Writers Helping Writers^®

Mood and Atmosphere

How to Amp Up a “Boring” Story Setting

July 23, 2026

How to Amp Up a “Boring” Story Setting

July 23, 2026

Taking the time to choose the right setting for each scene is one of the best ways to ensure our writing has impact. Why? Because the setting touches everything. It…

How To Use Dialogue for Backstory and Worldbuilding—Infodump-Free!

October 21, 2025

How To Use Dialogue for Backstory and Worldbuilding—Infodump-Free!

October 21, 2025

It’s an ongoing struggle for many of us: How do I share backstory and build my world without infodumping (and boring my readers)? One of my favorite—and sometimes overlooked—tools is…

How to Use Weather to Create Mood, Not Clichés

September 23, 2025

How to Use Weather to Create Mood, Not Clichés

September 23, 2025

Are you afraid of using the weather in your writing? If so, you’re not alone. After all, if not careful, weather description can be a minefield of clichés. The sunny,…

Colonel Mustard in the Ballroom: How Setting Shapes Mystery

August 19, 2025

Colonel Mustard in the Ballroom: How Setting Shapes Mystery

August 19, 2025

Setting is a story element that must do double duty in any genre: it’s your backdrop, so it shouldn’t take over and become the story, but it should be chosen…

How to Use Show, Don’t Tell to Strengthen Your Story

March 25, 2025

How to Use Show, Don’t Tell to Strengthen Your Story

March 25, 2025

Writers hear it all the time: Show, don’t tell. This advice is so iconic that I wouldn’t be surprised if a few tattoos are kicking around the community. After all,…

Using the 5 Elements of Writing to Immerse Readers

May 28, 2024

Using the 5 Elements of Writing to Immerse Readers

May 28, 2024

Have you ever watched a movie based on a book you read and realized the book is so much better? As a writer, this phenomenon excites me, because we can…

Turn Your Readers into Detectives

January 16, 2024

Turn Your Readers into Detectives

January 16, 2024

Imagine inviting us into your protagonist’s house or whatever you deem to be their most sacred physical space. But while we’re so excited to meet your protagonist, they’re not actually…

How to Create Mood Effectively in Your Fiction

October 7, 2023

How to Create Mood Effectively in Your Fiction

October 7, 2023

By C. S. Lakin Every person or character, at any given time, is in a particular mood. Generally, mood is a person’s state of mind, but it’s more than that.…

Improve Your Storytelling in 5 Minutes

July 25, 2023

Improve Your Storytelling in 5 Minutes

July 25, 2023

What are writers chronically short on? Time. There never seems to be enough of it as we try to get the next book written, research our publishing options, keep up…

Setting Description Mistakes that Weaken a Story

March 29, 2022

Setting Description Mistakes that Weaken a Story

March 29, 2022

When you think about the key elements of storytelling, characters and plot immediately come to mind, but what about the setting? Do you view it as 1) a vital story…