The Feel of Fiction - Writing Exercise

Following on from my article about establishing tone and mood in fiction, it's time for a writing exercise! As I wouldn't recommend an exercise I've not done myself, you can take a look at my attempts below!

So let's get writing, shall we?

1. Pick a character

This could be a character from your own work-in-progress or a new character for this specific exercise.

Example: I've created a new character called Matty, a sixteen-year old girl.
 

2. Choose two adjectives from the following:

Sad
Lonely
Happy
Fearful
Enthusiastic
Regretful
Distrustful
Joyful
Arrogant
Fearless

Example: I've chosen lonely and fearless
 

3. Now choose a setting for your character

Think about what this choice will mean in terms of establishing the mood

Example:  A busy Italian restaurant on Valentine's Day
 

4. Write a couple of sentences

Link your character, setting and the two adjectives that you've chosen.

Example: Matty is lonely because her dog Finlay died yesterday and she's also regretful because she forgot to cancel a Valentine's Day restaurant booking she had planned with her ex-boyfriend
 

5. Now write a scene!

You should now have a character, a setting, and an idea of the sort of tone and mood you want to establish, so let's use all of these things to create a scene.  Think about what you want the reader to come away thinking or feeling.

Example: Matty opened the door to Olio's and a wave of nostalgia almost swept her away. How many times had she been here with Ryan? Her memories of this place were just like the floral wallpaper here; too bright and blinding to see past. She couldn't do this.

She glanced over her shoulder, but the queue of customers behind were too long to make walking out of a restaurant on Valentine's Day, alone, anything less than catastrophically tragic.

The waiter, with a nametag that read Giacomo and a smile that was borderline psychotic, waved over at here. "Welcome to Olio's. Reservation name?"

Matty gulped and walked forward. What choice did she have now?

"Matty Carmichael."

The waiter tapped on his tablet. "Ah yes. I see your amendment...table for one now, isn't it?"

Matty's inside felt as empty as Finlay's food bowl had looked that morning. She shook her head. As if tonight needed to get any worse. She would not think about her poor Finlay up in dog heaven. And she most definitely would not let Ryan ruin linguine vongole for her. 

"Yes." She set her jaw, daring the waiter to ask any further questions. "Bring the dessert menu at the same time as the drinks one, would you?"

 

6. Review

Take some time to look at what you've written. What worked? What didn't work? Did you achieve what you set out to do? What feelings did it evoke?

Share how you got on in the comments below! We will pick a winner at random to win a copy of the W&A Guide to How to Write!

Clare Povey is the author of The Unexpected Tale of Bastien Bonlivre, a middle grade mystery adventure set in 1920's Paris. Clare grew up on the border of where East London meets Essex. After studying French and living in Northern France to teach English in primary schools, she joined the Writers & Artists team at Bloomsbury Publishing to grow their writing and publishing events and is now Editorial & Communities Manager at W&A.