Tag Archive for ‘five senses’
Breath on the Glass
When I’m working on a novel, ideas rise up at random times from the murk of my subconscious like pronouncements in a Magic 8 ball. If I don’t write them down right away, these ephemeral thoughts can fade and disappear. Driving my 14-year-old son, Hayden, to summer camp in Maine on Sunday, I put him to work as both a DJ and a scribe. (After all, I was the chauffeur.) He selected a Green Day song from his new i-Pod [...]
Sensory Overload
Gustave Flaubert kept rotten apples in his desk drawer to evoke autumn when writing scenes that took place in that season.
Writing Tip #1: Use the Five Senses Right Away
The problem of beginning … The Southern novelist and poet George Garrett, director of creative writing at the University of Virginia when I was a graduate student there, always said that if you’re having trouble getting into a story (or a chapter or a scene) you should use all five sentences right at the start, preferably in the first paragraph: touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight. Your scene will jump to life, and you’ll have an easier time falling into the [...]
