Day 8: Touch in Your Text

Photo by Valeriia Miller on Unsplash

These next few posts are about putting the senses in our writing to make cooler, better stories.

Those are just:

• Sight

• Sound

• Touch

• Taste

• Smell

Thursday, we talked a bit about sight and yesterday it was sound, and I had a couple of exercises below the paywall. Today, it’s about TOUCH or as those a bit more hoity-toity than I am would call it: tactile stuff.

Just kidding! Just kidding! They’d never say ‘stuff.’

TACTILE IMAGERY

So, let’s get fancy and call it ‘tactile imagery.’

This is just a tool that you can use that makes your story more lively because it makes readers think of touch.

We use words to simulate sensations that are physical. The readers will not just be told about the sensation (it is hot out), they’ll be immersed in that sensation.

It’s about skin.

It’s about surfaces.

It’s about how the surface of our body interacts with the world it’s moving in.

Story Arcadia writes:

“Tactile imagery stands out among other sensory descriptions because it directly relates to the sense of touch, an intimate and personal experience. While visual imagery paints a picture for the eyes and auditory imagery rings with sounds, tactile imagery brings texture and physical sensations to life. For instance, when a writer describes the roughness of tree bark or the silkiness of water gliding over hands, readers can almost feel these sensations on their fingertips.

“Comparatively, olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) imagery often evoke memories and emotions linked to specific scents and flavors. However, tactile imagery has a unique psychological effect; it can create a strong emotional response by connecting readers to the physical world. The feeling of a warm embrace or the discomfort of wearing wet clothes can elicit deep-seated feelings because they are experiences most people have encountered.”

Pretty cool, right? We feel through the page. We make readers feel through the page. How wild is that?

So, below the paywall are some tips on how to do this in your story—how to incorporate the sense of touch.

But first, I just wanted to share this because it’s so full of joy.