writerly ways
Feb. 27th, 2011 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessI'm on the special senses in my nursing classes and I thought that might be a good topic for this week
Our senses are some of the biggest tools for any writer. I confess it, I’m visually oriented and it shows in my work. Everyone is always looking/gazing/glancing especially in my first drafts. Most humans are more oriented to their vision. When we look at many descriptive scenes they spell out color, arrangement of furniture, clothing etc. I’m in a writers’ group with three blind members and even their own writing is often sight oriented (it should be noted they went blind in adulthood as opposed to being born blind). Vision gives a rich sense of place to our fiction.
Smell is highly underrated. I mess this up every time I write a shape shifter. Their sense of smell and what it tells the character should be more acute but I tend to forget. How ironic is that when you consider that smell is the strongest trigger of memory. There is a scene in the first year of Buffy when Giles and Jenny are debating computers versus books and Giles gives that as a reason not to like the computer, no smell and goes on to wax poetic about the scent of books. Most writers would know this scent and many of us love it as much as Giles. Aromatherapy works up to a point. It’s part of our limbic system which binds together scent, emotion and memory. As I tell my students, if the smell of roses reminds you of a grandmother who has passed on then you might be sad because of your loss when smell them or conversely happy because the scent triggers good memories. We tend to think of scent when we’re setting a romantic stage or when we’re writing horrific scenes of blood and decay.
Hearing is another obvious tool for writing. It can play a role when your character overhears a key piece of information. How about when we, the author’s, hear something that gets our juices flowing. This week alone I’ve come across so many little details that I can’t wait to use them somewhere (granted there is always a risk of using something you overhear) like story about the idiot in Jackson this past weekend who got arrested for crossing the double yellow and admitted to the cops she was shooting up when that happened. Or how about the student who told me that during her pregnancy she had an irresistible urge to eat coal to the point of getting a lump and sniffing it frequently (she didn’t eat it). Music plays a large role in many stories and in our lives. I know many writers who make up sound tracks to write by and to have on hand to evoke their characters and scenes. Nanowrimo even has a forum for this. As for me, I watch all those forensic shows in part to hear about crimes that frankly even my mind isn't twisted enough to come up with but would make for excellent crime fiction.
Taste is arguably less useful than the others but still it can certainly set a scene. The delicious umami of fine steak dinner, the sweetness of honey slathered over a lover’s belly there for you to lick, the bitterness of medicine as it goes down. Smell and taste go hand in hand. The smell of a roasting chicken dinner gets the salivary glands going and conversely the scent of rotting garbage seems to coat your tongue and you ‘taste’ it.
Touch still another underrated sense. In class, I shut my eyes and describe something just by feeling it. Is it rough or smooth, warm or cold? Does it feel metallic or ceramic or woody? Hard or soft. A plethora of sensations are at the fingertip waiting to fill your stories with additional richness. I was caressing my cat’s paw earlier thinking about this. His fur is so soft there, interrupted by the warm smoothness of his toe pads and a hidden sharpness in the nail sheaths. What would happen to a character who couldn’t feel (nothing good, neuropathy is bad news) What would happen if all our senses were on overload which is one of the things they believe happen with people with autism?
Surely I’ve missed something here. Feel free to add to this.
A challenge for you all. Describe the same scene using at least two if not more of these senses. Try it again leaving sight for last.
Original word count for the year
14603 / 125000 words. 12% done!
Our senses are some of the biggest tools for any writer. I confess it, I’m visually oriented and it shows in my work. Everyone is always looking/gazing/glancing especially in my first drafts. Most humans are more oriented to their vision. When we look at many descriptive scenes they spell out color, arrangement of furniture, clothing etc. I’m in a writers’ group with three blind members and even their own writing is often sight oriented (it should be noted they went blind in adulthood as opposed to being born blind). Vision gives a rich sense of place to our fiction.
Smell is highly underrated. I mess this up every time I write a shape shifter. Their sense of smell and what it tells the character should be more acute but I tend to forget. How ironic is that when you consider that smell is the strongest trigger of memory. There is a scene in the first year of Buffy when Giles and Jenny are debating computers versus books and Giles gives that as a reason not to like the computer, no smell and goes on to wax poetic about the scent of books. Most writers would know this scent and many of us love it as much as Giles. Aromatherapy works up to a point. It’s part of our limbic system which binds together scent, emotion and memory. As I tell my students, if the smell of roses reminds you of a grandmother who has passed on then you might be sad because of your loss when smell them or conversely happy because the scent triggers good memories. We tend to think of scent when we’re setting a romantic stage or when we’re writing horrific scenes of blood and decay.
Hearing is another obvious tool for writing. It can play a role when your character overhears a key piece of information. How about when we, the author’s, hear something that gets our juices flowing. This week alone I’ve come across so many little details that I can’t wait to use them somewhere (granted there is always a risk of using something you overhear) like story about the idiot in Jackson this past weekend who got arrested for crossing the double yellow and admitted to the cops she was shooting up when that happened. Or how about the student who told me that during her pregnancy she had an irresistible urge to eat coal to the point of getting a lump and sniffing it frequently (she didn’t eat it). Music plays a large role in many stories and in our lives. I know many writers who make up sound tracks to write by and to have on hand to evoke their characters and scenes. Nanowrimo even has a forum for this. As for me, I watch all those forensic shows in part to hear about crimes that frankly even my mind isn't twisted enough to come up with but would make for excellent crime fiction.
Taste is arguably less useful than the others but still it can certainly set a scene. The delicious umami of fine steak dinner, the sweetness of honey slathered over a lover’s belly there for you to lick, the bitterness of medicine as it goes down. Smell and taste go hand in hand. The smell of a roasting chicken dinner gets the salivary glands going and conversely the scent of rotting garbage seems to coat your tongue and you ‘taste’ it.
Touch still another underrated sense. In class, I shut my eyes and describe something just by feeling it. Is it rough or smooth, warm or cold? Does it feel metallic or ceramic or woody? Hard or soft. A plethora of sensations are at the fingertip waiting to fill your stories with additional richness. I was caressing my cat’s paw earlier thinking about this. His fur is so soft there, interrupted by the warm smoothness of his toe pads and a hidden sharpness in the nail sheaths. What would happen to a character who couldn’t feel (nothing good, neuropathy is bad news) What would happen if all our senses were on overload which is one of the things they believe happen with people with autism?
Surely I’ve missed something here. Feel free to add to this.
A challenge for you all. Describe the same scene using at least two if not more of these senses. Try it again leaving sight for last.
Original word count for the year
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Date: 2011-02-27 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 11:39 pm (UTC)Now you've gotten me in the mood for writing! ...Which is exactly what I was longing for, so thank you!!
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Date: 2011-02-28 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 11:53 pm (UTC)Umami is a great word. Good to know about when you're cooking and trying to get those delicious caramelised browning flavours into onions, etc. Nom.
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Date: 2011-02-28 02:45 am (UTC)Umami is a great word and if you're caramelizing onions, i'll be right over
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Date: 2011-02-28 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 02:38 am (UTC)That's interesting about Frank. I haven't read him in a long time so I didn't remember that
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Date: 2011-02-28 02:52 am (UTC)And yes, it's been a long time since I've written Frank. Toshiro shouted louder, and he's stolen the spotlight for now.
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Date: 2011-02-28 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-01 12:01 am (UTC)