Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Setting

“It was a Dark and Stormy Night:” How Atmosphere Enhances the Plot and Crafts Immersive Narratives

Shakespeare knew what he was doing…

Creating a tangible atmosphere in your storytelling is often a subtle force that plays a critical role in shaping a narrative and enveloping your reader in the story.

A good atmosphere – created through setting, tone, and sensory details – can transform a simple plot into a rich, immersive experience filled with bright skies, stormy weather, and everything in between. Here we’ll explore how atmosphere enhances the plot and why it’s essential for crafting stories that draws readers into their characters’ world and lets them experience it (nearly) first-hand.

Setting the Scene

Atmosphere begins with setting. The world in which a story unfolds is more than just a backdrop. it influences mood, behavior, and narrative flow. Imagine a thriller set in a foggy, empty street at night versus one set in a bright, bustling city. The atmosphere created by each setting will evoke different emotional responses and drive the plot in unique ways.

In Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, for example, the dark, oppressive atmosphere of a decaying mansion reflects the internal turmoil of Miss Havisham’s deteriorated mental state. By adding depth to the setting, it actually becomes a character in itself, influencing the actions and decisions of the protagonists. This synergy between setting and plot helps readers immerse themselves more fully in the story.

Enhancing Tension and Suspense

Atmosphere is crucial in creating tension and suspense. A story’s mood can build anticipation and keep readers on edge. For example, a tense atmosphere can heighten the stakes and make moments of danger feel more immediate and pressing.

Consider a suspenseful scene set on a foggy, deserted street. The shadows and lack of other people can amplify the sense of danger and unpredictability. The atmosphere makes the plot twists more gripping because it engages the readers’ senses and emotions, making the narrative’s tension more palpable.

Reflecting Internal States

Atmosphere can also mirror a character’s internal state, providing insight into their emotions and motivations. For example, in the opening scene of Jack London’s White Fang we find two men traveling alone across the snowy Yukon Territory. Their lives are under constant threat from the world around them. This mirrors the theme of the story and the torment its protagonist experiences as a wolf left to constantly fight for his survival.

This mirroring helps readers connect more deeply with the characters, as the external atmosphere echoes their internal struggles and triumphs. It adds a layer of emotional resonance to the plot, making characters’ experiences feel more authentic and impactful.

Creating Symbolism and Themes

Atmosphere can enhance themes and symbolism within a narrative. By weaving certain atmospheric elements into the story, authors can subtly reinforce thematic undertones and symbols. For instance, a recurring motif of decay and deterioration in a story can symbolize the moral or societal decline of the characters or setting.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the opulent but hollow atmosphere of Gatsby’s parties to highlight themes of disillusionment and the emptiness of the American Dream. The atmosphere becomes a glittery vehicle for thematic exploration, enriching the plot’s complexity.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby in The Great Gatsby 2013 film

Guiding Reader Expectations

The atmosphere can guide readers’ expectations and shape their interpretation of the plot. A story that opens with a cheerful, light-hearted atmosphere might lead readers to anticipate a light, humorous tale. Conversely, a dark, foreboding atmosphere might set the stage for a more serious or tragic narrative.

By manipulating atmosphere, authors can subtly influence how readers engage with the plot, leading them to anticipate certain outcomes or questions about the narrative’s direction. This is seen in Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games, where the shanty town world her heroine, Katniss Everdeen, is born into is used as a comparison to the opulent wealth of Capitol City. This adds layers of complexity and surprise to the story as she must use the smarts she gained in her original environment to survive in a new and unusual place.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen volunteering as tribute in place of her sister at the barbaric Reaping for the Capitol.

Deepening Immersion

Finally, atmosphere plays a crucial role in deepening reader immersion. A well-crafted atmosphere can transport readers to another world, making the plot more engaging and compelling. The sensory details, emotional undertones, and overall mood create a rich tapestry that draws readers in and holds their attention.

Whether it’s the cozy warmth of a small-town bakery or the cold, sterile environment of a high-tech laboratory, the atmosphere creates a sensory experience that enhances the plot and makes the story come alive. It helps readers visualize and feel the world of the story, making the plot more vivid and impactful.

Brick by Brick You Build A World Your Readers Can Feel

Atmosphere is a powerful tool in storytelling, enhancing the plot in ways that go beyond mere setting. By influencing mood, creating tension, reflecting internal states, and deepening thematic elements, atmosphere enriches the narrative and captivates readers. When done effectively, it turns a simple story into an immersive experience, making every plot twist and character development resonate more deeply.

So, the next time you’re crafting a story, remember that the atmosphere you create is as integral to the plot as the characters and events. It’s the subtle force that breathes life into your narrative and keeps readers’ attention until the very last clap of thunder!

Chanticleer Editorial Services – We’re ready when you are ready!

Did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?We do and have been doing so since 2011!

Tools of the Editing Trade

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis.Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service. Here are some handy links about this tried and true service: https://test.chantireviews.com/manuscript-reviews/

September 17, 2024
Painting the White Room: How Not to Make a Mess of the Walls – A Chanticleer Toolbox Article from Scott Taylor
When the story begins, where are your characters?

You can maybe see something if you squint…

Jennifer entered Mr. Hostler’s home, finding herself in an empty white room.

“Where’s your furniture?” she asked.

Mr. Hostler cocked a brow. “You don’t need chairs to talk, Ms. Trent.”

White Room Syndrome is an ominous name for a common problem in prose writing: the characters are acting, talking, and moving the story forward, but all in a scene that hasn’t been set through description. They’re in an empty white void. Despite the name, a literal white room is not required.

Chances are good you’ve seen White Room Syndrome at some point in your own writing, where an old friend’s attic, the car of a speeding train, or even the great outdoors aren’t described to the reader beyond those broad descriptions.

So, how do you paint a scene? Well, you can’t include every single detail about the locations your characters go to, not without sacrificing any hope of good pacing – or readers finishing your book. So, I’m going to go over five critical lenses you can use to figure out which aspects of a setting are most valuable to the story: The lenses of clarity, character, tone, imagination, and pacing.

First, the lens of clarity; you must construct the world to seem cohesive.

“Then where am I supposed to put this?” Jennifer demanded, shaking her sodden umbrella.

Mr. Hostler took it from her. “First, you ought to close it. You certainly don’t need any more bad luck. And, where else would it go?” He set it carefully in the umbrella stand.

“Hey! Where did that come from–”

“Why, it’s always been there. We live in a rainy city after all,” Mr. Hostler said.

Oh that’s where I left that!

Without a scene set in your reader’s mind, the actions of your characters will be harder to imagine, and immersion will suffer. Description bears much of the responsibility for maintaining continuity in your story, both at a small scale and a large one.

Focus on the specifics of your setting.

If your story is set in a desert town, then perhaps a room is filled with the hum of air conditioning, while sunlight bathes everything near the windows.

These small details will become part of your readers’ gestalt image of this town and its environment. So, rather than having a character comment on the heat of their city, you can simply let the dry stretch of sand, pitcher of ice water on the table, or faint smell of sweat comment on it instead. What an average person’s house looks, sounds, and smells like can tell you a lot about a town, from weather to economics to culture.

Building the world, piece by piece

On the smaller scale, try to describe important details for the actions of the coming scene.

If someone is going to lunge across their desk, then take a moment to describe that desk as the scene opens on the room around it. What’s going to fall and clatter to the floor? If one of your characters is worn down after a long day of work, about to have an argument with their inconsiderate partner, you might describe the car in the driveway that one of them will later angrily drive off in. Remember the principle of setup and payoff: willing suspension of disbelief thrives when important details are established before they come into action.

Not all details should be practical building blocks for the beats of a scene. As much as they can reveal the world itself, so can they reveal the people within it.

Consider next the lens of character

A description of a woman with butterflies in her stomach, of possibility in a beautiful world:

Pink crocuses beckon to the first rays of sunlight, eager on the riverbank. Marie’s fingers explored the spirals and stripes of the railing. To where did they all lead? On the far end of the bridge, a wooden board creaked faintly beneath Rona’s familiar blue boots as she stopped a few feet away. She seemed to belong on the bridge’s rising arch. Cool, piney air filled Marie’s chest.

You could fall in love here

A description of a woman who’s probably going to go missing in about two pages:

Dark green roots slithered out from the riverbank, disappearing beneath murk and silt. Marie’s every step was interrogated by the stark light of dawn. She traced the spirals of the wooden railing, but her fingers never quite escaped the splintery prodding of their coils. A sharp whine cut through the air, and Marie’s eyes darted up to find Rona, standing not but a few feet from her. Those heavy boots, sagging jacket, and long, flat hair all seemed to whisper that only a few old planks separated Marie from the sinking grip of the river.

Not a place to go walking alone

Because of the tone set by these descriptions, the conversation between these characters will have a strong foundation, with words that would otherwise mean very little now being heavy with implication (for better or for worse). Choose those details which tighten tension and keep your readers excited to see how this scene plays out.

This is a great time to employ sensory description beyond sight and sound. Yeasty baking bread, the calloused fingers of mountain wind on exposed skin, a disappointingly-unsweet taste of fresh cherry sap – details like these put your readers into the bodies of your characters, a powerful tool for establishing the emotional shade of a scene.

To spark imagination, use a lens of specificity

Find the balance of trusting your reader and showing them your world.

It’s not just a sunny day – the sun sears white even the empty sky around it. What can you describe in ten words that says a thousand about your setting? What could your character have on their desk that shows the fear seeded deep in their bones? How should the light fall in the old church, to make clear that something is very, very wrong in this town? These evocative details act as foundations, allowing readers to fill in the empty space without even realizing they’re doing it.

Give them enough of a groundwork to understand how a location feels, show them the striking details, but don’t spell out every mundane element of someone’s kitchen.

No hard and fast rules

These lenses aren’t requirements for every scene, especially as you’re drafting (consider this article by Michelle Rene on Write Fast, Edit Slow.) Lenses are useful tools for when you’re editing your work, thinking about what each line of description is supposed to do for your story.
- Does it accomplish its goal?
- Would something else be stronger in its place?
- Could combine two lines into a single, more evocative one?
If you don’t know what color to paint your white room, try these lenses, and see what they can show you about the walls of your story.

Chanticleer Editorial Services – when you are ready

Did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services?

We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Tools of the Editing Trade

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service. Here are some handy links about this tried and true service: https://test.chantireviews.com/manuscript-reviews/

Writer’s Toolbox

Thank you for reading this ENCORE Chanticleer Writer’s Toolbox article.

Scott Taylor – Editorial Assistant

Scott has worked as a book editor since 2020, with a BA in English & Writing from The Evergreen State College.

He facilitates a small writing critique group, and serves as an editor on the biennial anthology The Writer’s Corner. Scott’s book reviews feature on the Chanticleer Book Reviews website. His own writing centers on speculative and surreal fiction, from sci-fi & fantasy to magical realism, and has been published in the HamLit literary journal.

Beyond working on novels and short stories, Scott explores other media and modes of narrative, such as playwriting, tabletop game design, and music composition. He finds moving from one medium to another offers inspiration that feeds back into his prose work.
September 29, 2023
MOOD – the Soundtrack of Fiction Works from Jessica Morrell’s Editor’s Desk – A Chanticleer Writers Toolbox Post
Just as every dark and stormy night, dinner party, holiday gathering, or bustling office on payday are infused with mood, so are scenes in the best fiction.

Mood affects, resonates, and reinforces the reader’s emotions, aids in understanding key moments, and enhances his or her immersion into the story events.

Mood is the feel or atmosphere or ambience of a story or scene.

ALL writing should evoke a mood.

Miranda at “that” dinner party that takes place in the STATION ELEVEN series. The tension is palpable.

Mood is the Soundtrack of Fiction aka Mood as Backdrop

Mood is omnipresent in the best books much like the soundtracks of notable films. As with movies without a soundtrack, fiction is not complete and captivating without having moods as a backdrop. Mood makes readers worry about heroines stranded in lonely castles and fog-bound moors. It feeds suspense and tension, and is in fact inseparable from them. It is essential to genres like horror, thrillers, and action, but is necessary to every moment in every story where you want a reader to feel a certain way. You can stage your characters in dramatic events but without setting up the proper mood, the characters’ actions will fall short.

Mood is What Readers Feel While Reading Your Story.

Mood is what the reader feels while reading a scene or story. It’s not the reader’s emotions, (though mood is designed to influence them) but the atmosphere (the vibe) of a scene or story. It’s the tornado heading for Dorothy Gale’s Kansas farm. In the film, once the viewers spot that towering tunnel and witness winds lashing the countryside, fear sets in. Will Dorothy make it to cellar in time?

It’s what the reader notices, what gets under his or her skin. Not all readers will experience/perceive the same mood from a scene, although the writer tries to achieve a particular feel common to every reader.

A quick example from everyday life–candlelight is soothing and soft; overhead fluorescent lights are harsh and even irritating.

Tip: Mood should change and vary as the story moves forward. Moods in subplots should vary from the main storyline.

Why Mood?
- Deepens the reader’s experience.
- Creates cohesion.
- Enhances tension and suspense.
- Evokes emotions, creates emotional connections to the characters and their situations.
- Works with reader’s nervous system.
- Underlines themes.
- Mood helps fiction become more immersive, alive, lifelike and creates a backdrop for drama.
Mood is Created by a Range of Literary Devices:
- Setting
- Conflict
- Imagery
- Sensory Details
- Characters Reacting and Responding in Scenes.
Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series is an exemplary example of infusing mood into scenes: joy, fear, longing, betrayal, expectation, disappointment, and so on.

Evoking mood in fiction – Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Use Descriptive Language to Induce Moods

While setting is most commonly used to induce moods, descriptive language is a potent tool and that decreases or amps up tension. In Dean Koontz’s psychological thriller The Face, a horrific storm lashes Los Angeles a few days before Christmas adding a delicious shiver of danger and tension. The weather is referred to in each scene, causes things to happen and creates an ominous, the ‘world-is-askew’ mood. For example, he writes, “In the witches’ cauldron of the sky, late-morning light brewed into a thick gloom more suitable to winter dusk.”
- Mood is created on a word-by-word basis by choosing sensory details that stir emotions, but also by orchestrating pacing. Slow down for important moments, places readers need to savor. Pacing naturally speeds up when excitement is high, conflict is intense, action is nonstop. Short sentences and paragraphs communicate excitement, urgency, panic, anger, shock, and violence. Short sentences land a gut punch and demand readers keep zipping through the text.
- While most stories, especially short stories, have an overarching atmosphere, the ambience or vibe of a story will change over time and change in intensity.
- Examples of mood: spooky, light-hearted, gothic, sexy, peaceful, ominous, brooding, funny, suspenseful.
- Mood is linked to tension and suspense and getting under your reader’s skin.
- Use mood to foreshadow.
Remember that a vague or pallid setting will create vague and pallid emotions/reactions in your readers. – Jessica Morrell

Example as Mood as Backdrop

Peter Heller’s brilliant novel The Dog Stars takes place in a future where the world has been ravaged by a pandemic that’s killed off most of the population. If that wasn’t bad enough, the natural world is dying off too. He wrote it in 2012. I’m a sucker for a post-apocalyptic novel, even when they’re shockingly prescient. I cannot recommend enough this beautiful, compelling, heart-wrenching story that invaded my thoughts for days while reading it. This backdrop to the state of affairs the protagonist Hig exists in, is dropped in on page 6.

“In the beginning there was Fear. Not so much the flu by then, by then I walked, I talked. Not so much talked, but of sound body—and of mind, you be the judge. Two straight weeks of fever, three days 104 to105, I know it cooked my brains. Encephalitis or something else. Hot. Thoughts that once belonged, that felt at home with each other, were now discomfited, unsure. Depressed, like those shaggy Norwegian ponies that Russian professor moved to the Siberian Arctic I read about before. He was trying to recreate the Ice Age, a lot of grass and fauna and few people. Had he known what was coming he would have pursued another hobby. Half the ponies died, I think from heartbreak for their Scandinavian forests, half hung out at the research station and were fed grain and still died. That’s how my thoughts are sometimes. When I’m stressed. When something’s bothering me and won’t let go. They’re pretty good, I mean they function, but a lot of times they feel out of place, kinda sad, sometimes wondering if maybe they are supposed to be ten thousand miles from here in a place with a million square miles of cold Norwegian spruce. Sometimes I don’t trust my thoughts not to bolt for the brush. Probably not my brain, probably normal for where we’re at.”

“I don’t want to be confused: we are nine years out. The flu killed almost everybody, then the blood disease killed more. The ones who are left are mostly Not Nice, that is why we live here on the plain, why I patrol every day.”

Example of Mood Setting the Stage

“Stop that you’ll fall.”

A week’s worth of snow has compressed into ice, each day’s danger hidden beneath a nighttime dusting of powder. Every few yards my boots travel farther than my boots intended, and my stomach pitches, braced for a fall. Our progress is slow, and I wished I’d thought to bring Sophia on a sled instead.

Reluctantly, she opens her eyes, swivels her head owllike, away from the shops, to hide her face in her sleeve. I squeeze her gloved hand. She hates the birds that hang in the butcher’s window, their neck iridescent feathers cruelly at odds with the lifeless eyes they embellish.

I hate the birds too.

Adam says I’ve given the phobia to her, like a cold or a piece of unwanted jewelry.

“Where did she get it from them?” he said when I protested turning to an invisible crowd, as if the absence of answer proved his point. “Not me.”

Of course not. Adam doesn’t have weaknesses.

This is the opening salvo for Hostage written by Clare Mackintosh, a ‘locked room’ thriller. The locked room in this story is a London to Sydney flight. It feels like a thriller doesn’t it? Those creepy dead birds, dangerous snow, and the husband-wife conflict signal something bad is going to happen.

Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart. Jessica

Jessica Page Morrell

Jessica Morrell is a top-tier developmental editor and a contributor to Chanticleer Reviews Media and to the Writer’s Digest magazine. She teaches Master Writing Craft Classes along with sessions at the Chanticleer Authors Conference that is held annually along with teaching at Chanticleer writing workshops that are held throughout the year.

Jessica Morrell’s Classes and Workshops at CAC22

June 23 – 26, 2022 at the Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash. In Real Life and Virtual!
- Using Film Techniques for Fiction Writers – Camera angles, method acting for getting into a character’s pov, and creating subtext and tight dialogue
- Your Brain on Writing
- Captivating Co-Stars that add depth to your work-in-progress
- Word Nerd Kaffeeklatsch with Kiffer Brown
- And more TBD!
Don’t Delay! Register Today!
April 12, 2022