Make Sense of the Five Senses

I’m rebellious by nature so when my critique partners told me I had to include all five senses in nearly every scene, well, you can bet that didn’t go over well. Frankly, anyone who has ever critiqued with me will be in stitches that I even wrote this article. I’ll have untold I-told-you-so’s to deal with before the week is over. But I’ve stood my ground many times: Shouldn’t the story dictate what should be included and when?

The answer is “yes.” Then again, including three or four senses in nearly every scene will most certainly set the stage for more descriptive writing through a deeper point of view. Why? Because the POV character notices only those things that matter to him or her at that moment. The writer must select those noticeable senses, and the selection is what build character. Thus, when the character experiences these senses, you put your reader alongside your character and help her care. A writer is dead in the water if the reader doesn’t care about the characters, and root for the protagonist.

Sight

In Showing: It’s the Right Thing To Do, I discussed the sense of sight. The heroine first sees the hero driving a battered, scraped and scratched up 1962 Chevy pickup that looks like the wheels will fall off any moment. What does his choice of vehicles tell her about his character? Does she make the wrong judgement, or the right one? Two scenes later, he’s driving a late model Ford F-250 diesel club cab, candy apple red. What does she think now?

Sound

What are your first feelings when you hear:
glass shattering
a baby giggling
an engine backfiring
a big, black dog growling
a train whistle blowing

Yes, they’re all sounds but they also create a picture, so if the author has painted the picture visually, the sounds add texture.

Here’s a phenomenon about sounds: we don’t hear the mundane. My husband is an audio/Video engineer and has been fascinated with recording since grade school. He collects tape recorders, and yes, we even have an old wire recorder in the garage. So here’s the story: when he was still living with his parents, he made some recordings. Years later, he listened to those recordings with some friends, who remarked about the train whistle. He hadn’t noticed the train whistle, nor did he notice it during the initial recording, but he lived a few blocks from the depot so train whistles were a fact of life that no one even thought about.

Observation: we should choose to mention the senses that are out of the ordinary or significant in some way.

Smell

One of my critique partners, Judith Laik, went on a quest to find a way to describe a smell without using the words scent, aroma, smell, or fragrance. She finally gave up.

You try. Describe these smells:

Walking through a rose garden in full bloom.
Waking up to bacon frying.
Buying gasoline for your car.
Mowing grass.
Making fudge.

Again, we become accustomed to certain smells. I grew up on a dairy farm and to this day, I don’t notice the smell of cow doodoo. A friend of mine lived near the sugar beet factory, a vile smelling place if there ever was one, and she doesn’t notice it at all, although she sure wrinkles her nose at the dairy farm odor. Stay in the viewpoint character’s head, else jamming a smell in your writing will telegraph to your reader that you’re trying to please your critique group and forgot about characterization.

Touch

Most of us are very tactile. Some touches can be arousing while the same touch, in another situation, can be very comforting.

Here’s a touch: the hero brushes a soft kiss on the heroine’s cheek.

Situation 1: They brought her puppy to the animal hospital after it was hit by a car, and the veterinarian just told the heroine that her dog will need surgery.

Situation 2: They’re naked and floating in a hot springs.

The interpretation of the exact same gesture is entirely different in these two instances.

Other tactile sensations: the biting frigid wind down your neck, cool satin floating across your breasts, the desert sun burning the back of your neck, walking barefooted with mud squishing between your toes. Again, you’ve painted a visual picture, but the sense of touch makes that picture much more vivid.

Taste

The first thing a baby learns to do is stick things in his mouth. He hasn’t developed an ick factor yet, so if he can hold it, in his mouth it goes. Our sense of taste is one of our very first learning tools. We learn what tastes good and what tastes bad. Most of us learn right away that sweet is pleasant and bitter isn’t.

Characters don’t usually eat in every scene, but there are other instances where taste can come into play. Is your hero a tracker? He might taste the ashes of a fire to see how many hours ahead the villain is. Is your hero hurt? He might have a leather strip in his mouth while the doctor does surgery without anesthetic. Speaking of hurt, maybe he was knocked head-over-teakettle in the alkali dirt. Believe me, he can taste that.

Also, the senses of taste and smell go together. When you wake up to the sound and smell of bacon frying, your salivary glands kick into overtime. But what if your character is a vegan? Or what if he’s waking up from an all-night bender because he thought the heroine left him? The vegan might find the aroma annoying, and the partier might very well lose his cookies.

Experience the Five Senses

I found an article with interesting suggestions to help homeschooled children learn about the five senses on suite101. I even tried a few and decided that experiencing the senses should be a yearly exercise for any writer. See what you think!

I sure hope you’ll use the comment section to tell Judith and me how to describe smells. We’ll definitely be reading your suggestions with keen interest!

Warning: Blatant Self Promotion

Cherokee from Coffee Time Romance gave Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues a 5-cup review and now she writes: Per my recommendation, your book has received a CTRR (Coffee Time Reviewer’s Recommend Award) from Coffee Time Romance & More. This award recognizes outstanding writing styles in all book types and genres. Your book has received this award because I feel it is above and beyond a 5 Cup Rating. Thank you so much, Cherokee!!! I’m so happy you enjoyed the book, and Socrates is practically preening. You can bet I’ll plaster the CTRR logo all over every site I have. You can read Cherokee’s remarks here: http://coffeetimeromance.com/CoffeeThoughts/

Jacquie

Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues (See the Book Video featuring Justin Saragueta)
Jacquie Rogers *** Myspace *** Twitter *** Facebook

Faery Special Romances * Book Video * Royalties go to Children’s Tumor Foundation, ending Neurofibromatosis through Research

Tags: coffee time romance, ctrr, five senses, point of view, sight, smell, sound, taste, touch