Bringing your writing to life, part 2 - sensory language by Andrew J Chamberlain
A couple of
months ago I started a short series looking at ways to bring colour and
vibrancy to your writing. In this, the second part in that series, I want to show
you how you can use sensory language to draw your reader into a scene, and invigorate
your characters.
By way of
example, consider these two pairs of sentences:
•
She boiled the water.
•
She watched the bubbles perk and dance in the
saucepan as the room filled with the third movement of Beethoven’s Eroica.
•
She is eating an orange.
•
As she puts the first segment to her mouth the air
fills with a tangy zest; she licks her lips to catch all of the juice.
I’ve tried
to emphasise the point, especially in the first example, but I hope you will
agree that there is much colour and life in each second sentence than there is
in the first. One of the reasons for this is because I have packed each of
those second sentences with sensory cues.
In the first
one I’ve focused on visual and auditory images. The visual image of the bubbles
is enhanced by the activity suggested by the verbs ‘perk’ and ‘dance’, whilst
the auditory cue comes from a reference to a piece of classical music. In this
particular case, the reader might know the third movement of Beethoven’s
Eroica, in which case this audible ‘image’ should work particularly well. But
even if you the reader doesn’t know the piece, provided they know enough about
Beethoven, or even just classical music in general, the effect should work.
The second
example, by contrast uses the senses of smell and taste. When you are using
sensory
Invoking the
senses is a powerful strategy to help you define your characters and create
your setting, and it will help you to escape from the kind of bland, passive
reportage that bores readers.
Andrew J Chamberlain is a writer, speaker, and creative writing tutor. He will be
speaking, along with freelance editor and columnist Emma Newrick, and Christian
Historian and author Nick Page at the First Page course in the Lake District
from 9th to 13th November, details of that course can
be accessed here.
Andrew is
the presenter of The Creative Writer'sToolbelt a podcast that offers practical, accessible advice on the craft.
He has worked on a number of ghost-writing collaborations for Authentic Media,
including the bestselling, 'Once an Addict' with Barry Woodward. He has also
self-published a number of science fiction short stories. Andrew will be
speaking at the First Page Writing Course this November.
Helpful advice for all of us. I can see the way sensory language will enliven and enhance my poetry writing too, so this isn't necessarily restricted to the fiction writers among us. Thanks, Andrew!
ReplyDeleteThanks Joy, and you are right of course, this advice is certainly not restricted to fiction, and in fact writers of prose can learn from some of the poets (Keats for example) about the use of the senses.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you, Andrew: though there's also a warning to be remembered. People often end up with either a (sometimes extended) cliche ('she poured the hot chestnut-coloured liquid' rather than simply leaving out about how the tea got into the mugs). Or, they pull out long something which doesn't add anything to the story, and slows it down. That can make reading tedious. The trick here is always to decide positively and consciously whether or not an action needs to be described or simply referred to, and to vary your narration. (You will know that of course!)
ReplyDeleteHi Mari, yes you are right. There's a very important difference between using this kind of sensory language and going overboard with the adjectives! I find that a lot of the best of this kind of writing actually results in a reduction in word count rather than an increase!
ReplyDelete