The difference between tone and mood
Whose feeling is it — the writer’s or the reader’s?
Tone
The attitude the writer or narrator takes toward their subject, conveyed through word choice, sentence length and punctuation. Tone answers: how does the speaker feel about what they’re saying?
“The council’s so-called ‘solution’ is nothing but a Band-Aid.” — a mocking, contemptuous tone, signalled by the scare quotes and dismissive diction.
Mood
The atmosphere created for the reader or audience, built through setting, imagery and pacing. Mood answers: how does this passage make me feel while I read it?
Fog rolled low across the empty platform; a single light flickered. — an uneasy, foreboding mood, independent of any narrator’s attitude.
Quick test
Ask whose feeling you’re describing. If it’s the speaker’s attitude toward their own subject, name the tone. If it’s the atmosphere you feel as you read, name the mood. The two often align, since a sarcastic tone can create an uneasy mood, but they don’t have to. A calm, matter-of-fact tone describing a massacre can create a deeply disturbing mood precisely because the narrator doesn’t react.
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