Use all five senses to improve your writing

Gaming

View

This is the only sense that provides most of the detail in our stories. Our words become the eyes of our readers, giving us a blank canvas on which to paint a picture to tell our story. From the sight of a common fear, like a spider crawling silently on the ground to the glimpse of a shadow on the staircase … the sight is our greatest source of inspiration and description of horror. In describing the sight of something terrifying, there is a great resource at the writer’s disposal, because we can use our other senses to add bloody, glorious detail to our descriptions. Here is an example of how the five senses can be used to describe a simple scene:

The apple was bright green, her skin polished and shiny as she snuggled into the fruit bowl. (view). The scent was fresh, as if the fruit had just been plucked from the tree. (smell). He took it from the bowl, his fingers closing around the smooth and firm skin (touch) as he brought it to his lips. The apple cracked loudly (Dream) as his teeth cut through the skin into the sour and juicy meat (taste). As the fresh juice ran down her throat, she noticed a small black spot slowly moving on the creamy meat. Closer inspection revealed that not only had he taken a bite out of the apple, he had bitten into a fat, juicy worm.

Dream

Do you remember when you were a little kid and your parents put you to bed? Maybe there was no light at night and the TV room was at the other end of the house …

You are lying on your bed. All alone. Waiting desperately for her eyes to adjust to the dark, she hears it, a soft scratching noise, and it seems to come from under the bed. It lasts only a moment before it stops. You wonder if you were hearing things, and you are so desperate for the darkness to clear that you forget to blink. Blackness seems to swirl around you, enveloping you in a thick black mist through which no light can penetrate. Suddenly it’s there again, only this time the scratching seems closer. And stronger. It seems like this time it lasts a little longer. So you hold your breath, because that darkness doesn’t seem to be disappearing. He has lost his sense of sight, so by not breathing he hopes to hear the sound more clearly and identify its location …

The above description refers to the total absence of the sense of sight. This is where fear comes in and can play an important descriptive role, in this case blind fear. To compensate for the loss of sight, the sense of hearing becomes more acute, so that the writer can introduce other thoughts and impressions that provoke horror. Where does the sound come from? How close is it? Will I be able to feel it if you decide to get on the bed? When will my eyes get used to the dark? Should I start to panic now? If I get out of bed, will it jump on me?

Play

This sense evokes the description of things that most of us will probably never try to touch, such as slime, frogs, and warty skin. All of these items are perfect for the horror / scary genre, but writers can also take the more common touch phobias and use those items to horrible effect. Some people cannot bear to touch velvet, while others are terrified of touching paper. Others find their skin crawling when they come across cotton …

Opening the wooden box in the hotel bathroom, she backed away in horror. Nestled silently in the bottom of the shiny white box was a cluster of cotton balls on the wall. He took a step back and collapsed on the edge of the tub. The mere thought of feeling those soft fibers squeak as the ball pressed against his skin was enough to induce goose bumps. She wrapped her arms around herself in a subconscious effort to protect her body from the fear that she had had all her life. Just thinking about cotton balls made her skin crawl. She moaned softly, remembering the silent noise they made when squeezed; a noise that seemed to pierce his skin. Through his panic, he wondered if he would remember to pack his facial sponges …

Descriptions of this particular sense can be embellished with the use of physical reactions to feeling certain elements; goose bumps, walking away from the source of horror, collapsing in fear, subconscious act of defense (hugging the body) and a scary noise (groans). All of these reactions add to the reader’s imagination, while adding to the image that their words are “painting.”

Smell

Bad smells in the horror / scary genre generally mean that something bad is about to happen or has already happened. The smell of rotten or burned meat is probably the most common description applicable to this genus, and the description of the smell can also be used to indicate how death occurred. Household odors range from two-week-old pizza languishing in the refrigerator to potatoes burning in a pot on the stove. Adjectives include: smelly, stinky, fetid, smelly, stale, putrid, and noxious.

As she applied the finishing touches to the client’s hair, a strong smell suddenly assaulted her nostrils. It was a smell that he hated and feared, because it was such a terrible smell that the memory remained etched in the subconscious forever. He froze as the acrid stench filled the air, assaulting his nostrils and throat with its foul taste. An instant later, her living room was filled with gasps and screams of horror. He turned to the three ladies sitting under the dryers. Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Edgar had managed to get out from under their dryers, but poor Mrs. Smith couldn’t move. One of her roller pins had obviously caught in the dryer and set her hair on fire. Smoke was seeping through the top of the machine, which had begun to sparkle. Placing his hand over his mouth and nose in an attempt to banish the smelly smell, he began to move towards Mrs. Smith, who screamed as the flames began to come out of the dryer … “

Taste

Most, if not all, have an aversion to a certain food. We don’t like to eat it and its taste makes us feel bad. Perhaps the mere thought of savoring it is enough to induce some horrible thoughts and feelings.

The candlelight caught the designs on the wine glass, casting a dark crimson glow across the table. He raised the glass to his lips, the rich musky taste of Cabernet Sauvignon still wafting on his taste buds. At the first sip of wine, he nearly choked. Obviously, there was something wrong with this new bottle of wine, because the liquid in his mouth tasted bitter and sour. Although the consistency was the same as that of the previous glass, there was an acidic taste that he could not identify … although it seemed vaguely familiar. He swirled the liquid in his mouth before swallowing it. It seemed to sting her tongue and burn her palate, and when she swallowed the acrid liquid, her throat tingled. Suppressing the urge to cough, she reached for the glass of water next to her plate and took a sip. As the cold water washed the sour taste off her palate, her hostess lifted the bottle she had used to fill her wine glass … and poured balsamic vinegar over her salad plate.

Writers have a host of adjectives at their disposal when describing the horror of trying unappetizing food. These include: pungent, sour, pungent, bitter, foul, stinky, putrid, decaying, rancid, smelly, rancid, and bad.

Real life can be much more fascinating than fiction, and the use of our senses in our writing proves this truth. So the next time you sit down at your keyboard, tap on those five senses and see how they can color your words.

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