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Using the Five Senses
to Enhance Your Writing
By Sarah Todd
Have you ever considered just
how big a role our senses play when writing? They're an unlimited
source of inspiration, and can be used to great advantage when
crafting a story. Our senses offer great scope for in-depth description
and development for a story line, as well as describing a particular
personality or character. For this article I shall focus upon
using our five senses when writing in the horror genre, although
the content can be applied to any genre.
Sight
This is the one sense that provides
most of the detail for our stories. Our words become our readers'
eyes, giving us a blank canvas upon which to paint a picture to
tell our story. From the sight of a common fear, such as a spider
creeping silently along the floor to the glimpse of a shadow on
the stairway... sight is our greatest source of horror inspiration
and description. When describing the sight of something terrifying
there's a huge resource at the writer's disposal, because we can
use our other senses to add glorious, gory detail to our descriptions.
Here's an example of how all five of our senses can be used to
describe a simple scene:
The
apple was bright green, its skin polished and shining as it nestled
in the fruit bowl (sight). The scent was fresh, as though
the fruit had just been plucked from the tree (smell). She took it from the bowl, her fingers closing around the
firm smooth skin (touch)
as she lifted it to her lips. The apple crunched loudly (sound) as her teeth cut through the skin into the tart, juicy flesh
(taste). As the fresh
juice ran down her throat she noticed a small black speck moving
slowly in the creamy flesh. Closer inspection revealed that she
hadn't just taken a bite from the apple - she'd bitten through
a fat, juicy worm.
Sound
Remember when you were a small
child, and your parents put you to bed? Perhaps there was no nightlight,
and the TV room was at the other end of the house...
You're
lying in your bed. All alone. Desperately
waiting for your eyes to accustom to the dark you hear it - a
soft, scratching noise - and it seems to be coming from under
the bed.
It
lasts only a moment before it stops. You wonder if you were hearing
things, and you're so desperate for the darkness to lighten you
forget to blink. The blackness seems to swirl around you, cloaking
you in a thick, black fog through which no light can penetrate.
Suddenly it's there again, only this time the scratching seems
closer. And louder. It seems to last
a bit longer this time. So you hold your breath, because that
darkness doesn't seem to be lifting. You've lost the sense of
sight, so by not breathing you hope to hear the sound more clearly,
and identify its location...
The description
above relies on the complete absence of the sense of sight. This
is where fear comes in and can play a major descriptive role -
in this case blind fear. To compensate for loss of sight the sense
of hearing becomes more acute, so the
writer
can introduce other horror-inducing thoughts and impressions.
Where is the sound coming from? How close is it? Will I be able
to feel it if it decides to climb on the bed?
When will my eyes get used to
the darkness? Should I start panicking now? If I get out of bed
will it jump on top of me?
Touch
This sense conjures
up description of things most us will probably try to never touch,
like slime, frogs and warty skin. All these items are perfect
for the horror/scary genre, but writers can also take the more
ordinary touch phobias and use those items to horrific effect.
Some people cannot bear to touch velvet, while others are terrified
of touching paper. Still others find their skin crawls when they
encounter cotton wool...
Opening
the wooden box in the hotel bathroom, she recoiled in horror.
Nestling quietly in the bottom of the box, white and shining,
was a cluster of cotton wall balls. She stepped back, collapsing
on the side of the bath. The mere thought of feeling those soft
fibers squeaking as the ball pressed against her skin was enough
to induce Goosebumps. She wrapped her arms around herself in a
subconscious effort to protect her body from the fear she'd had
her entire life. Just thinking about cotton balls made her skin
crawl. She moaned quietly, remembering the silent noise they emitted
when squeezed; a noise that seemed to pass right through her skin.
Through her panic she wondered if she'd remember to pack her facial
sponges...
Descriptions
of this particular sense can been embellished with the use of
physical reactions to feeling certain items; Goosebumps, stepping
away from the source of horror, collapsing with fear, subconscious
act of defense (hugging the body) and a noise of fear (moaning).
All these reactions add to the reader's imagination, while adding
to the picture your words are "painting".
Smell
Bad smells in
the horror/scary genre usually mean something bad is about to
happen or has already happened. The smell of rotting or burning
flesh is probably the most common description applicable to this
genre, and the description of the smell can also be used to indicate
how the death occurred. Bad household smells range from two week
old pizza languishing in the refrigerator to potatoes burning
in a pot on the stove. Adjectives include: smelly, reeking, fetid,
malodorous, rank, putrid and noxious.
As
she applied the finishing touches to the client's hair, a sharp
smell suddenly assaulted her nostrils. It was a smell she hated
and dreaded, because it was an odor so terrible the
memory remained burned into the subconscious forever.
She froze as the acrid stench filled the air, assaulting her nostrils
and her throat with its foul flavor. An instant later her salon
filled with gasps and shrieks of horror. She turned towards the
three ladies seated underneath the dryers. Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs.
Edgar had managed to wriggle out from underneath their dryers,
but poor Mrs. Smith was unable to move. One of the pins from her
rollers had obviously caught in the dryer, and ignited her hair.
Smoke was seeping out of the top of the machine, which had started
to spark. Placing her hand over her mouth and nose in a
attempt to banish the malodorous scent she started to move towards
Mrs. Smith, who screamed as flames began flickering out of the
dryer..."
Taste
Most, if not all of us, have an
aversion to a certain food. We don't like to eat it and the taste
of it makes us feel sick. Perhaps the mere thought of tasting
it is enough to induce some horrible thoughts and feelings.
The
candlelight caught the designs on the wineglass, casting a dark
crimson glow on the table. He lifted the glass to his lips, the
rich musky flavor of the cabernet sauvignon still
drifting over his taste buds. At the first sip of the
wine he almost choked. There was obviously something wrong with
this new bottle of wine, for the liquid in his mouth had a bitter,
sour taste. Although the consistency was the same as the previous
glass, there was an acidic flavor he could not identify... although
it seemed vaguely familiar. He swirled the liquid around in his
mouth before swallowing it. It seemed to sting his tongue and
burn the roof of his mouth, and when he swallowed the acrid liquid
his throat tingled. Suppressing the urge to cough he reached for
the glass of water next to his plate and took a sip. As the cool
water cleansed the tart taste from his palate his hostess lifted
the bottle he'd used to fill his wineglass... and poured balsamic
vinegar over her plate of salad.
Writers have a magnitude of adjectives
at their disposal when describing the horror of tasting unappetizing
food. These include: pungent, sour, acrid, bitter, fetid, stinking,
putrid, decaying, rancid, reek, stale and bad.
Real life can be far more fascinating
than fiction, and using our senses in our writing proves this
truth. So the next time you sit down in front of your keyboard
tap in to those five senses, and see just how they can color your
words!
About the author:
The writer was born in Africa,
and lived there for the first 38 years of her life. She worked
in the world of public relations for over five years, running
her own PR company and dealing extensively with the world of journalism
and the print media. She is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/,
a site for Writers. Her
blog can be visited at: http://www.writing.com/authors/zwisis/blog
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