The Five Senses. We learn about these in grade school. Some English teachers touch on them on vague creative writing assignments. And then they're forgotten. However, a great writer uses sensory language to evoke a sense of presence in the reader, a sense of being in the world the author has created. One of the ways good books go to great books for me is when I am sensory overloaded by the author's descriptions. Senses ground us and immerse us in an author's world. Which is why it is so important to incorporate tangible descriptors in our text, especially in fantasy. When you're building a world from scratch, as impossible as this world is, it must be tangible and real to the reader. Not "real" in the sense of no magic or dragons, but real in the sense of tangibility. An author must be able to bring the reader into their story with the smell of garlic weaving with freshly cooked meats, the bubbly ale, the crunch of gravel under a boot, the derelict child with a crooked nose, and the brittle leaf of a dying magical plant. These descriptors are much more immersive than simply saying meats, ale, gravel, child, and dying leaf. They give the reader a sense of presence, a sense of being the one to touch the brittle leaf that crumbles to powder in their hands. A reader can feel that! I bet you heard the gravel when you read that sentence. Maybe you even smelled the garlicky meats. In fact, using precise descriptors to evoke the sensory images in your reader is backed by science! Check out this article that I loved (and that supports using the senses in fiction writing) from the New York Times. When we read certain descriptors, areas of our brain light up as if we are actually experiencing it! Even social interactions in books are experienced as if we are actually having those experiences. How cool is that?! Your writing has the power to make the reader feel as if they are experiencing your world! That's magic.
Comment a practice paragraph below using all five senses to build the start of a world. Feel free to use the ones I provided in the infographic, or use your own! As always, I'll give you constructive feedback on whatever you post!
2 Comments
This is essential information. Many modern writers, like John Steinbeck or Raymond Carver (and their hero, Hemingway) taught us to write minimalist prose, cutting down on description to the bone. That being so, what description we do use must, absolutely must, invoke the readers' senses. Good list!
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M. M. Kastanek
4/21/2020 02:58:31 pm
Thanks so much for reading! The minimalist prose of Hemingway has never sat well with me. I want enough description to tempt my imagination, but not so much that I can't fill in the gaps with my own ideas.
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