Here we go. Thursday. Which means thoughts. I should have some. And I do. Some. Thoughts, that is. And sometines the thread of a story. Or a hint of a character. And maybe a whole scene that fits…somewhere. Quite often, when inspiration strikes, I’m lefft rather clueless. A character doesn’t make sense. A plot twist seems to lead nowhere and makes no sense. Seeing, hearing, smelling, touching. That makes sense. We–all of us and not just writers–depend on those sense to make…well…sense of the world around us. The big U appears to agree.
Lots of things don’t make sense at first, Silver, when only the physical senses are used.
What does your heart say?
Boom,
The Universe
©www.tut.comMost things, Silver.
And here we are. What makes writers–and creative people no matter their passion or talent–different is our ability to reach outside of what’s in front of us and see, feel, taste, and smell the things taking shape in our imagination. I find this to be especially true when writing my Wolves, though it holds for all my characters. The Wolves have exttra sensory abilities. And I don’t mean ESP. I mean they hear, see, smell, and taste far beyond human capabilities. They find the essense of their mates’ scents. At let me tell you, coming up with interesting combinations can be…well…interesting. 😉 They also have the ability to sense emotions–which each has its own smell. That was another adventure, finding smells to go with th emotion. And that’s where the heart comes in. And why sometimes, we need to listen to our hearts when we get down to the nitty gritty. If you touch all the senses but forget the heart,, your story will suffer.
And if any of this makes sense, I’ll be surprised. Even though words are my things, sometimes what I want to say doesn’t come out quite coherently. That’s what editing, revisions, and proofreading is for. Readers, do you prefer it when an author goes into detail using the five senses? Does that description enhance or detract from the story? And writers, do you do this automatically or is it something you have to think about including?
Silver James 
I think delving into the five senses depends on the story. It can enhance the reader’s imagination and let them feel as the characters are experiencing things. I like being able to imagine what they are sensing and feeling. It makes the story more relatable to me.
Good points! I’m all for drawing a reader into the story. 🙂
Yes, it makes sense 😄
From a readers view, it can be like breadcrumbs or a road map especially if alot is going on especially in paranormal, fantasy. You have your wolves and I can imagine that was an interesting list of this will be that.
JR Ward, has her enemy smell like baby powder in her BDB.
Christine Feehan has the Carpathians see colors again when they find thier other halves. Those are just off the top of my head.
Writers to me it kinda needs to be there in one way or another, kinda like having a glossary of names in Mafia/Bratva.
Its like when yo associated a song, smell with a memory, it can setoff a chain of events.
Sorry I got so wordy😏
You get to be wordy! And I see what you’re saying. 😉 I’ll admit, I do have a list of “emotional scents” and I use it. A lot. I also have to remind myself to use BOTH the emotion AND the scent so readers can connect the two.