WRITING USING YOUR 5 SENSES
The other day, the delicious smell of bacon and eggs wafted my way on a warm breeze on my pre-breakfast walk.
It immediately catapulted me back to my childhood when my family would caravan in the seaside town of Seahouses in Northumberland, England.
For breakfast each morning, we would tuck into bacon, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms. No store bought mushrooms for us. With my dad and younger brother, I would head out on a fungus foraging trip.
We would comb the fields around our caravan site, skirt the golf course and cliff edge picking up mushrooms that had popped up overnight. We were never disappointed. And each morning, we returned with a brimming bagful.
Why did that smell of bacon on the warm breeze take me back to my childhood? Studies have shown that smell can be a powerful trigger to unlocking forgotten memories. Smell can evoke powerful and vivid memories you thought you had lost.
As a child, I spent all my school vacations at the beach. Whenever I catch a whiff of seaweed, I’m transported in a magical time machine and am back on the beach: paddling in the water, collecting shells or making sand castles.
USING GOOD SENSE
Authors pain pictures with words and we aim to give our readers as much detail as possible to bring a scene to life for them. A good way to do this is to use the power of all of our five senses - vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
So if talking about the beach, don’t just describe the white sand, use your other senses to make the reader feel as if they are there:
Hearing – perhaps mention the sounds of the waves crashing on the rocks or seagulls screeching overhead
Smell – you could describe the tang of seaweed carried on the wind or the fruity smell of sunscreen
Taste – you could taste the salt in the air or the greasy fries from the
beach hut café.
Feel – the warm smooth pebbles under your bare feet or the rocks still wet from the high tide.
Use your senses in your writing and you will pull the reader into your time and setting.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to keep reaching for the stars
It immediately catapulted me back to my childhood when my family would caravan in the seaside town of Seahouses in Northumberland, England.
For breakfast each morning, we would tuck into bacon, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms. No store bought mushrooms for us. With my dad and younger brother, I would head out on a fungus foraging trip.
We would comb the fields around our caravan site, skirt the golf course and cliff edge picking up mushrooms that had popped up overnight. We were never disappointed. And each morning, we returned with a brimming bagful.
Why did that smell of bacon on the warm breeze take me back to my childhood? Studies have shown that smell can be a powerful trigger to unlocking forgotten memories. Smell can evoke powerful and vivid memories you thought you had lost.
As a child, I spent all my school vacations at the beach. Whenever I catch a whiff of seaweed, I’m transported in a magical time machine and am back on the beach: paddling in the water, collecting shells or making sand castles.
USING GOOD SENSE
Authors pain pictures with words and we aim to give our readers as much detail as possible to bring a scene to life for them. A good way to do this is to use the power of all of our five senses - vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
So if talking about the beach, don’t just describe the white sand, use your other senses to make the reader feel as if they are there:
Hearing – perhaps mention the sounds of the waves crashing on the rocks or seagulls screeching overhead
Smell – you could describe the tang of seaweed carried on the wind or the fruity smell of sunscreen
Taste – you could taste the salt in the air or the greasy fries from the
beach hut café.
Feel – the warm smooth pebbles under your bare feet or the rocks still wet from the high tide.
Use your senses in your writing and you will pull the reader into your time and setting.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to keep reaching for the stars
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