Lure Readers with Sensational Writing
By Carol Celeste, Orange County Branch
Sorry, this is not about steamy sex scenes. Most writers have heard “show don’t tell” until their ears block it. Showing suggests visual sensations, but humans employ other senses. In addition, we experience sensations – physiological feelings that don’t fit any of those categories. First, let’s explore how the five senses keep readers engaged.
Visual images yield colors and shapes, fashion, room arrangements, and reading material that define characters. The obvious way to create environment is through visual description, but to fully capture a reader’s interest, include the other senses.
Smell, even though invisible, influences actions and feelings in subtle ways. Entering a house with something baking yields a different response than driving behind a diesel-powered bus. Meandering through a blooming garden gives a pleasure absent from strolling on a beach during red tide. Odors contribute to the sense of place and impact a character’s, and a reader’s, mood.
Music tells us something about people and reflects and brings on mood, but it is not the only sound around us. We take for granted many ambient noises because they are so ingrained in our environment that we don’t notice them until they stop. Absence of sound defines a scene and character feelings as much as noises do so don’t fail to mention what isn’t heard.
Even taste and touch can embrace readers. Food is a natural for taste descriptions as well as personal preferences, but don’t forget other tastes, like when you bite your cheek and blood trickles onto your tongue, or you kiss someone and taste garlic.
Touch inhabits scenes through the texture of upholstery or clothing, humidity choking your skin, the thrill of a hug from a loved one.
These senses deal with your external world. Many physiological sensations also bring readers closer to your characters.
Emotions are often accompanied by physical reactions. Most children have suffered a stomach ache that disappears as soon as their parents tell the school they are sick. Many adults feel sweaty palms before giving a career-making speech, or the adrenalin surge of winning an award. We can identify with those feelings when a writer shares them and that brings us deeper into the character’s world. The words, “I was afraid,” lack the impact and personal connection of, “A tsunami caromed inside my gut.” Include the senses and the sensations you recall to add reality and reader involvement. Readers feel more involved when given more than a visual outline.
While all the senses will not apply in every scene you write – it would exhaust readers if you included all the senses all the time – they add interest and connection for readers when used judiciously.
Sensational writing lures readers into your story and keeps them there. It builds rapport between character and reader, bringing them back for more stories and forming a deeper relationship with your work. If you accomplish that, you have a ready market for your writing, with or without steamy sex scenes.
For more of Carol Celeste’s insightful advice, visit www.writingtoheal.com.