other hand, if a writer desires to put together a story of
atmosphere, he starts with an emotional effect as the basic conception,
and then casts about for a setting, people, and incidents that will
produce such emotional effect. It all depends upon what the writer
starts with. If he starts with an emotional effect, he may narrate any
course of events, and draw any sort of people, and place the tale in any
sort of setting, provided only that events, people, and setting be such
as to produce the desired atmosphere or effect. But if the writer starts
with a definite story, the only atmosphere he can create thereby is the
atmosphere inherent in the conception.[P]

Though it is true that a writer may and should disregard the matter of
atmosphere in writing a story which he has conceived as a definite
course of events involving definite people, since any atmospheric
possibilities of the fiction will be inherent in the conception and will
be realized by telling it justly as to people, events, and setting,
nevertheless a qualification must be stated. No story is conceived as
definitely as it is written; the writer first grasps the plot or main
situation, perhaps also the characters, and then expands the outline
into a congruous presentation of a phase of life by filling in details
as to environment, people, and events. This filling-in process may and
should be performed partly at least before writing, but even if the
writer postpones it until he is wrestling with the problem of execution,
he must remember one thing. Any story has a general tone, largely
determined by its climax or main situation. This tone or key of a story
is not its atmosphere strictly, perhaps, but the dividing line between
the two matters is very faint. The atmosphere of a story is its general
emotional effect upon a reader, and its tone is very nearly the same
thing, being the result of its writer's having justly performed his
selective task by transcribing only such matters as harmonize with the
main situation, tragic or comic. And a writer must regard the matter of
the tone of a story in developing and writing it, if it is to have the
significant simplicity and unity which alone can give the fiction
maximum power and effect.

The practical problem can be stated most simply thus: a reader's
intelligence and sensibilities must be prepared for the crisis, climax,
or main situation by incorporating in the story only such matters of
environment, personality