The tone of a novel or story can make or break it. But what is it? And more importantly, how can you get it right?
An author’s chosen style defines the mood and pace of the story creating the ebb and flow that carries the reader through the narrative. It forms the contract of engagement between the reader and the writer, as the latter promises (perhaps) to be consistent if not faithful to their joint endeavour. As a writer, my style carries threads of my personality that I can weave into the prose at any given moment without having to say ‘Look, this is me!’
But style is not tone.
Tone is the body language of the piece. It is what you say without actually saying anything and it impacts the interpretation of every element of the story. The scholarly definition is that ‘tone is the implied author’s/narrator’s attitude towards the subject’. For me, it is how they feel about the subject.
Consider the example of a parent and a baby. Happy face, angry words or vice versa. In both cases what the parent says will be irrelevant. The baby is not left with the words, only the feeling behind them; the attitude of the parent when they delivered them.
In the Advanced Creative Writing Course I completed during lockdown, my script assignment opened with a series of bleak scenes that narrowed down from a country in chaos, to a government in collapse, then to a city on the edge and finally a grieving family. The story however was about a pair of mischievous elderly ladies visiting an illegal robotics market to buy a custom-made cat (trust me it works). My brother-in-law, who works in film, read the early drafts and commented on the jarring shift in tone which blindsided the readers and would give them less confidence in the story as it progressed. I’d gotten the initial tone of the piece wrong. Needless to say, the opening was scrapped.
I feel the tone of the story has to be consistent even if the narrative is not. Consistent, but not static. We’ve seen those films (and read those books) where it gets to a point and goes bat-shit crazy only to be returned to normality via a dream sequence or time travel or something equally unbelievable, because the writer made a contract with the reader that said ‘Hey, it’s ok, it really was a comedy/mystery/romcom’. (Unless of course we’re talking about Event Horizon in which case all bets are off).
As writers we make that agreement with the readers up-front, in chapter one and whilst we can blend the tone of a comic-horror with black humour, the reader needs to know what they are getting themselves into.
Tone is part POV and how close the author gets to their subject; how emotionally connected or detached they may be. It is also in part about the language used; formal verses informal, earnest verses ironic. Married with your style, it refines your vocabulary and filters the interpretation – ‘She laughed hysterically’ will mean different things in a horror and a romcom.
In terms of the question about getting the tone of your story right, I think it’s about authenticity and consistency. Often when I think about what it should be, I imagine the audio book and what I want it to sound like; who would I want to read it? Am I going for Stephen Fry’s quintessential Englishman, or an Idris Elba-esque gritty Londoner? Do I want Juilette Binoche or Julia Roberts? Thinking about it aloud helps me understand how I ultimately want the reader to feel.
To paraphrase the wonderful Maya Angelou, “Readers will forget what you wrote, readers will forget how you wrote it, but readers will never forget how you made them feel.”
The Curious Wordsmith 