Beyond Vision
Engage your reader by engaging all five senses
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When I teach writing, I notice my students think about description as being primarily visual. Occasionally, they will include a sound or two. However, to read their writings, one would think that human beings only had two senses: sight and sound. However, touch, taste, and smell trigger some of the most powerful sense memories. You need to let your reader do more than see and hear; you need to impact their other three senses. Here are a few exercises to help you think more creatively.
1. Go back over a piece of description you have already written. Count the number of references by sense. For instance: Sight 15, sound four, smell 0, taste 0, and touch 2. Rewrite the piece trying to bring in any senses you missed. Taste is often the most challenging. Nevertheless, think about creative ways to include it. For instance, you could indicate a man is nervous by pointing out his perspiration with a bit of visual description. On the other hand, you could simply have him lick his lips and taste the saltiness of the sweat on his upper lip. Don't worry about it sounding forced. This is just an exercise. You can revise or eliminate anything that doesn't work before your final draft.
2. Pretend you are Helen Keller. Go to a location and imagine that Ann Sullivan has left you to sit here while she went to the bathroom. Describe the scene without using sight or sound references.
3. Smells are particularly powerful in evoking emotion. Make a list of smells that evoke some sort of feeling in you. Here's my list:
· Fresh cut grass on a summer afternoon - reminds me of childhood in a small town.
· The musty smell of paper and old leather in a used bookstore as I open a century-old book. It smells like history in my hands.
· The tangy, sweet, wet smell of an orange being peeled -- makes my mouth water.
· The antiseptic smell of Lysol, reminds me of hospitals and last illnesses and worry.
· The smoky smell of bacon - My Mom making BLTs on Sunday evening after church. A warm family feeling.
Well, you get the idea. Don't handicap your characters, let them see and hear, but have them smell, taste, and feel as well.