101 Of The Best Mood Words To Use In Writing Fiction

Think of a story you’ve read that you keep going back to.

We bet if we asked you, “Why that book?” you’d tell us it’s because of how the book makes you feel.

It’s not that the author forced an emotion on you.

They just guided you in the direction of a particular mood. 

Wondering how to describe mood, exactly?

It’s what you feel when you’re reading a story.

And, hopefully, it’s exactly what the author intended. 

What Is Mood in Literature and Why Is It Important? 

If the tone is tied to what the author feels, the mood is what you, as the reader, feel when you read the author’s words.

The author sets the tone, and if they do it well, you pick up on the mood intended. And it stays with you even after you close the book. 

mood words

When you tune into the author’s intended mood, you feel more invested in the story — feeling as present for each scene as the characters and empathizing with them. 

Mood helps make the story personal. 

How Is Mood Created? 

A skilled author uses all five of the following story elements to create a particular mood:

  • Genre — The overall mood readers expect from a particular fiction genre
  • Setting — The description of a story’s or scene’s time and place
  • Style / Diction— The author’s use of words, sentences, and punctuation
  • Tone — The words that communicate the author’s attitude toward something
  • Viewpoint — First, second, or third-person point of view 

For tone, the author carefully chooses words to evoke the types of mood they want to set, using what they know or drawing from a list of mood words like the one in this post. 

In doing so, they create an atmosphere that enters the reader’s consciousness along with the words. 

Mood Examples in Literature 

Enjoy the following examples of mood and how each author creates it, using the elements at their disposal: setting, style, genre, tone, and viewpoint. 

Example #1: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll uses extraordinary imagery, lighthearted language, and unusual turns of phrase to create a whimsical mood, presenting strange characters as if they were ordinary and expected. 

“She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large caterpillar, that was sitting on the top with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else.”

Example #2: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien starts the book by painting a picture of a homey scene — with a cozy, welcoming, and well-furnished hobbit hole — to create a mood of comfort and security. 

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. 

“It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats – the hobbit was fond of visitors….”

Example #3: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare sets an ominous tone for the play right from the beginning by setting it at night with the sudden appearance of the dead king’s ghost, who reveals to Prince Hamlet, his son, that he was murdered by his own brother, the prince’s uncle. 

Hamlet’s character is pensive, melancholy, and suspicious for most of the play, adding to the suspenseful and foreboding mood throughout. 

Marcellus       Peace, break thee off. Look where it comes again.

Barnardo        In the same figure like the King that’s dead.

Marcellus       Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio.

Barnardo        Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.

Horatio           Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.

Horatio           What art thou that usurp’st this time of night,

                 Together with that fair and warlike form

                 To which the majesty of buried Denmark

                 Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee speak.

Marcellus       It is offended.

Barnardo        See, it stalks away.

Horatio           Stay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak!

Even without stage directions, the reader can easily pick up on the fear and foreboding in the castle guards when they see the ghost of their departed king. 

Example #4: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The main character, Hazel Lancaster, is on doctor’s orders to attend a support group named God’s Heart, supposedly to address the depression she has over her cancer diagnosis.

Here’s how Hazel describes the support group:

“So here’s how it went in God’s Heart: The six or seven or ten of us walked/wheeled in, grazed at a decrepit selection of cookies and lemonade, sat down in the Circle of Trust, and listened to Patrick recount for the thousandth time his depressingly miserable life story— […] they thought he was going to die but he didn’t die and now here he is, a full-grown adult in a church basement in the 137th nicest city in America, divorced […].”

Notice how the bolded words make it obvious how Hazel views her time there — and how little it’s likely to help with any depression she might have. 

Example #5: Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare

Though this example comes from a poem, it offers a clear example of how the author’s choice of words create a mood — in this case a humorous one. 

Here Shakespeare uses clear, blunt language to give the reader a taste of reality, poking fun at poetry that exaggerates the beauty of their female subjects.

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

101 Mood Words to Use in Writing Fiction 

In the following list of words to describe mood, you’ll find those that run the spectrum from positive to negative since enough of them are somewhere in the middle. 

1. Amused

2. Angry

3. Anxious

4. Apathetic

5. Astonished

6. Awed

7. Bored

8. Brooding

9. Calm

10. Cheerful

11. Cold

12. Confident

13. Confining

14. Contemplative

15. Content

16. Crushed

17. Cynical

18. Depressed / Depressing

19. Desolate

20. Determined

21. Dignified

22. Disappointed

23. Distressed

24. Drained

25. Dreamy

26. Ecstatic

27. Embarrassed

28. Empty

29. Enthralled

30. Energetic

31. Exhausted

32. Exhilarated

33. Fatalistic

34. Foreboding

35. Frightened

36. Frustrated

37. Futile

38. Giddy

39. Gloomy

40. Grateful

41. Happy

42. Harmonious

43. Haunting


More Related Articles

The Writer’s Handy List Of 111 Negative Adjectives To Describe A Person

37 Words of Diction To Use In Your Writing

The Ultimate Strong Verbs List And Guide To Power Up Your Writing


44. Hesitant

45. Hopeful / Hopeless

46.Hostile

47. Idyllic

48. Impressed

49. Indifferent

50. Interested

51. Intimidated

52. Irritated

53. Isolated

54. Joyful 

55. Lethargic

56. Light-hearted

57. Lonely

58. Melancholic

59. Mellow

60. Morose 

61. Nauseated

62. Nervous

63. Nostalgic

64. Numb  

65. Ominous

66. Optimistic

67. Overwhelmed

68. Painful / Pained

69. Passionate

70. Peaceful

71. Pensive

72. Playful

73. Powerful / Powerless

74. Proud

75. Reflective

76. Refreshed

77. Rejected 

78. Relaxed 

79. Relieved 

80. Restless 

81. Safe

82. Satisfied

83. Scared

84. Sceptical / Skeptical

85. Sentimental

86. Shocked

87. Sick / Sickened

88. Silly

89. Somber

90. Surprised 

91. Suspenseful

92. Thankful

93. Tense 

94. Terrified 

95. Threatened

96. Touched 

97. Trustful / Trusting 

98. Vengeful

99. Vulnerable 

100. Warm

101. Worried 

Conclusion

Now that you’re better acquainted with mood and how to create it, what authors have you read lately who used all five elements to set exactly the mood you were hoping to find.

After all, sometimes we just want a book that makes us feel calm, comforted, and safe. Other times, we want a story that leads with a mystery or with heart-pounding tension. 

What mood are you trying to set for your story? And what words will help you do that?

Want to know what words to use to set the mood in your story? Check this list of 101 mood words to use in your next fiction writing project.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.