Workshop:
Six Conversations for Writing Creative
Journals
“You present
your story in terms of things that can be verified by sensory perception.
Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch—these are the common denominators of human
experience; these are the evidence that men believe.” Dwight V.
Swain
Before
we can interpret our feelings, memories, and emotions to different habitats we
are drawn towards, in the past or present, we often need to explore the
language that nature’s imagery evokes.
Building
a sensory vocabulary helps us to understand and share our experiences with
depth to both interpret and enhance emotional connections. One of my favorite
and engaging applications came from a workshop I took with author Ethel Herr.
She pointed out that any observation is incomplete unless we can track the
emotional reaction—both in one-to-one contact and with fictional characters.
We
need to develop the essential specific word choices: salty-sour-sweet-bitter.
If it smells bad is it like a: rotten egg, a sewer, or a low tide? And we also
need to recognize that what smells bad to one person may actually be sweet to
another. I discovered that one day when driving with an elderly friend. I smelt
something noxious and worried it was my car. I asked if she could smell it and
her reply was “isn’t it lovely?” Apparently we were smelling sulfur, which to
her reminded her of where she grew up near sulfur springs. She happily inhaled
while I attempted not to choke.
To
develop and expand a wider vocabulary Ethel Herr suggested choosing a different sense per day and
paying close attention to just it. So on Monday notice everything you smell. On
Tuesday touch, Wednesday taste, Thursday hear, and Friday see.
Then next
to each word on each list expand the possibilities. Again, did something smell
rotten? Was it rotten like decaying compost, a humid hiking trail, or a dead
fish? What distinguishes each ‘rotten’ smell? Repeat the process for any words
that you want more depth to.
Action
Steps:
1. Take the
habitat and memory you chose last week and apply Ethel Herr’s exercise to your
details. Choose one sense per day and daydream that moment.
2. What detail
surprised you? What made you laugh or cry?
3. What word best
represents your language example?
Share: What two
favorite sensory images did you remember?
Read deep, marcy
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