 Drama: August 10, 2016 Issue [#7794] |
  Drama
This week: The Five Senses Edited by: lizco252
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| Thank you for reading, WDC! I'm lizco252, your editor for this week's Drama Newsletter! |
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When reading a story, one of my favorite things is that feeling of getting lost in the page and inside the story; that giddy sensation of, This is so cool ~ I feel like I'm right there! So when I come across a story that brings that feeling to life, I get kind of stoked.
Writing a sense of place isn't always an easy thing to do, and it requires making use of all of your senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touch. When it's pulled off effectively, it can be just as exciting for your readers, because it has a transporting effect, it draws them into the scene you've created and they experience that place through your words and descriptions.
Recently, while working on one of my own pieces, I had to describe a dive bar that my main character likes to hang out in, and while there are many ways to describe such a place, maybe from movies and television, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to revisit some of the dive bars I've been in through the years, to see if I could convey my personal sensory perception of them through the words I was trying to write. I tried to bring into my description each of my five senses:
 Seeing: This is the easiest of the five senses to bring into your writing, because you're writing what you're seeing in your mind's eye, so obviously, my dive bar was dark and worn, not necessarily clean, a bit trashy and unkempt.
 Hearing: Being of a certain age, the 70's, 80's and 90's are kind of my default, so the dive bars I've visited have always had a familiar sound. But you can bring other elements to the hearing aspect. Does the sound travel easily in this place, or is it muffled or constricted? Maybe it's hollow or tinny. Perhaps it carries a heaviness with it, or maybe it's something that hangs back in the background rather than intruding.
 Smelling: This was the hardest aspect for me, because it's not always simple to describe a smell, so I tried to use some of the elements of a bar to work into that description: years of spilled drinks and cigarette smoking, plates of greasy bar food that mix with the electricity of the jukebox or the heat emanating from the booth lamps or the bleach the bartender uses on their towels, stale odors that have built up in the wood of the tables and the floor. Kind of gross, I know, but you definitely know what sort of place you're in when you read it.
 Tasting: Have you ever walked into a place, taken a breath and almost wished you hadn't? It's that sort of underlying taste that your sense of smell conveys to your taste buds. Obviously, this doesn't have to be bad or unpleasant ~ for my particular setting it was ~ but if you're a coffee buff and your character is enjoying an exceptionally fine shot of espresso, how would you describe it? What if it's an especially tasty meal ~ or a really awful one, for that matter?
 Touch: For the purposes of my story, my character has her own favorite booth in this dive she hangs out in. She knows the feel of the worn but soft vinyl of the seat, the faint stickiness of the table, which, were you to try to clean it properly, would take several passes before you'd see the actual and true surface of the table itself. She knows all the lines that have been carved into its surface over the years, and it is a familiar, somewhat comforting thing for her.
Exploring how your character viscerally relates to a scene through their five senses can add a compelling dimension for you as a writer, because you are putting into words things that aren't just seen and easily described in shape and appearance. That's a challenge, but it's a challenge that will only help you to grow and expand as a writer. It also adds a compelling dimension for your readers, because the more they experience the scene through the senses of your character, the more the scene comes alive for them and draws them in, and isn't that what we, as writers, want for our readers? |
These are items that I have reviewed that have left a lasting impression on me in regards to the five senses.
|  | The Elevator (E)
A dark tale that hopefully stirs and fires the reader's own imagination.
#1990949 by Stuart   |
| | Dragons' Vale (13+)
A story of a magical land entices an adventurous woman to try and find the Dragon Kingdom.
#2029897 by ZombeeLuv |
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