The five senses can help us perceive the world around us. Take away one of them and you’re bound to have an incomplete picture. Touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight can provide a richer picture when describing settings and characters. Any writer trying to set the reader into the material will make use of the senses.
For example, clothing can indicate a character’s economic status. Faded clothing in particular can let the reader know the person spends a lot of time in the sun. Or combined the faded clothing with frayed cuffs, the person is unable to purchase a closet full of clothes.
I’ve begun reading A Field Guide To Burying Your Parents by Liza Palmer and it’s full of examples that use the senses. The main character’s mother smells like Earl Grey and outside. Bits of tea leaves float on top like fish food. These little details make the characters and the settings come alive; it’s not flat writing.
Have you read or written anything lately that really stood out because the senses were involved?
One of the main characters in the novel I’ve been working on has a heightened sense of smell. He perceives the world with special attention to this sense, which is strongly linked to memory.
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Very intriguing, Lisa.