27 August 2012
Sensory Writing
Writing descriptions is important for any story. Unlike movies, as authors we can’t always rely on stunning photography or pictures to depict our character and scenery. With science fiction and fantasy our characters and settings aren’t always earthly so learning how to write clear vivid descriptions can be even more challenging and important. For the majority of us, 50 percent of our sensory input is sight. Colors, shapes. People are easy to describe as having blue hair and brown eyes, but a lot of people can be described that way. A crystal blue lake surrounded by green lodge pines. That could be a lot of places. So instead of just relying on sight, think of the other senses. The sounds, the smells, the feel, and even the taste. By throwing in the other sensory details it can bring the story to life. The readers will be able to picture what is going on better than just static image thrown together by a few visual descriptions.
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I think that someone described as having blue hair and brown eyes would be interesting. I had a Young Woman's leader who had her hair dyed a rather steel blue-grey. Not many older women do that nowadays.
ReplyDeleteSorry, don't mean to be picky.
Ah . . . you don't watch much anime do you, Mom? Blue hair and brown eyes is only uncommon in certain situations. I imagine in a fantasy or science fiction novel wouldn't be nearly so interesting.
Delete(And I wish I could say I did that on purpose. Thanks for the catch.)