The Power of Subtlety in Sensual Writing

 

The North American preoccupation with visual and auditory input has left readers depleted of the subtle senses. Taste, smell and touch are often neglected in our own overt observations and in writing. That’s a shame because writers, unlike filmmakers, are in the unique position of providing their readers with a rich spectrum of sensual information that goes far beyond the audiovisual meal of a motion picture. The sweet, boggy fragrance of a maple-beech forest after a rainstorm. The complex burst of flavor as you bite into a sultry-sweet chocolate-dipped strawberry. The bracing coolness of rain on your skin… Readers don’t just “watch” a character in a book; they enter that character’s body and “feel”.

 

 Slanted Metaphor

 

The most compelling fiction arises when “truth” is portrayed obliquely, when objects or scenes are described through impression rather than through literal description. Go in at an angle. Like the slanted light through a window, this reveals the topography of a scene or object. Metaphor adds a dimension of emotion, tone and direction.

 

Sinful Synesthesia

 

Using one sense to describe another portrays a feeling in a fresh way that is ultimately more evocative. Sol Stein, author of “Stein on Writing”, provides the following example of switching a sense to heighten a feeling: “Zalatnick led me into the shop not as if I was a fellow looking for a job but as if I was a friend of a friend. I was sure the men in the shop could smell the difference.” Switching the sense from seeing to smelling created a more powerful metaphor because it describes the feeling in a fresh way.

 

Senses With Attitude

 

How a sense is interpreted by your character relies on her emotional state and her memories. Using a coat as an example, you can describe it literally as warm, brown, itchy. Or you can use synesthesia, such as “feels rich.” Moving on to the psychological element, take an attitude on that texture: bright, friendly, dependable. Try a different attitude: powerful, loud, easy.  

 

One uses a sense-impression based on memory or emotional experience pinned on that smell to create an entire sensation. This reveals a great deal about the character in a seamless and powerful way, while establishing a rich setting to the story.

You can find more about “Writing Sensually” in Chapter S in my writing guidebook, The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! by Starfire World Syndicate (available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other quality bookstores).

I discuss “setting” in my workshop, “The Writer’s Toolkit”, a workshop that I give throughout North America, based on The Fiction Writer. This comprehensive writer’s workshop will be launched on DVD soon and will be available at Amazon as well as online here and on www.NinaMunteanu.com.

There are several ways a writer may satisfy the reader’s need to experience the senses fully in a story. The obvious is through description. But how cold is cold? What does snow really smell like? How do you describe the taste of wine to a teetotaler?