For the last couple of days, I’ve talked about how mood flavors our experiences and observations, in the same way we are influenced by our experiences and interests.
I’m going to try an exercise with one of my WIPs and thought it was an idea worth writing down.
Go through your story and make note of your protagonist’s mood in each chapter or scene, including how it might change throughout the segment. Much like your character’s goal for each scene, their mood is going to alter how they experience and describe their environment, as well as their decisions.
Flag places where you can strengthen your narrative or dialogue using your protagonist’s mood as a guide. Sharpen what they say. Use sensory language that reflects their mood and sets the tone for the scene.
As an extra step, create a separate tracker to show how your hero’s mood swings up and down throughout the story. If you discover that your hero is mostly upbeat or always on a downer, that might be a signal that your story is emotionally flat. On the other hand, you probably don’t want your character to experience wild mood swings from scene to scene. Consider adding stepping stone scenes to show the progression from one temperament to the next.
You might also flag your character’s highest and lowest points. Do these peak and valley moments occur at the right time in your story? Your major turning points and emotional scenes should correspond somewhat to your protagonist’s strongest moods. If your character peaks or valleys at the wrong moment, your story could feel emotionally off-kilter. Try to align the moods with your plot’s big moments and see what happens.