This is just something I noticed, but I think it's something that might be useful to keep in mind. I switch between a night mode and day mode environment on Scrivener, with the night mode having a dark background with light gray text. I've noticed that whenever I'm reading/writing in the night mode it always feels like there's a darker underlying tone to the story, and looking at it after compilation, I think that the darker tone really did carry over into my writing. I wouldn't be surprised if the psychological influence is sufficient to make a difference in the underlying tone. It could be useful to set up an environment that makes you feel the way you want your readers to feel before writing. I will try and explore this more, but if anyone else has tried or noticed this, what do you think about it?
I once had a creepy scene to write so I blacked out the windows and put "spooky background noises" or thunderstorm sounds on. I liked doing it and it helped me that day because I was finding it hard to get in the mood. I don't think it made much difference to the words themselves though, other than being able to get them down.
I'm writing a story that is unabashed military kink. I've got the Starship Troopers films on a playlist running in the background on the TV. Those films get progressively more terrible, but they've got the right military fetish tone.
I've got ALIENS (the second one) in there too. The militarism isn't quite so fetishized, but it's pretty darned close. Hard to beat Vazquez and Drake stroking their respective M56 Smartguns.
You need Rambo too, when hes holding that M60 balanced on his hip Incidentally i know a guy who fired a GPMG like that once... on about the fourth round the recoil jumped it sideways and the stock hit him in the nuts... there's a reason why the manual says 'fire prone if unmounted'
Generation kill is my go to for that military feel, with a little Starship Troopers mixed in for good measure!
