Hey! It’s Emily! Welcome back to Beginnings!
Let’s face it: tone invades every type of media. Anchormen speak formally and carry themselves in a professional way, conveying an informational tone as they share news reports. Directors use music in their movies to make viewers feel uneasy when the main character opens the door to the dark basement or emotional when the main character unites with her long-lost brother. Photographers use dark lighting and framing techniques to make their subject appear isolated in their pictures. Inflection, body-language, music, lighting, and framing are all elements within different media that convey tone. Granted, these are visual and auditory elements that writers can’t rely on when writing a novel. So what tone-setting arsenal do writers have at their disposal? Words.
What is Tone?
Tone often refers to the way the text makes the reader feel. Any type of emotion counts as a tone you could incite in your reader: Joy, fear, humor, suspense, hope, dread, peace, anger. You must ask yourself what ingredients you stir into your story to make your reader feel a certain way. Is the story full of fun humor that makes the reader laugh? Or is it full of cloudy description that makes the reader gloomy? Or is it full of romance and drama that makes the reader think deeply about their own relationships with others? Writers infuse their stories with a symphony of thoughts and moods and emotions, all working together to create one central melody. The tone of your novel affects how your audience will react and respond to your novel.
Why Should I Care About Tone?
In every scene, the tone you set guides the reader to feel emotion. And this emotion engages the reader so they become a part of the story—not just a reader in reality, but a character experiencing the story alongside the protagonists. As a writer, you want to be purposeful in creating the right environment for your readers to explore and engage with.
Tone also indicates to the reader what type of story they’re in. It would be strange for the reader to curl up on the couch and crack open a romance novel only to spend the first ten pages hiding with the protagonist in an old abandoned house in the middle of a thunderstorm. No, when they open a romance the readers expect to experience passion, drama, and maybe some sorrow. The tone must be a good first impression so your readers know what they’re getting into. Setting the tone in chapter one is essential in catching the reader’s attention, promising a story that is worth reading, and introducing the emotions your reader expects to feel.
Elements that Affect Tone:
Inflection, body-language, music, lighting, and framing are just some tonal elements of many that pervade media. You may think that novel writers have a smaller pool of elements since their power is restricted to paper and ink, but there are many ways to convey tone and influence the way your readers feel. More than I could possibly list. To start you off, here is a sampling of 7 tonal techniques that can help you as you write your first chapter and set the scene:
1) Genre
A novel’s genre can often set the tone of a story before the reader even opens to the first page. Maybe the reader saw a bloody hand painted on the cover and knew immediately they were looking at a new horror novel. Maybe they read the synopsis on the back or had a thrill-loving friend recommend it. All these things give the reader an expectation as they open the book. But, as the author, you want to work with the cover, synopsis, and reputation of your book and support the reader’s expectations even from the first page. Take the first line of Stephen King’s It for example:
The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years — if it ever did end — began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.
If you didn’t know already that you were reading a horror book, you could probably tell just after reading the first forty words of King’s book. He doesn’t set the first scene in a cutesy coffee shop where a customer and the barista exchange a flirty look, nor did he open with a humorous quip from the main character. Instead, King sets the tone with a promise of terror and the image of a solitary newspaper-boat drifting along the water. King knows what genre he’s in, and so does his audience.
2) Audience
Similarly to genre, audience also affects the tone of your story. You must ask yourself, “Who am I writing to?” and “How big is my demographic?” A book like Toni Morrison’s Beloved, for example, is meant for adults. It is a dense book literary-wise and features violence, sexual abuse, and the trauma many enslaved people experienced post-American Civil War. Beloved is a harder read both in subject and in writing style, and Morrison conveys this through her tone. On the other hand, a book like Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is mostly aimed for teenage girls and young women. The main character is a girl in high school dealing with the excitement and consequences of love. The writing style in Han’s book is lighter and easier to read and thus the tone is lighter as well.
Readers of different ages, genders, backgrounds, ethnicities, and genre preferences will all have different tastes in literature. It is okay—even advisable—to not cater to everyone, but instead to figure out early-on who will be reading your book. Pay attention to the tone in the opening paragraph of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower:
August 25, 1991 Dear friend, I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn’t try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Please don’t try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I really don’t want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I don’t want you to find me. I didn’t enclose a return address for the same reason. I mean nothing bad by this. Honest.
Chbosky writes very simply, conversationally. He writes from the perspective of Charlie, the fifteen-year-old main character, via a series of letters. It makes sense then that the tone and language in The Perks of Being a Wallflower will be pretty casual and easy to read. Furthermore, since this is a coming-of-age novel geared towards teenagers trying to find their path in life, the book starts off with a somewhat lost and guarded tone which promises growth in the ensuing story. Based on the tone, any reader flipping through this book at Barnes & Noble should have a pretty good idea what the story will accomplish.
3) Theme
The themes and morals of a novel often guide its tone as well. A book focused on the theme of identity may have an introspective and thoughtful tone. A book focused on the theme of corruption may have a cynical and cutting tone. The Giver by Lois Lowry features themes of control and societal unity which affect the way the reader feels even within the first few pages. In chapter one, the main character Jonas recollects the time a plane suddenly flew over his community:
Then all the citizens had been ordered to go into the nearest building and stay there. Immediately, the rasping voice through the speakers had said. Leave your bicycles where they are. Instantly, obediently, Jonas had dropped his bike on the side of the path behind his family’s dwelling. He had run indoors and stayed there, alone.
Jonas and every other member of the community immediately obey the voice and wait indoors, scared of the outside world and what the plane means. This demonstrates the themes of control—where every aspect of the citizens’ lives are planned or commanded—and society unity—where every citizen willingly obeys and cooperates. These themes also give the first chapter a tone of unease and repression. Why do all these people unthinkingly obey? When will this unity be disrupted? Is this government oppressive? What’s so scary about the outside world? Readers catch these themes early on in the story and react to the questions they pose.
4) Word Choice
Diction is one of the biggest factors that influences tone. Every word has its own meaning, but beyond that, every word has its own connotation and sound. An example from a Tumblr post by malkiewicz suggests: “Synonyms are weird because if you invite someone to your cottage in the forest that just sounds nice and cozy, but if I invite you to my cabin in the woods you’re going to die.” As an extra exercise, consider the differences between the words sleet, thicket, cloak, and drizzle, brush, shawl. Chances are the first three words have a sharper and more ominous feel, whereas the last three words have a softer or more whimsical feel. These words, while synonyms of each other, each have a different connotation and sound which distinguishes them and conveys a certain tone. George Orwell uses deliberate word choice in his first paragraph of 1984 to convey a specific tone:
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him. The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats.
Orwell’s words are biting and bleak, making the reader feel gloomy and grimy. He uses harsh words with hard c’s like “cold,” “clocks,” and “escape” and words with unpleasant meanings and sounds like “vile,” “gritty,” and “rag” which, even separate from the sentence, give the reader a sense of foreboding and contamination. Within the first three sentences, readers can already tell this story will be full of desolating themes and environments.
5) Imagery
Similar to word choice, imagery also conveys tone in writing. Describing a bright and sunny meadow where the main character runs down a dandelion-draped hill will likely make your reader feel happy and peaceful, whereas describing a small, stone room with a cold draft whistling through a crack in the wall will likely make your reader feel confined and apprehensive. Take a look at this paragraph from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre:
Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves of my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near a scene of wet lawn and stormbeat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.
This scene where a young Jane sits in the window sill, hidden away from the world with a book in hand, makes the reader feel melancholy and sets the tone of the dramatic gothic novel well. The reader can also tell how Jane as a character sees and interacts with the world based on the somber, reflective point-of-view. This helps set the book’s tone through voice.
6) Voice
The narrator’s voice in a novel guides the reader to respond to the story in a specific way. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the narrator Nick Carraway spends most of the story critiquing the culture of excess around him, which makes the readers feel cynical. Meanwhile, in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Death narrates the story and observes humanity, making the reader feel hopeful in human goodness despite the horrors of the Holocaust. The way the narrator views and interacts with the world—including their backgrounds and biases—sets the tone for the reader. Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief is a good example, starting from the first chapter, humorously named “I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher”:
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is a snarky and honest narrator whose voice immediately promises readers a hilarious and thrilling story. Someone opening the book to the first page, even if they know nothing about it beforehand, would be able to guess that this is a book that will make them laugh. Yet, Percy also gives a tone of angst and resentment in the way he bitterly tells the reader about his unfortunate lot in life. The voice Riordan gives his narrator sets the tone for this fun yet stirring novel brilliantly.
7) Characters’ Emotions
Finally, a character’s emotions can set the tone of a story well. What better way to get your reader feeling a certain way than to have your main character feeling that way? A sign of a good writer is when they can make their readers cry along with their characters and laugh along with their characters. In Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Ari’s feelings set the tone:
One summer night I fell asleep, hoping the world would be different when I woke. In the morning, when I opened my eyes, the world was the same. I threw off the sheets and lay there as the heat poured in through my open window.
These opening lines give readers the sense of depression and dissatisfaction, and as the scene continues the readers begin to feel the same way. Sáenz uses Ari—who idles on his bed and sweats in the summer heat—to convey a tone of apathy. The world is the same and there’s nothing for Ari to do. The scene continues with Ari fiddling with the radio and despising its music, and the readers continue to spiral down Ari’s low spirits.
Finding Your Own Tone
Tone can be a hard element to incorporate into your story at all, let alone setting it in your first chapter. However, there are plenty of methods you can layer in your opening scene to make your readers feel the way they need to: genre, audience, theme, word choice, imagery, voice, characters’ emotions, and dozens of others. Many of these elements overlap with each other too, making it easier to use multiple elements simultaneously to set your story’s tone.
And remember: practice makes perfect! As you read, pause every once and a while and ask, “How am I feeling right now as I read this?” and “Why do I feel this way?” Consider some of the elements from above—or even other elements you notice on your own—and how the author uses them to make you feel a certain way. As you write, ask, “How do I want my reader to feel in this scene?” and “How can I get them to feel it?”
If tackling tone is a harrowing task in a first chapter, you can always practice with a short story or a poem. Write something small and share it with friends or feedback partners to hear the way they feel when they read it. Ask them the same questions you would ask yourself while reading: “How did they feel?” and “Do they know why?” Did the dark forest path give them chills? Did the narrator’s sass make them laugh? Did the character’s tears make them cry? Then you’ll know you’ve succeeded in tone.
If you’re looking for more professional feedback, consider reaching out to me, Gabrielle, and Brianna or checking out our Services page! We love working with fellow-writers on their works-in-progress and know how to offer thorough and thoughtful advice based on our classes and years of editing, writing, and workshop experience.
Till then, bee brilliant!
Emily
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