Creating Great Atmospheres in Your Stories

     
       Last Saturday my family and I were at my grandparent’s house when my youngest sister asked my mom if she could go shopping.

       My grandparents live in a German tourist town, so everything is beautiful and picture perfect.
        I threw my hair up into a ponytail, rocked the no makeup look (since I had brought none), and my granny, my mom, my brother, my two sisters, my cousin, and I went for a ride and then a stroll down main street.

        Remember, we’re in a tourist town, everything is meant to attract customers, so as we’re browsing through shelves of knickknacks and passing these gorgeous stores I found myself thinking about story details and how to create a great atmosphere in my stories.

        First off, story details are crazy fun and crazy difficult at times. It is so hard to find the balance between too little detail and purple prose, which is a whole other post… oh, man.

       But as I walked through these beautiful, beautiful stores I noticed how there were so many things, and colors that I couldn’t simply observe them in one glance. Which leads me to my number one tip:

 

 

 

 

1. DON’T try to show everything at once!

I know your character is probably in a really pretty gown in a stunning palace or they’re out battling a ferocious dragon in the light of the blue moon, but finding the line between too little detail and TMI, is pretty important. Long tip short: Your character won’t notice everything at once.

See this picture? I took it while wandering this store, in the moment I mostly noticed the red car, snapped a picture, and hurried off to the other side of the store, but looking back I notice a ton of other knickknacks that I overlooked before.

         
        2. Remember the five senses.

 The basic five senses are sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, I say basic because there are a few others such as gut-feeling that are still being debated about.

 

 

 

 

 

Do the floorboards creak? Is the air heavy with the scent of must and lemongrass tea? Can your character taste sea salt in the air? Do they feel the coolness and roughness of the sword hilt they're gripping? Does the sound of clanging metal and the shouts of dying men still ring in their ears long after the battle? Does your character notice the soft white flower swaying in the breeze? These are questions that need to be asked and addressed, they'll make your story better.

I took this picture at an ice-cream shop, which had a very retro style that I loved. (It was also playing Grease on one of those older TVs, and my mom said that it constantly plays Grease over and over again, like, how cool it that??) Anyways, I feel like it’s kind of obvious what caught my eye first, which was the ball of fortune. Because it’s glowing and eye-catching.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Quality adjectives are essential.

In this case scenario quality adjectives are the distinction between *yawn* boring! And *gasp* ooohhh!  You could write that in the corner there is a blue ball of fortune surrounded by a few other games, which is okayish, but why do that when you could describe it in a little more detail?

It’s glowing, it’s an appealing light blue, and it’s pretty much lighting up its whole display case.

So at the end of this post, think details, stray away from too many, but try to still sneak in a few describing adjectives, and do try to use the five senses every once in a while!

 

 

Let's just pretend that this wasn't a complete ramble + an excuse to show you a few of my pretty pictures, okay? Okay.

That aside, what world building/scene creating tips do you have?

 

Happy Writing,