Writers have one of the coolest jobs in the world—creating whole worlds inside another person’s brain. #writing #brainhack #storytelling
Writing, really, is a unique form of telepathic communication, transporting characters, places, plots, and ideas across time and space. I don’t think I have to tell you that as cool as this job is, it’s also incredibly difficult. If one thing is out of place, if just one aspect of the writing isn’t working for the reader, it breaks that magical bond between reader and writer. The sense of verisimilitude—that feeling that the places, people, and cultures readers are experiencing are real and true—is crucial to the readers’ immersion in and enjoyment of the story. Writers have to use every tool in their arsenal to get the job done.
One of the most effective ways to create that sense of verisimilitude is using all the senses in your writing. It’s easy when writing to focus on the visual senses: describing what the characters see as they move through a scene. But such a narrow focus can leave scenes feeling flat, and even if readers don’t quite know why, they begin to lose faith in the story. Making sure to layer in descriptions of sound, smell, texture, and even taste adds a sense of richness and wholeness to the story.
Now, I don’t recommend getting too stressed about this as you’re writing your first draft. What can happen is it can stall the flow of words if you stop to overanalyze the descriptions of various senses. The other problem it can cause is the sense of creating a checklist—if you focus too hard on incorporating all the senses, it can feel unnatural or forced.
Instead, revision is the perfect time to analyze your scene and carefully layer in the senses.
One of my favorite techniques is to print out a scene or a chapter, take a pack of colored pencils, and get highlighting. Assign a color to each sense, and go through the scene line by line, highlighting each instance of the sense. You can do the same thing in your word processing program with the highlighting tool, but there’s something about the physical act of adding the colors to the paper that lets you analyze the writing more objectively. If you’re seeing a lot of one or two colors (often sight and sound), and none of others, you’ll know you need to look for places to naturally add in those neglected senses.
Another exercise that can really you figure out what feels natural, is to physically visit a new place and pay close attention to the sensory input you experience, and in what order. As you walk into the room, do you notice the smell first? Or is there something visual that catches your eye? Are there background noises that come to your attention a little later? What textures or kinesthetic input are you experiencing? Take a moment to write it all down, in the order you experienced it.
Now, take yourself mentally through one of the scenes your character experiences. In the same order you wrote down from your own experience, record those senses your character experiences. Then you can systematically incorporate these senses in and around the other elements of the scene (internal thought, movement, dialogue, etc.) in a natural and realistic way.
The more you do this, the easier it will become, and your writing will grow richer and more effective. Consider it a gift you give to your reader—pulling them into your amazing worlds and letting them experience it in a way offered by no other form of entertainment.