How to Create Atmosphere
How exactly can you create atmosphere in your novel?
I think of atmosphere as the MOOD of a scene. Say your scene takes place somewhere pretty prosaic: a sidewalk. How that setting FEELS could be drastically different depending on how you create atmosphere. Maybe the smell of warm concrete brings to mind bored summer days scribbling with rainbow-colored chalk and fingers sticky with melted popsicle juice. Maybe the crumbling, pockmarked sidewalk is overrun by stinky weeds sprawling out of yards that line the street, and the oppressive neglect of the neighborhood chafes at your protagonist. Entirely different moods–one languid, one frustrated–and choices that set up different expectations for what might happen in that scene. (Atmosphere can be a wonderful foreshadowing tool.)
⭐ Creating atmosphere does 3 things all at the same time: you describe the setting, you set a mood for the scene, and you reveal how your protagonist FEELS about their world. Think of it as another tool in your writer belt to show and not tell the reader how your characters are feeling.
⭐ Visualize yourself in the world of the scene. Allow yourself to imagine how that moment might feel. And then think about how you want to convey that feeling to the reader–in a way that doesn’t rely on clichés. English is a zany, ever-changing language, so mix it up! Have fun with it. Use weird words. Make up words. Just be intentional.
Tools you can use to help create atmosphere:
▪️Imagery: using specific visual details to spark an emotional response
▪️Connotation: considering the meaning attached to your words (for example, “pummeled” evokes a sense of violence)
▪️Metaphors, similes, and personification: using comparisons, directly or indirectly, to describe
▪️Alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia: using the SOUNDS of words to evoke a mood
▪️Sentence structure: mimicking the pace or mood of a scene by playing with the length and complexity of your sentences
⭐ Look at this excerpt from The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.
“It is the first day of November, and so today, someone will die.
Even under the brightest sun, the frigid autumn sea is all the colors of the night: dark blue and black and brown. I watch the ever-changing patterns in the sand as it’s pummeled by countless hooves.
They run the horses on the beach, a pale road between the black water and the chalk cliffs. It is never safe, but it’s never so dangerous as today, race day.
This time of year, I live and breathe the beach. My cheeks feel raw with the wind throwing sand against them. My thighs sting from the friction of the saddle. My arms ache from holding up two thousand pounds of horse. I have forgotten what it is like to be warm and what a full night’s sleep feels like and what my name sounds like spoken instead of shouted across yards of sand.
I am so, so alive.”
*Notice how it isn’t flowery or overdone. Simple word choices like “frigid,” “night,” “pummeled,” and “black water” give a sense of what KIND of ocean setting is the backdrop for this scene: dark, violent, and mysterious.
*Notice how the rhythm of the lines changes as she describes what it feels like to ride: the sentences fall into a shorter, simpler construction that is repeated, before ending in one long, complex sentence connected by “ands.” It mimics the repetitive and breathless feeling of galloping on a horse.
The FEELING she elicits from just these opening paragraphs does more than just setting the scene–she creates an atmosphere of excitement and danger. Just because the sea is beautiful doesn’t mean it won’t try to kill you…just like the magical horses at the heart of the story.
Remember: if you choose strong, interesting, evocative words, you can do a lot with a little.
And: don’t limit yourself to the 8-pack of crayons when there’s a whole 64-pack of colors out there to play with! 🌈
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