Atmosphere and Mood in Fiction: How to Give Your Book that "Haunted Feeling"

I'm a bit of a spooky gal in real life. Halloween is my favorite holiday and October is my favorite month of the year.

And even though it's July, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic this week so we're diving into some spooky fiction.

In all reality, though, even if you're not writing something scary, spooky, or haunted, knowing when to bring a haunted air to the story or the setting is a great tool. 

You can use it to reflect nostalgia - like I'm feeling with this post - or a whole host of other emotions, like sadness and grief. Bringing a haunted vibe to the playing field doesn't have to be about ghosts, either. You can be haunted by your past, your feelings, your fears. 

That's one of my favorite things about fiction: if you try hard enough, the possibilities really are endless. 

Today I'm going to talk about atmosphere and mood through the lens of worldbuilding. If you've never snagged my free worldbuilding guide, make sure to download it before we get started. 

You can grab your copy here. 

The importance of atmosphere

Before we jump into specifics, let's talk about WHY atmosphere is so important. 

For a lot of genre, such as mystery and horror, the atmosphere is a character in and of itself. It accompanies the reader through the story, convincing them to be afraid of what's on the page, and plays a huge role in your reader's emotional response to your words. 

I'm speaking from my film background here - but in horror films, for example, did you know that there is a super-low frequency a lot of films play during scary moments? 

This frequency is so low that we can't actually hear it, but we pick it up in our bodies, and it creates a sensation of anxiety and dread. 

Perfecting the atmosphere in your book can do a very similar thing. 

But say you're not writing a piece of horror or mystery fiction - why do you still care about the atmosphere of your book? Because this is another tool in your toolbox that will help you determine ANY atmosphere you choose. 

Atmosphere and descriptions

In a lot of cases, when you describe the setting of a place, less is more. Most of the time. 

When you're writing something "haunting," you want to give your reader some real estate to fill in their fears, not just your main characters. 

For example, what's scarier? A clown running at you with an axe, or a dark hallway with nothing but a pair of eyes flickering at the very end? 

Well, I know which one just gave me chills. 

On the terror end, the clown example might be scary. But what if clowns don't bother you? What if that's funny? 

When thinking about atmosphere, I like to imagine the SHAPE of what I want my reader to feel. 

I know that's weird...but hang with me here. 

Think about a footprint. Do you need the entire shape of the shoe to know someone stepped there?

Probably not. In fact, just the footprint can tell you a lot: 

• the type of shoe
• the size of the shoe
• the weight of the person wearing the shoe (sometimes)
• how long they stood there
• if they were running, walking, or jumping
• and a lot more if you were a forensics expert (which I'm not - but that sounds like a cool job!)

So whatever you want to convey with your atmosphere, think about it like a shoe print. 

What is the shape of that fear? What are the shadows it casts on the walls? That's what I mean when I say, less is more. 

Blurring the lines

When you hear the term "world building," what do you think of first?

For most of my students, it's something along the lines of fantasy and science fiction novels. And you're not entirely wrong, either - but the concept of "world building" extends far into almost every genre, and I'm going to give you my very best argument as to why. 

Have you ever heard the term mise en scene?

(I very likely spelled it wrong - I'm used to saying it, not reading it). 

This is a term I learned in film school, and it basically means  "Everything on the stage and in the set except the actors". 

It's the backdrop of the story. 

The important thing to know about mise-en-scene is that nothing is placed on the scene by accident. Everything had to be put there by someone - it didn't just magically appear. 

Even those little "bloopers" you see circulating on social media (anyone remember the Game of Thrones shot with the Starbucks coffee cup?) likely were staged. It's someone's entire job to set the scene, tone, atmosphere and everything else with the stage. 

This translates PERFECTLY to writing because when you're writing a novel, your reader can't SEE anything unless you tell them it's there. That's why it's important to include minor worldbuilding details strategically. 

Here's the deal, though: sometimes we have to blur the lines between hard and fast world building and the IMPRESSION we want our reader to have from that world. 

Like I talked about in the previous section, what stands out to you more: a detailed description of the scene, or just a few very distinct details that leave the rest up to your imagination? 

There's set rule here, and it varies from book to book AND scene to scene. The important thing with mood and tone is that whatever you choose to do, make an argument for why you do it (in other words, be intentional).

Weather and Natural Elements

When it comes to creating a spooky mood, weather and the natural world can be a useful tool. Obviously dark and stormy nights can work wonders for the atmosphere, but sunny days can be quite oppressive, too. 

Something that haunts my dreams is the setting in the film Midsommar. I honestly can't recommend this film in good faith - if you want to watch it and have never seen it, look up the trigger warnings for yourself - but it's something that has stuck with me since the first (and only time) I watched it. 

The part about Midsommar that gets to me is how...sunny it is. Peaceful. Pastoral. That's why it's so creepy when the plot takes a southern turn. 

When talking about atmosphere, the weather can reflect the internal struggles of your characters. In Midsommar, the bright and sunny days directly contrast with the what the characters see: something is wrong, and no one is acknowledging it. The storm is entirely internal, which is why this is so scary. 

Last October I read Gallows Hill by Darcy Coates, and this one I can recommend in good faith, for a few reasons: 

• it uses weather/atmosphere/tone in all the ways I've described (and more) 
• it's scary, but not overley voyeuristic
• it REALLY stuck with me, long after I read it

Coates uses weather to illustrate the unsettling stillness of the setting - and when you read it, you'll understand exactly why. 

Treat the Setting as a Character

A great way to intensify the mood and atmosphere of your book is to treat the setting of your story as a character in itself. 

One of the coolest moments for me as a coach was when one of my students realized her entire world could be a character, and in doing so fixed a ton of problems with the manuscript AND ended a long stint of writer's block. 

A great example of this can be found in one of my favorite stories, The Haunting of Hill House. 

I really love the Netflix adaptation of this story - I've seen it like 26 times - but the book by Shirley Jackson uses the same principle. 

In this story, the mansion takes on its own personality, and that's what makes it so creepy. The walls and windows and doors watch you. The house breathes. It's not outright horror, and somehow that's scarier. It could be completely normal,  or it could be trying to kill you. 

It's really difficult to tell.

To do this in your own work, think about what you want your setting to say. If it could tell your characters something, what would it tell them? 

Great. Now they have to say that, but they can't use words. They have to use anything and everything else. 

Before you go...

Struggle with knowing how to plot your book? Click here. 

Not sure how to create emotionally complex and deep characters? Click here. 

Want my help creating a story world that is rich, full, and lively? I got you. Click here.