Don’t just add sensory details. Use them with a purpose.
One way to allow the reader to sink deeper into the character’s point of view is to cleverly layer sensory information. That’s a no-brainer, but the senses can do so much more. I like to give the individual senses specific tasks.
Sight is largely dependent on your eyes moving. Keep your gaze fixed on one point for too long, and you stop paying attention to the scene. It’s a scientific fact. So just as you would in real life, you constantly add new visuals to the chapter, hoping to provide a richer experience. Show don’t tell, you are being told at every corner of your writing journey. Obedient as you are, you add more and more visual cues. A great start, but you need to dig ever deeper to fully immerse your readers.
In addition to everyday sounds, like doorbells or engines, and voice cues amidst dialogue, sounds infuse a scene with suspense. That’s how I like to put them to work. Because in the absence of visual markers, sounds are creepy as hell. The innocent rustle of leaves in the trees can impart a sense of foreboding the associated visual can’t.
Touch isn’t used to its full potential in my writing, I admit. Sure, I’ll point out the floor is hard, the carpet plush, and the windows cold, but in terms of description, it often draws the short straw. However, there is one aspect in which the tactile sense can be titillated more than the others, and that is by the clever use of verbs. I can mention fifteen times that my character’s fingers clawed into the smooth silk shawl, but the fabric’s texture only really comes alive when it slinks across your skin like a soft caress. Conditions on an ice planet may be freezing and harsh, but the reader only truly feels the cold when the wind whips your character’s face into a pink, painful mess.
To me, taste is the most sensual of all senses. The taste of a lover’s lips, a piece of chocolate melting on your tongue – both make you want to close your eyes. It is particularly powerful, then, to shock and disgust the reader by focusing on the stale bitterness of an opponent’s blood.
Smell is the most powerful of all senses. Since our memories seem to have an entire hard drive dedicated to it, I like using scents to quickly orientate a reader. Once you have set the scene for a reader, e.g. a terrifying basement, anchor the emotions with a unique odor, like that of rotting earth. The next time your character notices this smell, the reader’s emotions flood back.
Please understand you should always mix and layer several senses, not only to deepen the experience for the reader, but also because some readers react more strongly to one sense than to another.
What do the different senses mean to you? How do you use them?
This post first appeared on my old blog site in March.
