Making Your Writing Come Alive with the Five Senses ©

Overview

• We perceive reality with our five senses
• Think of which senses you use the most in your world?
• If we don’t explore our world with our senses, how can we expect our characters to explore their world?
• The use of the senses in writing helps make our characters come alive
• The use of the senses in writing helps convince our readers our story is real
• The five senses helps us, as authors, invoke the world inside our characters as well as the world around them

Use of the Senses to Answer, “What Happens Next?”

• Think of the five senses as plotting devices
• Use the awareness of the sensual aspects of your characters to solve the problem of what happens next
• Your character’s senses can guide you through the difficult transitions into action
• When the reader identifies with your characters, your reader will root for your characters
• Let the senses create and, sometimes rule, your characters moods and actions – just like they do us in real life
• Use the five senses as a technique to develop your plot into connected scenes – it is a great way to place your characters in the story

 

Show, Don’t Tell

• Use of the five senses is a great way to show your reader what you are saying
• Showing is illustrating our story through words
• Your goal in writing is to evoke and not order a response from your readers

 

Using the Five Senses to Create the Perfect Setting

• What we, as authors, imagine must be transmitted to paper
• We want our readers to feel they are a part of the scene – we want them to experience it, become a part of the scene
• How does the setting make your characters feel while they are in any particular scene?

 

Using the Five Senses to Create a Feeling of Sensuality

• In romances, it is essential that descriptions of characters appeal to all five senses
• Using the five senses in a love scene makes it about emotion and not biology
• Sensuality is not just reserved for love scenes – you can give your writing a sensuous quality with the five senses

 

Conclusion

• Sensory writing should create scenes that are alive with emotion

  

            In my workshop, I use the five senses make characters three dimensional, to help with plotting, and setting.  To add depth to a writer’s story.

          Please contact me for further details . Click here.