Tastes, Textures, and Smells.

“Most people are on the world, not in it-- having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them-- undiffused separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate. ” –John Muir

Are you on the world, or in it? It’s not just a question for authors. When you get home at night, what do you do?

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (source: http://www.csun.edu). That means the average 65 year old has spent nine years of his life watching someone else’s imagination!

Authors and readers can’t do that. They need to rely on their own imaginations. Sure, the reader has a guide consisting of whatever book he is reading, but it is only a guide. He relies upon his own fertile imagination to get the details right. Look at this passage from one of my current projects:

Elizabeth Barons sat in her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest.  Beads of perspiration ran down from her hair and mixed with tears slowly running from the corners of her eyes. A cold breeze blew in through the open window and goosebumps ran up both her arms. The deep purple light of the setting moon seemed to close around her. Her chest tight and each breath labored, she pulled the blanket up to stem the shivers that ran the length of her body, and sighed a long, deep sigh.

Describe Elizabeth. How do you picture her? What sort of clothing is she currently wearing? What color is it? What you see is different than what I see, and I’m the author! On TV, you just see what some dude in Wardrobe thought the character should wear.

Now, where it can get really interesting is in the details. I don’t mean the description of the third button down from the collar on Elizabeth’s nightshirt. You know, the one with the chip on one side, and the pearl blue marbling that runs through the pale pink as though the machine that made it still had some of the blue color left when it started making buttons that day? No, I mean tastes, textures, and smells.

Science tells us that the nose is, more so than any other organ, directly connected to the brain. So smells, and even tastes,  are a great way to connect with your reader, to give them something that gets right to the core of their being. Textures work well too. While they're not as definite as smells or tastes, they give the reader something to contemplate. Put them all together and your reader will feel as though they are really "right there" in your character's world.

Take a look at the two passages below. Which grabs your imagination more?

She found herself in a dark wood. The light from the moon filtering through the thick branches cast shadows that made the earth itself look cracked and broken.

Or this?

The smell of damp earth and rotting leaves filled her with dread. She felt a chill as dirt, soft, cold, and gritty worked its way between her toes. The light from the moon filtering through the thick branches cast shadows that made the earth itself look cracked and broken.

The thing is, you have to get out and take note of things. Feel the rain, the damp earth, the hot sun. You have to know what woods and dry leaves smell like. You need to feel the wind in your face, or the spray of water as the boat hits a wave. To really write, you have to be in the world, not on it.

So turn off that TV and get out there and write!
William K Elliott