Sunday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

TONE, MOOD & STYLE—THE FEEL OF FICTION

By: Fiction Editor Beth Hill

Each piece of fiction, each section of text, has a particular feel. The feel of a story or scene is primarily achieved through three elements—tone, mood, and style. And while you may hear the words used almost interchangeably, they are different. They are achieved differently and they create different effects.

We’ll take a look at all three.

Tone

Tone in fiction is the attitude of the narrator or viewpoint character toward story events and other characters. In a story with first-person POV, tone can also be the narrator’s attitude toward the reader.

In non-fiction, tone is the writer’s attitude toward subject matter and reader. So the writer might come across as a know-it-all or a blowhard or as humble or solicitous.

We’re all familiar with a mother’s words to her mouthy son—Don’t you take that tone with me, young man.

What does the mother mean by tone here? She’s talking about his sassy or smart-alecky attitude. The child’s words and actions and facial expressions convey an attitude his mother doesn’t approve of.

Examples of tone you might find in fiction are strident, uncaring, sassy, bossy, unconcerned, or flip. Remember that these refer to the narrator’s (viewpoint character’s) attitude.

A scene’s or story’s tone, expressed through the narrator’s attitude, could as easily be one of fearlessness or fearfulness, disbelief or detachment, or maybe unconcern or snarkiness or arrogance. Whatever attitude the narrator can take on, the scene or story can take on.

Tone is achieved through word choice (diction), sentence construction and word order (syntax), and by what the viewpoint character focuses on. 

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Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

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Happy writing and running, Kathy