Setting the Tone of Your Book

A very important thing in writing, almost as important as the plot, is the tone of your book. It kind of relates to the style of your book, because both with polish along the way, and neither are perfect right now.

By the tone of the book, I mean how it sounds, and I don't mean the style. If you are on your first draft of writing, or are just starting (as in writing your first novel/story/poem) the I wouldn't sweat this too much, but still think about it. The tone is how it actually is, does it have a depressing bend? Is it quirky? Fun? Serious? Flowery? is needs to sounds like that (so much that I underlined it, italicized it and bold-ed it.)

My book that I'm writing now, Invisible Angels, is a rather depressing book. The main character is an orphan, her parents died when she was eight by car accident, a bunch of other people that she knew died, and she gets in a car accident with her cousin who is in very bad condition. On top of that, she only has one friend and her teacher's treat her like a delinquent. She's not a very positive person, and she doesn't think much of herself. That being said, the book is going to have a more depressing curve to it.

This isn't just when the character is thinking, it's evident in the whole book.

EXAMPLE:

Here's an example of a fairly unemotional sentence, I'm going to change it so you can see exactly what I mean. I encourage you to try this out too.

Sentence: The leaves on the trees were very green, like the grass that covered the field, on being interrupted by flowers poking up every once in a while.

Now I'll add a happier twist: The leaves on the trees where a green that made the world seem like one was seeing it in high definition, it was as bright as the sweet-smelling grass that covered the field, which was only interrupted by the colorful flowers passing through.

Now for a more depressing version: The leaves on the trees were green, like they were happy, and it was annoying. Everything was too green and too happy, it should all have been black and white, and the flowers should all have been mowed over.

Now I'll do a flowery twist (by flowery I mean very descriptive): The detailed leaves on the trees were of a bright green, and the sunlight that hit them showed their strangely shaped skeletons. The grass was of the same leprechaun-like hue, the blades were blowing in the soft wind, though the flowers refused to comply to nature's wishes.

See, I basically said the same thing, but with a different tone. It's like adding certain colors to a painting, blue would make it look colder while red would make it look warmer. So I would say decide what tone you want in your painting, er, novel/story/poem.