The environment should reflect or contrast the character's internal state.
If you say a character is "sad," you’ve given the reader a label. If you describe the character’s inability to wash the single coffee mug left in the sink, you’ve given them the feeling. The Emotional Craft of Fiction
Show the character’s "soft underbelly." A hardened detective is more sympathetic when we see them tenderly caring for a dying houseplant. The environment should reflect or contrast the character's
Most people avoid direct emotional confrontation in real life; your characters should too. Show the character’s "soft underbelly
Using the weather (rain for sadness) is a classic trope, but Emotional Contrast is often more effective. A character receiving devastating news on a bright, beautiful spring day emphasizes their isolation from the rest of the world.
In fiction, emotion isn't something a character has ; it’s something the reader feels .