-

 

How To Write a Book: Sensory Information

Humans are sensorial beings. We are deeply, and in some cases, forever touched when something imprints in our senses. Colors, textures, perfumes, smoke, chemicals, temperature, sounds, tastes, all have primitive places in each of us. As a writer, you can play us like tuned instruments if you tap our senses just right. It doesn't have to be overt, but when you're writing a scene, think of your senses and then inform ours.

Opening the door I had to throw my hand up to block the hot sun that blazed through the big window turning my pupils to pinpricks. I could see the room had once been loved with its lavish chintz-covered furniture that was now bleached into vague non-colors and covered with a thick layer of dust. It smelled of stagnant hot air, melted candles, and dead flies. 

Reading that made me re-experience a close room I'd been in that had been allowed to become an oven.  Particularly strong was the Crayola-esque scent of puddled candles, and while I didn't think I knew what dead flies smelled like, I absolutely did and had seen them in the windowsills in my mind's eye while reading those words.

As a writer, I love to ask people from far-flung places what their home country feels and smells like. Is the air heavy with humidity and the scent of a crop in nearby fields? What are the sounds? The squeak of tuk-tuk horns? Church bells? Honestly, when my family moved up into the mountains of Colorado when I was in high school it took me some time to get used to the whispering pines. 

Years ago I went to a bookstore event for a picture book of Venice Italy and when the photographer asked if there were any questions I threw my hand up and asked what Venice smelled like. After some thought, he said, "Wet." So when I went there to research my Venice Trilogy, I made sure to jot down everything I smelled, tasted, felt, and heard. I can still hear a persistent seagull who seemed ever-present and had a loud full-throated call that sounded as if he was laughing at me, "Woh-ha-ha-HA!" Of course, that made it into book three when the detective feels he's failed and even the gulls are laughing at him.

Take us there deeply and we'll follow you anywhere.



-- Anna Erikssön Bendewald 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
  How To Write a Book: Do You Edit While Writing? Wow! This is a question fraught with danger. Trying to edit while writing can keep you from ever getting much on the page. There are two people at work while creating a book. The first should be the artist. The critic has to come much later after the artist has had all the time they need to create.   Think of each chapter as a sculpture garden. First put all your words down to build the size and very rough shape of your sculpture. Leave it alone and start building the next one so it will be harmonious to the last one in size and rough shape. Move on to the next.  After about four chapters are roughly drafted, you can go back and read with fresh eyes. At this stage I make some changes but don’t try to refine. Move on and create the next few draft chapters. You want the words to flow through you [see How Do I Write for how the Muse works insert link] 
Read more
-
Image
  How to Write a Book: Swearing and Writing As a precursor to this subject, I'll tell you a story. It was a hot summer day in nineteen seventy-six and my neighborhood was having a block party. Mrs. Borsha was an elegant woman, dressed like Jackie Onassis in a Pucci-inspired dress and she arrived bearing a gorgeous fruit salad carved out of a watermelon. It was a work of art. She sat it on the communal table and lit a cigarette as she chatted with neighbors. When loud-mouthed Mr. Wiegel arrived reeking of beer and began trying to move things around on the table, he knocked a tray of hotdogs to the pavement causing outcries of alarm which he waved away with a meaty paw of dismissal before reaching to move the fruit salad. Mrs. Borsha said, "Brian, don't you fucking touch that salad." You could have heard a pin drop. His hands hung in the air frozen and every single neighbor was galvanized. No one had ever heard Mrs. Borsha be stern let alone drop an f-bomb.* And she sta...
Read more
-
Image
  How To Write a Balanced Book What is balance in a story? It's easier to say what an unbalanced story feels like. It feels off. It can be many things that cause a story to be unbalanced. Sub-plots that are left forgotten only to pop up and try hog the limelight. A dearth of information only to then pour out in a torrent of explanation known as the dreaded 'info dump'. Or pacing that drags along paying needless attention to pointless minutiae only to race through big plot points or gloss over critical interactions. As a writer, you must always think like a reader. What do they love most of all? To feel smart and involved. Don't get them involved in a sub-plot without making it worth their while. Keep that sub-plot alive and in its proper place--supporting the overall story experience. As for information, there are many ways to sprinkle clues and information throughout. Trust your reader to pick up on them so that when all is revealed, they've gathered everything all...
Read more