Mood - Sadness

We all feel this way from time to time but how do you write it?

That's right, we're talking sadness. No mood is easy to write, but sadness can be simple or complex. are you writing about tears or the inwardly sadness that your character just can't express?


How do you do it? Complex or simple? Is their a better way or is one lacking/to hard to understand?

simple if it is a simple sadness----my husband left me for several weeks to serve in the army..
complex --my husband was killed while serving in the army...depends on how deep the character/ characters feel the loss. There is a sadness that entails relief as well as happyness mixed together and that's a whole different idea.

I don't think i'd call the sadness that is a relief sadness, per say.

Good points but what if you wanted to try and not say the situation in plan form? What if you wanted to show it with the words not the sentences?

Thats hard I will need to think on that ..you got me on that. Good job

Haha i'm glad i did! We all have a lot to learn about moods in anything, writing, art, music. Its good when we can stump each other.

I'll give an example from my novel, Black Rose Chronicles.

The cavern was painted in blood that dripped like the rain outside. Emothica and the others sat around a fire, their cold skin and wet cloths drying, warming. Gothica stood away from them, her soaked body a chilling paradise. Behind false smiles and cursed eyes she had seen her own will. Shaking hands held the pools of blood that dripped from her face. The first time in a long time it had happened. Sliding down the wall, her body being stabbed in every direction she saw what she didn't want to see. Herself.

Isolation was her only cure. her mind wondered aimlessness about her thoughts, hoping, wishing for some small amount of forgiveness. She could find none. While the others weren't looking, she stood and looked out at the darkness that beckoned her. She had caused so much grief, one broken promise wouldn't do much more damage. She ran. Ran with all her might out into the death soaking rain.

The words give an eerie, sad, lonesome atmosphere.

Reads more to me like sadness, regret and guilt. She knows she did something bad and hates hgerself for it yet in a strange way likes odd. She sounds very conflicted

Exactly, but i didn't say that. I didn't' tell why. Description is a fun way to show things without really using the typical words. Its fun to show emotion, example sadness, through description and have the read wondering what's going on and wanting to read more to find out, then flat out telling.

Agreed. Books are much more enjoyable if they're more "descriptivey-feely" than just telling.

I think everyone has a different writing style, thus everyone has different ways of writing emotion and feelings. For me, I usually work more with inward sadness and conflict, simply because my characters are very complex people. @_@ Usually the sadness mixes in with regret, guilt, and frustration. A potion of emotions, you can say. (XD)

haha moon you bring up a good point

no emotion is only one emotion. its pretty much impossible. not just one thing happens in a life. countless things happen. your long time crush could ask you out and your dog could die at the same time. you be sad for your dog, in greif, but you'd still be happy about your crush.

Emotions and Moods are tricky little buggers

You dont want to get overly detailed either when describing an emotion. I for like a more direct approach, but some detail is fine but when it gets overly long then it becomes boring.

True. The trick to emotion [and this really really works well with first person] is continuing the actions with the emotion as the background. show the things through the emotion without making it so.... long and stretched out. don't bring it to the foreground in a way of speaking.