The document discusses the importance of word choice in descriptive writing to create atmosphere and setting, illustrating how different verbs can convey varied emotions and scenes. It emphasizes the role of characters' dialogue, reactions, and sensory details in building atmosphere, encouraging writers to observe human behavior for authentic emotional responses. Ultimately, it highlights the necessity of engaging all five senses to immerse readers fully in the created world without excessive detail.

1. DESCRIPTIVE WRITING TO CREATE
NA ATMOSPHERE AND SETTING

2. WORD CHOICES
The English language is one of the most rich and diverse in the world. There are so many
synonyms available that it’s a breeze to find exactly the right one for your purpose. The words you
choose for your text can change the idea you are trying to express through your writing.
• Consider the sentence below:
Dave went up the stairs.
This sentence creates no atmosphere. We cannot tell a thing about Dave, his state of mind, or the
scene he is in.
We can fix this by choosing a stronger verb for our purposes. It’s a simple step that can have a big
impact.

3. Consider the following sentences:
Dave crept up the stairs.
Dave fled up the stairs.
Dave skipped up the stairs.
Dave stomped up the stairs.
In each of these sentences we have a better idea of how Dave is feeling, and what kind of scene
we are witnessing than we did in the first sentence.
We could pick in which of these four sentences Dave is angry, happy, or scared, and in which he is
trying not to wake his baby daughter.

4. Consider the following two paragraphs both describing the same place. What atmosphere is created
by the word choices in each case ?
“The beach was chaos. Screaming children charged about all over the place, stampeding
through the picnics of innocent beach goers. Out of control dogs splattered all and sundry with
a vile mix of drool, seawater and sand; whilst seagulls dive bombed anyone foolish enough to
keep food in their hand more than a second or two.”
“The beach was vibrant with activity. I could hear the joyful shouts of children mixed with the
barking of excited dogs coming from the water’s edge. Overhead the seagulls danced and
squawked, awaiting their chance to commandeer any stray item of food amidst the hustle and
bustle.”
Each of these paragraphs describes the same scene, and yet the impression we get of the beach in
each case is different.

5. CREATING ATMOSPHERE THROUGH
CHARACTER
We experience in real life the difference the people at an event can make to its atmosphere. Some
people have a talent for buoying the spirits of all around them, while others are certain to kill any
positive vibe.
So how do we use this to help us create an atmosphere in stories?
Firstly we use dialogue. And this comes back to those all-important word choices.
The way a character talks, the phrasing they use, the words they pick, the words they drop; these are all
fantastic for creating an atmosphere.

6. So what defines a character’s contribution to atmosphere?
Again TV and film has the edge on this because they can use such visual cues as body language,
facial expression and even clothing to help.
How can we create a character that lightens the atmosphere when they appear in a scene of your
book? Likewise how do we draw a character that casts a shadow over proceedings ?
It’s easier than you might think.
A few well-chosen descriptive details and your character is alive on the page.

7. REACTIONS AND OVERREACTIONS
Of course it’s not just the temperament of your characters that can create an atmosphere. How they
react to things can also contribute. Being able to write convincing emotional reactions to certain
situations is a valuable skill.
For a scene to appear to be genuinely scary your characters must react in a way that convinces the
reader they are scared.
You MUST NOT write ‘He felt scared/angry/sad/depressed.’ Ever. Just don’t do it.
For example if you want to show that a character was angry and trying not to show it, you can write that
she pressed her tongue hard against the roof of her mouth. Simple yet effective.

8. In order to be able to do this we must spend some time studying other humans. To an extent we can
draw on our own experiences—we all have emotions after all—but that will only get us so far.
Every human reacts differently to situations. It’s important to have characters react in equally
different (yet plausible) ways. If you don’t have differing reactions to things then you only have one
character in your book.
So study people. Watch them in different situations. Try to work out what emotions they’re feeling.
• What are the physical signs of that emotion?
• What verbal tics commonly occur in people experiencing certain emotions?
• What is their tone of voice like?
• How does their facial expression change?

9. USING SENSORY DETAILS
In the real world our senses tell us what’s going on and help us to decide how we should feel
about a situation. In the world of words on pages and screen we have to have our senses engaged
somehow to fully appreciate the atmosphere of a scene. Readers should feel as if they have been
transported into the world you have created.
So how do we use all five senses to build an atmosphere that without twenty pages of description
giving every tiny detail ?
Mostly by picking and choosing the details that best suit the impression you want to create.
Certain smells, tastes, physical sensations and sounds will conjure up memories and emotions
that visual input alone can’t access.

10. We also need to remember the overwhelming things we experience in certain situations.
The burning at the tips of our ears when it’s so cold we’ve reached the point where our
only ambition in life is to be warm again; the prickling on the back of our necks when
something frightens us; the distortion of the senses in the dark, or underwater, and so
many more I couldn’t possibly list them in a lifetime.

11. Consider the following texts. Point out the differences between them:
“From somewhere above came the shriek of a wild hawk. The wind tore my hair from under
my hood and lashed it across my face, obscuring my vision. My stomach pitched and
whirled as the stones beneath me shifted, pitching me forwards into a slow, unstoppable
tumble down the hillside. I came to an abrupt stop in a pool of foul-stinking water. The
nausea took hold. Sharp stones scraped my hands and knees as I retched, shivering and
sobbing, with water, vomit, and mud dripping from my hair.”
“For a moment I couldn’t see as my hair was in front of my face. I looked down and saw the
stone I had stepped on begin to move. The world spun and flashed green, then grey, then
green again as I tumbled down the hill. I landed in a pool of muddy brown water, and
vomited. I had mud, water and puke dripping from my hair.”