Making Sense of Your Writing–Part 1

March 29, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: Writing Tip

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Invoking senses is a powerful way to enhance your writing by involving your writer in a personal way with your writing. Relying on associations between what a reader senses and his own experience can create a memorable reading of your work. Take the sense of smell, for instance. The sense of smell is the oldest, evolutionary speaking. It is also associated with long term memory. The nerves linked to the sense of smell are linked to the emotional center of the brain. Great fodder for capturing your readers’ attention.

Let’s consider smell. Think of your immediate associations with each of these images:

Pasta sauce simmering on the stove
The stench of rotting garbage as you walk down an alley
The medicinal smell of your doctor’s office.

The last image is powerful for me. I’m immediately taken back to my first family doctor’s office, the doctor who, by the way, brought me into this world. I see my childhood home, my mom taking me to the doctor for a polio vaccine, and the unique smell of that lobby. Powerful stuff to bring to your writing.

Some associations your readers have will have nothing to do with your work, but are important nevertheless. Think of the smell of a burning sweet sauce on the stove. Your character is distracted by worry. She’s trying to prepare a nice sauce for dessert, but her thought wrest her away from the task at hand. I can see the woman distracted, the worry lines on her face, the sudden return to reality as she smells the burning sauce. Another image comes to my mind though. I’m taken back to what we refer to as our old-old house in my family. I was maybe five at the time. It was a summer day. I was eating taffy, I distinctly remember it being taffy. My sister’s boyfriend was there, I think helping my sister mow the lawn. All of a sudden the lawnmower caught fire. I remember this smell, this sweet smell that I thought was my taffy burning. Nothing to do with the story, but an instance of being distracted and brought back to reality.

Perhaps think about your characters then in terms of their jobs. A nurse? Comes home smelling like hydrogen peroxide. A mechanic? Smell of oil hangs around him. A dog kennel employee? Well, you get the idea. Smell can add a great dimension to your work, not to pass up.

Photograph by MiikaS

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