: Re: How to achieve a dark and nostalgic feeling/setting in a novel? I don't want to scare the reader, but I would like to produce a dark and nostalgic feeling. Pretty much the feeling that gives

@Rambettina586

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I simply believe that there is no technique to follow to achieve the goal you say you're aiming for, provided that you really want to convey such an emotion.

The mere fact of thinking about a 'how to' shows that it is likely that your approach to the story could appear as too deterministic and cold, hence very likely not to produce the expected result.

Even in genre / 'pop' literature (quite silly distinction, btw), some areas are best left coming freely to your writing rather than issued by some rules.

There are some otherwise very dry list / descriptions of mundane infos in gifted writers (i.e. David Forster Wallace comes now to my mind) that convey precisely nostalgia, the sense of how time is past etc ... while other less gifted writers induce boredom at best, hilarity at worst, while trying to be 'intense'.

Sincerity above all, as well as reading a lot of good literary examples can make wonders, while precooked schemes tend to fail.

PS

I do not see precisely the connection between fear and nostalgia, but scaring the reader is a higly commendable task, really difficult to achieve ! :-)

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