Writers and actors have some creative ground in common, and so when you’re writing a scene and hoping to convey a mood it’s not the worst idea to try to put that mood into your headspace -- feel it, if only a little. I’m not saying you have to kill a kitten or punch your mother to feel something -- I just mean, stir up the memory of certain emotions if not the emotion itself. Same way an actor might think about a sad moment to conjure tears on-camera.

CHUCK WENDIG