Words With Impact: Honest Code: Sensory Vocabulary

Workshop: Discover Words That Sing

“The senses are as core a scene element as you can get, and are very important in writing fiction because they transform flat words on a page into three-dimensional, realistic scenes.” Jordan E. Rosenfeld

The added beauty from a mythic world perspective is that the reality of common day-to-day activities can be developed into shadows, as passages from long ago or as foretelling to the future. They also have the potential to tap into echoes and allusions and metaphors. One way to access allusion and echoes is through the speech of metaphor, which enables us to enrich language and go beyond clichés.

For example in our early draft we just write everything down as it comes to us through our senses. Usually we lean on ordinary words for basic descriptions. Then we go back through to paint in feelings and scenery and ambiance. But sometimes we’re still stuck with the ordinary because it’s so familiar that other thoughts or phrases just won’t come to mind without sounding artificial or planted.

A good exercise to try is to describe an object without saying what it is. Try it out at the dinner table and see if your family can guess. This helps pull in new sensory details.

When eating new foods or hearing new sounds the concrete details help the reader recognize the character as more real as he reacts to the senses. Actually no sensory observation is complete until the fictional character’s emotional response is included.

We need the essential-specific word choices: salty-sour-sweet-bitter. If it smells bad is it like a sewer, or low tide? However we also need to recognize that what smells bad to one character may actually be sweet to another. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog post, 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 smelled sulfur, which to her reminded her of where she grew up near sulfur springs.

We also can’t incorporate every item, but need to choose which specific details are appropriate to enhance each scene. What will create the mood? Even in a fast moving fight scene we can have character feel the sweat and taste the blood on his lip. Concrete down to earth details that may or may not rise to metaphor, or symbol.           

Action Steps:

1. Repeat the “Read” the word action steps from last week focusing solely on what you can remember were sensory details that caught your attention or you most identified with. Write them down.

2. Choose the one that you found most curious or unexpected as a connection. Then again check with a dictionary or thesaurus to make a list of all the words you think would also have that impact. Which sensory focus do you want to catch a reader attention in your own novel?

Share: What was the funniest guess a family member shared?

Read deep, marcy

Picture Books Mini Workshop: Part Three: Language

Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults

“One can see the importance of reading the words aloud from a picture book: it is more important how the words will sound when heard, than seen when read.” Uri Shulevitz

Language always matters, but for this age words need to be chosen with precise purpose. Shulevitz points out that as an audience of mostly non-readers, they will see the pictures and hear the words.

Choices to consider:

1.     Simplify the form.

2.     What’s the exact problem?

3.     Is the emotion clear?

4.     Is the story line straightforward?

5.     Rhyme can either help or be a roadblock.  Ask yourself, “Why do I want to use this?” How could it strengthen the story or weaken the story?

6.     Consider potential of Rhythm—poetry without rhyme but with meter.

7.     Develop the sound of words by reading poetry and picture books aloud.  One quote given somewhere says that before writing a book an author should read at least 100 in their genre.

8.     Music helps shape your prose as well. Listen for melodic lines and patterns to borrow, such as liturgy or a rap.

9.     If you use Repetition it must serve the story. Look for simplicity here as well.

Action Steps: Build a Sensory Vocabulary           

Start a reference Journal

1. In a workshop I once took with author Ethel Herr, she 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, Friday see.

            2. Then next to each word on each list expand. Again, did something smell rotten? Was it rotten like an egg, a sewer, or a dead fish? What distinguishes each ‘rotten’ smell? Repeat for any words that you want more depth to.

            Suggestion. Next to your list above have another column with words that babies to five year olds can identify with. The two year old in my family is not shy about saying ‘yucky’, which to him can be a truly bad odor, like garbage, as well as a delicious soup simmering on the stove. If he doesn’t like the smell—it’s yucky.

            3. Add to this reference journal any time you notice a characteristic that enhances emotional connections.

Share: Which sense do you rarely notice?

Read deep, marcy