There are so many decisions to make when you start to write a story.

Narrowing down your choices is a great gift you can give yourself. Today I’m giving you an exercise that will help you narrow down your choices when you sit down to write.

Story Moods

There’s more to story than genre, character, plot, and dialogue, happy or sad endings, and pacing.

There’s also what I call ‘mood’ – whether a story is a romp, spooky, upbeat, thought-provoking, depressing, scary, inspiring, uplifting…

Tiny Task

Today, set at timer for 5 minutes and

• Write a list of the types of moods you enjoy reading and might want to aim to write, during May.
• Choose examples (from short stories, novels, TV, movies, music, visual arts) that capture the mood you’re trying to describe
• Make a few notes about what elements contribute to the mood.

Keep this somewhere safe.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What moods do you gravitate towards? Is there anything you definitely don’t want to be feeling much of, during the challenge? How can you remind yourself not to write stories that trend that way?