Mood And Affect In Writing

[NOIRTRASH]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNJdWzCiBfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhsGpNE4abY

Camille Saint-Saens composed music with perfect mood and affect. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is the only writer I can think of with the same gift.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

THE MAGNOLIA

I do not know the irreducible minimum of happiness for any other spirit than my own. It is impossible to be certain even of mine. Yet I believe that I know my tangible desideratum. It is a tree-top against a patch of sky. If I should lie crippled or long ill, or should have the quite conceivable misfortune to be clapped in jail, I could survive, I think, given this one token of the physical world. I know that I lived on one such in my first days at the Creek. The tree was a magnolia, taller than the tallest orange trees around it. There is no such thing in the world as an ugly tree, but the magnolia grandiflora has a unique perfection. No matter how crowded it may be, no matter how thickly holly and live oak and sweet gum may grow up around it, it develops with complete symmetry, so that one wonders whether character in all things, human as well as vegetable, may not be implicit. Neither is its development ruthless, achieved at the expense of its neighbors, for it is one of the few trees that may be allowed to stand in an orange grove, seeming to steal nothing from the expensively nourished citrus. The young of the tree is courteous, waiting for the parent to be

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. Cross Creek (Kindle Locations 504-513). Air Loom Books. Kindle Edition.

 

[NotWise]

Camille Saint-Saens may be my favorite composer. The jury is still out. He's also an interesting historical character, but he doesn't have a license on mood and effect. DeBussy and Ravel (among others) ran with it.

I have a character who is a young classical pianist, so I watched for other reasons. I loved some aspects of her performance in the video -- bouncing off the bench at some points -- but I thought it was a little over the top.

My character (Elsie) wouldn't be caught dead in a dark blue gown, much less perform in one.

 

[SilenceDances]

For me, it's my friend Marissa Anderson. She was classicly trained in guitar starting at a very young age. Her recent album carries me well when I am writing.

https://marisaanderson.bandcamp.com/...into-the-light
If you listen to her sample song, that is much the vibe of the whole album

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Camille Saint-Saens may be my favorite composer. The jury is still out. He's also an interesting historical character, but he doesn't have a license on mood and effect. DeBussy and Ravel (among others) ran with it.

I have a character who is a young classical pianist, so I watched for other reasons. I loved some aspects of her performance in the video -- bouncing off the bench at some points -- but I thought it was a little over the top.

My character (Elsie) wouldn't be caught dead in a dark blue gown, much less perform in one.

I posted AFFECT not EFFECT. Theyre flip-sides of the same thing but different. Like this: Miss Literotica's sexual appeal had an overwhelming effect on all but PILOT, whose arousal affect was less than Mister Spock's.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

When I worked admissions and emergency services at the hospital I got whatever came thru the door (usually carried). The secret to 'brief psychotherapy' is manipulating mood and affect. In a way its like jerking a person out of a burning car, except its their spirit you jerk around. And you cant be nice about it. It wasn't fun to watch, but I always got the outcome I aimed for....and I learned that no one interferes with work that scares them. The rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in the air discourage most micro-managers. And no psychology school teaches you how to handle crises.

The best writers jerk readers around, using the human condition all share, and natural predispositions to respond to the human condition. Most writers have no idea how to set up the right stimulus (mood) to trigger the right response (affect).

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I get my best ideas from real life.

Like the time I walked in the door and caught my daughter and her boyfriend coupled doggy style on the sofa. I use this in lotsa stories, husband comes home early and surprises the wife and her friend together on the sofa. In my latest a guy stops at a gay bar to speak to the bartender, and catches his new honey snuggled close to a gal in a booth. Such events set the mood instantly, then the affect part comes. And the response can be anything from suicide to storm out the door to join in. But it needs to be right to propel the story forward like good music.

Here's another example: You get a call in the middle of the night from your honey who tells you he swallowed a bottle of meds and drank a 5th of Old Pilot, then passes out. He aint home. Maybe you cant care less. Maybe your blood pressure heads for the stars. Maybe you gulp a bottle of your meds, too.