Day 6: Let's talk about the senses

We are Writing: It's a month of writing posts, prompts, exercises, tips, and places to submit

Photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash

Describing the world on the page is one of the most fundamental tools for us writers, right? And in the first week or so of this month of daily writing posts, I think it’s cool to look at some of those fundamentals.

Anyway, using the senses and concrete details is a really big deal in bringing your writing up a notch.

Here’s a quick example. Compare these two things:

• The wind blew at the tree.

• The red-turning maple leaves wiggled as the wind whisked by, lifting and releasing before they tumbled to the ground.

There are different depths of seeing there, right?

So, as writers, we have to show what the world is like. Since we are also human beings (at least most of us, there may be a few zombie hamsters hustling around the keyboards), the way we process the world is through our senses. So, as writers, we do that on the page. And the best writing incorporates all the senses. For the next couple of days, we’re going to talk about this, but also about how you want to use more of the senses than just sight.

Aristotle, that ancient philosopher and writer, spoke about the five senses a lot, and we’ve sort of accepted those five as truth:

• Sight

• Sound

• Touch

• Taste

• Smell

Today, we’re going to talk about the one that really fills out most of our stories’ pages: sight.

Below the paywall are some more hints, a couple exercises and a place to submit and a bit more about this.