Establishing an Atmosphere in Writing
March 2023 SWC

Hello there everyone! I'm Glow, and welcome to the atmosphere bi-daily for this session! In these two days, we will be exploring the basics of how to establish an atmosphere in writing - specifically how to write a setting that uses sensory details and establishes a certain mood. In the second part of this bi-daily we will also be touching upon how to use pathetic fallacy to build a stronger and more detailed atmosphere when writing.

When writing your own setting there are 3 types of settings that you should keep in mind: the elements of time, place, and environment which all work to contribute to a stronger setting. In any piece of literature, the setting is where all the action takes place. A good setting is important as it allows the readers to feel like they are “present” in the setting. There are various different parts of a setting that helps to create a clear, vivid image in the reader's mind, while also helping to develop your plot and characters.

Why the setting and mood are important
The setting is the physical location in which the story or piece of writing you are creating takes place. It heavily influences the mood of the story as it allows us to see how the character is viewing their surroundings and how their emotions change throughout the different plot points within a story.

How to use sensory details to establish a certain mood
Sensory details use the five senses (sight, hear, taste, smell, feel) and literary devices (metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia) to simply give your writing some personality and to add depth and detail to what you are stating to the reader. Sensory details can be found in numerous forms of writing, some of which include personal narratives, as well as descriptive imagery.

How to describe a setting when writing:

• Use sensory details: Use the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, feel, smell) to paint a picture in the reader's mind. Using sensory details helps you to show, and not tell and is a great way to keep your reader engaged when reading your writing. Although they are commonly used in narratives, they can be applied for any form of writing.
  

• Keep it simple: Oftentimes, when you overcomplicate a setting it becomes a large jumbled mess with the reader having no clear idea of what is happening. Choose a simple theme and expand upon it by adding sensory details, figurative language, and other literary devices so that your piece of writing is simple, yet still interesting to read.
  

• Use figurative language + literary devices: Figurative language like similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeia helps give the reader analyze the example you used in your text, and compare it to the real world - it is often a complicated, yet colorful writing. A common example of figurative language within text is “___ face turned as pale as a ghost.” – this can be interpreted in many ways, one of which could be that the person this text is describing received some devasting news. Literary devices and figurative language are a great things to add to enhance your writing, and give your reader and experience they won't forget!
  

• Show, don’t tell: Rather than telling the reader that you saw a house on fire, you could explain how you noticed mounds of gray smoke emerging into the sky from down the street. This would give the reader some opportunity to visualize as well as analyze what exactly is happening.
  

• Use real-life examples: inspiration is present all around you, so why not use it? You can base locations in your story on some present in real life. Looking at images and videos are great ways to get an idea of a setting in a certain place. Similar to how we mimic human-like behaviors and traits into fictional characters, the same can be done for settings within a story
  

When you are writing a setting you want to keep in mind the points listed under the “how to describe a setting when writing” category. On top of that, it is important to know what emotion or mood you are trying to convey so that you can change your sensory details and word choice accordingly.


PART 1: Illustrating a Setting through Writing

Task: For the first part of the bi-daily you will be working with a partner. Both of you will agree upon a setting or location and you will describe it in at least 200 words.

Example:
Chosen location - fantasy forest

Person 1:

• Forest is centered around a “dark” them - anyone who goes in never comes out
  

• Animals found within the forest are wild and uncontrollable
  

• The plants found in the area are large droopy willow trees, poison ivy, venus mcflytrap, etc.
  

Person 2:

• Forest is centered around a light, mystical them
  

• The forest is a living village with a variety of creatures – fairies, dragons, pixies, etc.
  

• The sun shines all day long: the forest resembles a fantasy land!
  

Keep in mind that when you're writing your settings they will be in paragraph format. This was written in dot-jot format to give you a general idea of what your paragraph could include.

Looking at both of the outlines from Person 1 and Person 2, you can see the differences in their interpretations of the location (fantasy forest) that was decided upon. The first person decided to create a fantasy forest that was dark and dreary, while the second person created a more mystical, and magical forest setting. Although your settings might not have such drastic differences, it's always nice to compare and see how your partner interpreted the same prompt!


PART 2: Comparison and Analysis

Afterwards, compare the differences in how the two of you interpreted the setting that was decided upon. Write an additional 150 words reflecting on some of the differences and similarities in your interpretations and how the mood changed and/or stayed the same between the stories

Something to consider: Did the mood of the story give a different meaning or change the emotion the piece of writing gave off?

I hope you were able to learn something from this workshop - let me know if you have any questions! <3

first <3 (amazing workshop Alana !! /gen)

whoa this is awesome! love how i didn’t have to read a whole lot (even though i love reading xD) <33 love this, glow!! /g