Coming to Your Senses

Original Post: 3 November 2013
Posted Here: 30 November 2017

I've often read that we should appeal to the senses in our writing. Let the reader know that something smells rotten in Denmark, feels scratchy, shrieks, etc. My most recent nudge in this direction was an article in the March 2013 issue of The Writer (okay, so I'm a little behind in my reading): "Word Play," by Anne G. Faigen.

I hadn't even finished the article when I recalled that I keep

lists of names, sayings and phrases, and story ideas. A list of sensory words could be very helpful. So I grabbed some scratch paper and jotted down the first several that came to mind. Since then, I've added a few more and will continue to add them as they come to me.

Here's what I have so far:

Odors - acrid, after the rain, asparagus pee, hay, burnt, burnt hair, charred, dusty, fishy, flowery, horsey, moldy, musty, new mown hay, ocean, orange, pig stye, plowed field, pond, pungent, rose, rotten egg, scorched, smoke, stale, sulfurous, sweaty, sweet, wet dog

Sounds - babbling, brassy, bubbling, bump, burble, burp, chortle, chuckle, chug, clang, honk, horn, laugh, melodious, rattle, ring, ringing, roar, rotten, rush (of water), scrape, screech, scurry, shriek, siren, sour, sweet, swish, splash, squeal, tap, thud, thump, tick tock, toll, toot, whisper, whistle

Taste - bitter, fishy, lemon, rancid, rotten, savory, sour, sweet, tart, vinegar

Touch - boiling, burning, chilly, cold, cool, dry, fiery, freezing, gritty, hot, itch, itchy, lumpy, oily, painful, prick, prickle, prickly, sandy, scratchy, slick, smooth, tickle, tingle, warm, waxy, wet

Visual - blinding, blinking, bright, colors..., dark, dull, moonlit, pale, rosy, sunny, threatening

I'm sure that you could add many more to these lists. I probably will, too, as I think to jot them down.

Keep reading/keep writing - Jack