When we talk about setting as character, I believe mist is the best setting of all. Think about the book you are currently reading or writing. What is it about the setting that intrigues you? One of the reasons I read and write books set during the Regency period ( England 1801-1811) is that the setting calls to me. The beautiful manor homes and castles. The gorgeous gowns, the sexy cravats and Hessian boots. But the mist calls to me more than anything. I have a thing for any setting in any era that has fog rolling in or out. Mist so dense you can't see far enough in front of you to take a step and know you'll be safe.
I love a great mystery/suspense novel. I add a lot of these elements to my romances. So is the fog thing something strictly for mystery/suspense folks or are other readers and writers drawn to it? Other genres? You bet!
I know horror writers have got to love it! "Everyone thinks of it as a harmless lightning storm. When Dave Drayton
notices a strange mist on the lake, he thinks nothing of it." The Mist
There are other ways to invoke mist that are romantic and not scary. Any Pride and Prejudice fan will remember and love this photo. Regency period! Also hangs on my wall at home. If I have a scene without mist in it at sometime in the novel I'm writing then I must be off my game.
So is the mist forming in your mind yet? Have you thought of something that evokes mystery/suspense, or horror, or romance?
And then there is the mist of all mists in the Sherlock Holmes books and movies. Nothing like being out on the moor with the Hound of the Baskervilles or in a Game of Shadows.
Let's see there is also Sharyn McCrumb's, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Christina Skye's, Bride of the Mist, Laurie Alice Eakes, Lady in the Mist, and Kathleen Morgan's, Child of the Mist.
And some of us consider ourselves seat-of-the-pants writers. But author, Jo Beverley calls it,
Flying into the Mist. Regency writer, mist, hmm . . .
I simply can't resist the mist! How about you? What are some of your misty favorites?
There are other ways to invoke mist that are romantic and not scary. Any Pride and Prejudice fan will remember and love this photo. Regency period! Also hangs on my wall at home. If I have a scene without mist in it at sometime in the novel I'm writing then I must be off my game.
