Using Tone in Stories

The incredible landscapes of Ireland are starting to become the past (how quickly they do!), and my mental fuzziness and physical exhaustion from such a great trip are winding down. I'm easing back into the slow and steady pace of my life, which is good. If there's one unexpected thing Ireland taught me, it's how much I love being home in Maine. It's important to love where you are. For all of its castles, its old mossy stone that I wish was here, its stunning beaches and winding roads, Maine is home.

My story "The Heart of a Lie" also got a peek at yesterday. I didn't work on it at all while I was gone. I did write a bit in "Daniel's Lions" in Dublin and I thought about Mary from "Daniel's Garden" throughout the trip.

As I was reading over "The Heart of a Lie," I was happy with some scenes and not happy with others. But overall, I felt the story isn't capturing the tone I want to convey, the mood that I feel when I listen to a minor piano song that captures Esther (my main character) and her personality.

The story tone is dark, moody, an undercurrent of deep fog that runs throughout the bottom of the story, like a storm on the sea's horizon. Right now, the story tone feels too nostalgic, too quaint, too "oh, isn't that sweet and cute." It needs to be edgier, darker, the shiver you get when you peel back normal layers and see the bit of madness underneath.

In stories, tone works with the mood. It is also different than mood, for mood is more about individual scenes, whereas tone carries throughout the novel. "Wuthering Heights" has scenes that vary in mood, from passionate to gripping to sadistic, while the overall tone of the story is an isolated bleakness. With "Little Women," the overall tone is nostalgic quaintness and the warmth of family.

So, how do I add tone to this story? It means going deeper, uncovering character motives and heightening the tension. My husband suggested I read some Southern Gothic to get more of a feel for the spooky, moody tension that pervades Flannery O'Connor and William Faulker's work. I've not read pretty much anything from either of them, so that's on the list.

As for working on the story, my most important character besides Esther is the main antagonist, Aunt Lucia. Digging deeper into her backstory and uncovering more of her motives will bring further tension.

This story is not horror, nor is it even traditionally Gothic in an Edgar Allan Poe way. It's more about how the Gothic elements of life - alienation, moodiness, sadness, sorrow, atonement, selfishness, sinning, betrayal - permeate the lives of ordinary people and cause ripples of immoral behavior to slowly and steadily rip families apart. The rotten core at the center of my story is an act of immorality and shows a weakness of character.

Esther is intricately tied to this rotten core, but she is trying desperately to get out of its whirlpool-esque turning downward. If she can just make things right, then the rotten core can have a chance to heal. Or, can it?

That's what makes tone so important. It's almost the silent soundtrack, heightening the emotions and the motivations behind those in the scenes. The silent music in "The Heart of a Lie" is bleak and foggy.

I still have a lot of work ahead of me ... :)