by Verona McColl
Incorporate the six senses in your writing to provide a more engaging experience for your reader. Many writers rely primarily on sight, describing what they see and neglect the depth the other senses can bring to their story. Connect your reader to your story with smells, sounds, tastes, and tactile descriptions to broaden their reading experience.
SMELL. Play with smells in your writing to both entice and repulse your reader. You don’t have to stick to agreeable smells. Pungent smells also create a more realistic reader experience. Smells, like all the senses, are personal and different for each of us. One reader may love the smell of freshly mowed grass in the summer, whereas the next reader associates it with hay fever and sneezing. Both evoke engagement.
TOUCH. Don’t just describe how something feels with simple textures and temperatures. Instead of saying the morning was cold, reach further and say the morning was fresh, icy, or the bitter wind bit into my bare hands. Try to use the word touch rather than feel as it will give depth to your writing. For example, “I felt the breeze on my face” compared to “The breeze touched my face like my mother’s gentle hand when she tried to calm my fear.”
TASTE. Taste isn’t as straightforward as some of the other senses. Taste is a personal experience and very few people share the same definition of a single taste. However, that isn’t a reason not to engage your reader with tastes. Be creative, use metaphors such as “it tasted like the smell of mouldy socks” or “My nostrils flared in objection to his canine breath of rotten flesh.” (1)
SOUND. Simple adjective such as loud, whisper, angry, soft, often overused and can lack intensity. Instead, try something more creative to add depth to your writing. “He had the voice for it, mellow and gentle with a hypnotic English accent.” (2)
SIGHT. The most popular and easiest of senses to use in writing is sight. It comes naturally to us when writing, as it’s the sense we use most often. And we all know the principle “Show don’t tell”. But try to look beyond the obvious blue sky and green grass. Expand your colours so that they evoke pictures for the reader. My suggestion is to visit your local paint shop and study their colour charts. Paint charts have the most creative descriptions of colour I’ve ever experienced. Try some of these: Peacock Blue, Toasted Almond, Powder Blue, Peony Pink, and who could resist Cappuccino.
(1)Excerpt from “The Accidental Archaeologist” by Verona McColl (2)Excerpt from “What I learned from Dying” by Verona McColl