Julie Lence's Blog - Posts Tagged "description"
The Five Senses
See. Smell. Hear. Taste. Touch. We all know the five senses, experience them in our everyday lives. But do you have them layered throughout your story? If so, do you have too many? Not enough? And did you know that one sense can trigger another?
Imagine walking into the grocery store and the first thing that hits you is the aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. What happens next? Your mouth begins to water in anticipation of the sweet taste. Your hands can feel the texture of the cookie, the warm, gooey chocolate sticking to your fingers.
What about when you look at a painting? I have one of three American Indians riding their ponies through the snow-packed woods. When I look at them, I can hear the quiet plodding of their horses hooves, feel the dampness of a bleak day and taste the cold on my lips.
When writing, the five senses are all necessary to your story. You want your readers to relate to your charcters, see what they see, hear what they hear and feel what they feel. You want to draw out your readers' sympathy in an emotional scene, make them tense and fearful in a scary scene and stand up and cheer when something good happens. In other words, you want the reader to feel as though he/she is standing right alongside your characters.
Sight is perhaps the easiest to put into words; bright blue eyes, hair the color of straw, over-sized furniture crowded into a dark room. Smell is also easy; chicken roasting in the oven, digging holes in fresh dirt, riding through a cow pasture. Each of these allows your reader to see what your characters see and get a whiff of their surroundings. And when you add in sound, the shrill whistle of a train, the whiny of a horse, the murmur of voices inside a crowded saloon, the reader is even more implanted into the scene.
Taste and touch are even better ways for your readers to relate to your characters. I just finished a scene where my hero uncovers a plate of ham and grimaces. With those few words, it's clear he can't stomach the taste of ham. How about something he does like? The aroma of apple pie wafting through the restaurant made his mouth water. And what about things he touches? Soft hair, corse fibers of a rope, the prickly husk of a pineapple; the right adjective will conjure a reponse in the reader's mind, maybe even in his/her fingertips.
There is another aspect to touch, and that is how a person's feelings touch him inwardly, be it matters of the heart or a shock to his system. It's always best to show how the charcter feels than to say it. Sometimes, I'll put a word, or a group of words, in italics to emphasize their impact. Or, I'll use body parts to convey feeling; a widened gaze, a flutter in her heart, coldness slithering down her spine, knees wobbling. All of these invoke an emotional response from the reader and endear him/her that much more to your characters and the scene.
When writing, you'll find you can use one or two sentences to invoke a variety of senses. 'Jack walked into the crowded restaurant, inhaled the delicious aroma of pumpkin pie wafting from the kitchen and felt his heart nearly skid to a stop when his gaze settled on a familiar face seated at the back table.' Or, 'Beneath a hot sun, Jack crested the hill and reined in his mustang, dragged a gloved hand across his brow and stared long and hard at the neat farm house below. His pulse punded between his ears when a woman stepped out onto the porch.' Your reader is there alongside Jack and intruding on his innermost thoughts.
Be creative when layering the senses. Don't use the same descriptions over and over. And don't overkill with them. Sometimes, the less you say the more you convey. You don't want to spoon-feed every detail to your reader; they like to use their imaginations, too, but you do want them to have a feel for your characters and your characters' worlds.
As always, have fun with your writing and take your characters on a journey they wouldn't normally travel, and let your readers expereince the excitement and pain as your characters do.
Imagine walking into the grocery store and the first thing that hits you is the aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. What happens next? Your mouth begins to water in anticipation of the sweet taste. Your hands can feel the texture of the cookie, the warm, gooey chocolate sticking to your fingers.
What about when you look at a painting? I have one of three American Indians riding their ponies through the snow-packed woods. When I look at them, I can hear the quiet plodding of their horses hooves, feel the dampness of a bleak day and taste the cold on my lips.
When writing, the five senses are all necessary to your story. You want your readers to relate to your charcters, see what they see, hear what they hear and feel what they feel. You want to draw out your readers' sympathy in an emotional scene, make them tense and fearful in a scary scene and stand up and cheer when something good happens. In other words, you want the reader to feel as though he/she is standing right alongside your characters.
Sight is perhaps the easiest to put into words; bright blue eyes, hair the color of straw, over-sized furniture crowded into a dark room. Smell is also easy; chicken roasting in the oven, digging holes in fresh dirt, riding through a cow pasture. Each of these allows your reader to see what your characters see and get a whiff of their surroundings. And when you add in sound, the shrill whistle of a train, the whiny of a horse, the murmur of voices inside a crowded saloon, the reader is even more implanted into the scene.
Taste and touch are even better ways for your readers to relate to your characters. I just finished a scene where my hero uncovers a plate of ham and grimaces. With those few words, it's clear he can't stomach the taste of ham. How about something he does like? The aroma of apple pie wafting through the restaurant made his mouth water. And what about things he touches? Soft hair, corse fibers of a rope, the prickly husk of a pineapple; the right adjective will conjure a reponse in the reader's mind, maybe even in his/her fingertips.
There is another aspect to touch, and that is how a person's feelings touch him inwardly, be it matters of the heart or a shock to his system. It's always best to show how the charcter feels than to say it. Sometimes, I'll put a word, or a group of words, in italics to emphasize their impact. Or, I'll use body parts to convey feeling; a widened gaze, a flutter in her heart, coldness slithering down her spine, knees wobbling. All of these invoke an emotional response from the reader and endear him/her that much more to your characters and the scene.
When writing, you'll find you can use one or two sentences to invoke a variety of senses. 'Jack walked into the crowded restaurant, inhaled the delicious aroma of pumpkin pie wafting from the kitchen and felt his heart nearly skid to a stop when his gaze settled on a familiar face seated at the back table.' Or, 'Beneath a hot sun, Jack crested the hill and reined in his mustang, dragged a gloved hand across his brow and stared long and hard at the neat farm house below. His pulse punded between his ears when a woman stepped out onto the porch.' Your reader is there alongside Jack and intruding on his innermost thoughts.
Be creative when layering the senses. Don't use the same descriptions over and over. And don't overkill with them. Sometimes, the less you say the more you convey. You don't want to spoon-feed every detail to your reader; they like to use their imaginations, too, but you do want them to have a feel for your characters and your characters' worlds.
As always, have fun with your writing and take your characters on a journey they wouldn't normally travel, and let your readers expereince the excitement and pain as your characters do.
