Reader Question: How to set the mood or mindset for a scene?
Question from @patricktcrown
Any secrets to entering the appropriate mindset or mood for the scene, story or character one is writing?
Talk about a loaded question! You’ve got five separate, but related items going on here:
* Mindset: Suggests the emotional, psychological and/or aesthetic stance the writer takes in telling the story.
* Mood: A reflection of the writer’s mindset in conjunction with specific aspects of the story.
* Scene: One building block in your script’s narrative comprised of continuous action with a Beginning, Middle and End.
* Story: The overall narrative / collection of scenes.
* Character: The players in the story.
We could delve into each at length, but let me focus the conversation by considering what I call Narrative Voice, your screenplay’s invisible character. I have a nifty formula for it:
Genre + Style = Narrative Voice.
Your story will almost invariably slot into a genre, sub-genre or cross genre. But how will you approach the writing style? It must be in concert with the genre. For example, a comedy should have a humorous style. An action script should have a pulsating style. That is the starting point of determining your Narrative Voice.
That’s not all. I encourage writers to think of their Narrative Voice as the attitude this invisible character takes in ‘telling’ the story. How close or distant to the events are they? Do they have a bias about any of the characters or outcome of the story? What is their connection to the story?
Once you zero in on your Narrative Voice, that pretty much effects everything related to mindset, mood, scenes, story and characters. In other words, the work you do in settling on your Narrative Voice ought to provide an answer to your question on all fronts.
A great way to see Narrative Voice at work? Read movie scripts, especially contemporary ones. As you go through script after script, notice how the style matches up to the story’s genre. Track how there is a consistency in tone and atmosphere from scene to scene, character to character, all a reflection of Narrative Voice. Again:
Genre + Style = Narrative Voice.
And therein lies your path to mindset and mood.
GITS readers, if you have further suggestions, please head to comments. And thanks in advance!
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