Hey everyone, happy Friday! So Saturday I spent the day writing, and I finished chapter two. This week I’ve finished about 2000 words for chapter three, but I still have a lot to write before this chapter is finished. The first two chapters give a little background of the characters as they first meet each other, and the main character has flashbacks to his childhood. But the third chapter opens with them landing on the planet’s surface, and things start to get spooky. So lets talk about mood setting.

I definitely wanted a dark aspect to the book, but you never want to over do it, because then it ends up sounding cheesy. You want to make the eeriness as real as possible. To set the dark mood I use the characters senses. Pretend it was you, and write down everything you see, hear, and smell around you. Then go eternally, what is the character feeling; fear, anxiety, panic? If you were in the circumstances of your character how would you feel? Another thing I like to do is listen to music while writing. It really helps me get inspired (I love aggressive punk music, so it’s perfect for angry/sad themes). Now the most important thing is, make sure not to always be dark! You don’t want your book to be a miserable tale that ends in sadness. Everyone loves a happy ending, so give your character some hope. There’s always a perfect balance of the two opposing emotions.

Alright well I hope this helped any writers out there, and feel free to comment about any techniques you use when writing. Later this week I’ll be hopefully posting another blog post, about something theological. Until then, have a great weekend everyone.

-M.A.Greco