Creative Writing Setting

atmosphere

The general mood or feeling of a story, usually established through details about the setting.

An image shows a bulb and the words reviewing ideas.

Write a short answer for each question.

How is a story's atmosphere similar to a planet's atmosphere?

The planet's atmosphere is its air or gaseous envelope, while the story's atmosphere is like the story's "air" and the feeling you get from breathing it.

What are some methods writers use to help establish a story's atmosphere?

The setting's weather, time of day, and season can affect the reader's experience of the story's atmosphere, especially when the details are shown rather than simply told. And the specific words and sensory details a writer chooses to describe the setting also affect the atmosphere. Introducing some kind of excitement, tension, or mystery for the reader can also help create a "charged" atmosphere.

Should a character's mood always match the feeling of the atmosphere? Why or why not?

A character's mood doesn't always have to match the mood of the setting. Sometimes the mood of a setting might help enhance the reader's experience of the character's feelings. Sometimes it may be effective to have a character who has feelings that contrast with the atmosphere to reveal more about the character.

How can you make a boring setting interesting to read about?

Using interesting details to describe a boring setting helps the reader feel engaged and interested in reading about the place. Also creating some tension or a sense of mystery will make the reader start asking questions and want to keep reading to find out more.

What are two ways to establish the "bigger picture" (culturally and historically) through setting?

You can take a large-scale view of where the story takes place — possibly panning out to a whole country — and describe some of the action from this more distant perspective, as Steinbeck did in the passage from The Grapes of Wrath. You can also use imagery to suggest a specific culture or place, such as when the tube in Kingston's story releases the "atmosphere" of China.

A picture shows an airplane moving in the sky and the words Thinking Further.

Brainstorm some ideas for stories that might work best with multiple settings, and jot down story ideas for at least two. Then think about some stories that might work best with only one main setting, and write down ideas for two stories like that as well.

Friends taking a road trip across the United States

An international spy story

A story with a main character who is no longer able to leave the present setting, with a few glimpses of a previous life and a different remembered setting, for contrast

The experiences of three generations of women in one family living in a small village

Is one kind of story more similar to your own life experiences? If you had to choose one of these stories to write about, which would you choose? (But remember, you don't have to write about the story that's most similar to your own experience. Sometimes it's fun to stretch ourselves and explore something different.)

Answers will vary. There is no one right answer — as long as ideas are jotted down for each type of story, and the student chooses one particular story and takes a moment to reflect on what his or her own experience has been like (living in multiple places, living in mostly one place, etc.).