Most, if not all of us, have an aversion to a certain food. We don’t like to eat it and the taste of it makes us feel sick. Perhaps the mere thought of tasting it is enough to induce some horrible thoughts and feelings.

The candlelight caught the designs on the wineglass, casting a dark crimson glow on the table. He lifted the glass to his lips, the rich musky flavour of the cabernet sauvignon still drifting over his taste buds. At the first sip of the wine he almost choked. There was obviously something wrong with this new bottle of wine, for the liquid in his mouth had a bitter, sour taste. Although the consistency was the same as the previous glass, there was an acidic flavour he could not identify… although it seemed vaguely familiar. He swirled the liquid around in his mouth before swallowing it. It seemed to sting his tongue and burn the roof of his mouth, and when he swallowed the acrid liquid his throat tingled. Suppressing the urge to cough he reached for the glass of water next to his plate and took a sip. As the cool water cleansed the tart taste from his palate his hostess lifted the bottle he’d used to fill his wineglass… and poured balsamic vinegar over her plate of salad.

Writers have a magnitude of adjectives at their disposal when describing the horror of tasting unappetising food. These include: pungent, sour, acrid, bitter, fetid, stinking, putrid, decaying, rancid, reek, stale and bad.

I hope you’ve found this newsletter helpful. Real life can be far more terrifying than fiction, and any writer can share his or her phobias and scary experiences with readers. I have a challenge for you: try writing down a 350 word description of something you find frightening/terrifying. It could be a situation like one I’ve described above (a hairdryer, drinking something foul) or perhaps an object (a cotton ball, a hairdryer). Describe the reasons you find it so terrifying, and I’ll feature the best letters in my next edition of the Horror/Scary Newsletter.

Write On!