] says:
    August 29, 2016 at 1:18 am

    […] Creating Mood In A Scene Using Light and Shadow – WRITERS HELPING WRITERS® […]

  3. Top Picks Thursday! For Readers and Writers 08-25-2016 | The Author Chronicles says:
    August 25, 2016 at 1:02 pm

    […] of communication in the world you build, Iain Bain explores how to write funny, Angela Ackerman creates mood in a scene using light and shadow, and Jodie Renner discusses the how and when to use hyphens, dashes, and […]

Primary Sidebar


Welcome!

Writing is hard. Angela & Becca make it easier. Get ready to level up your fiction with game-changing tools, resources, and advice.

Follow Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Subscribe to the Blog

Check your inbox to confirm! If gremlins tried to eat it, you might have to check your spam folder.

Read by Category

Grab Our Button

Writers Helping Writers

Software that Will Change the Writing Game

One Stop for Writers

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS® · Copyright © 2022 · WEBSITE DESIGN BY LAUGH EAT LEARN

Cookies are delicious and ours help make your experience here better. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with our cookie use. Cookie settingsGOT IT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. More on our Privacy Policy here.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
 

Loading Comments...