Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Road Trip Wednesday -- What's that smell?

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.





This Week's Topic:
The Five Senses. How you use them in your writing, how you are inspired by them, pictorial essays, that character with smelly socks, books that have used them well, the ones that are currently missing from your work, etc.


The senses are usually something I have to go back and add to my writing.  I'm not naturally very descriptive, so when I'm first-drafting, my character may just be laying on forest floor when really the experience is more like this:

http://cdnimg.visualizeus.com/thumbs/a3/c8/beautiful,colors,fairy,tale,fashion,field,girly,inspiration,lens,flare,magical,photography,sun,sunset,whimsical-a3c88d1612d0dafa9bfcb14de9af4b8d_m.jpg 

When I revise I make a full pass through the story just to pay attention to the five senses to make sure I'm building enough description in without running on forever.
As for someone who got it right?  Well, I think we all know who I'll pick.  The master herself, J. K. Rowling.  I read the Harry Potter books and just marvel at the way she layered everything with detail without bogging the story down.

What about you?  Do you use all the senses in your writing, or does it take some extra work?

No comments: