Description; the 6th Sense–Part 5 the Sense of Taste

Finally, the post you have all been waiting for (drum rolls please). . . . The 5th and FINAL post of the Description series I have been doing. (Go here for the 1st post, and here for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.) We have gone through the senses of sight, sound, smell, and touch. And now we have come to that which (for me) is the hardest and most complicated. . . taste.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. A gust of wind swept over Patience, gently caressing a lock of hair over her cheek. An especially long piece of grass tickled her ear before springing nimbly back into place as the wind slowed. The smell of on coming rain taunted her nose, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all quiet.

Taste. It is easy to add taste into your stories when your characters are eating. For instance, practically everyone knows what cheese tastes like, so you can just mention that the food had a cheesy flavor, and immediately the reader's mind transfers the memory to their tongue (remember what we had said about the memory of feel? It's the same thing with taste). Even with things that you may not have eaten (such as a new food you create, or insects–ew!) you can make things up, or find something similar to the taste you want (or in the case of bugs, you could always give one a try–definitely not recommended!).

But there's much more to taste than food: when you wake up in the morning before you've quite had enough sleep, you tend to have a sour taste in your mouth; if you are thinking about something that makes you queasy you may get the taste of bile; or if you're sick then you often have a funny taste in your mouth. Those are just a few examples. I would love to sometime research all the different times you get tastes, such as when you're feeling something, and see why it happens. If any of you have any ideas why, please share! :)

Taste is probably the least used of all descriptions. But that doesn't mean that you can't use it! In fact, I encourage you to! When I was reading Eragon I was amazed to note how many times Christopher Paolini mentioned taste in his writing. I was also amazed at how much it added to the story! I suggest practice. . . . When you're out and about, or just hanging out at home, take note of the tastes you have in your mouth and when they happened, even why they might have come about. Then, when you sit down to write keep taste in the back of your mind to see if any opportunities open up to add it into your story.

Sadly in our paragraph I can find no place to add taste in without making it jerky and boring. But this is a good example, because you can't always add every sense into your sentences, in fact, if you did that (I apologize to anyone who may write this way) then you'd have a pretty boring book. So add description in only as much as is needed to paint a picture for your readers. And feel out what the perfect amount is for your style of writing–some people like to add more then others, which is absolutely fine. The only thing I'd say is use less during the action scenes, such as when someone is being chased through the woods. It's never fun for the reader when its all "ahhh! He's going to get me!" And then there's a description of every feather on an owl on a tree branch. Mentioning the owl would be perfectly fine, actually, I think it would add to the whole sense of the scene, just take in to mind that at that point the reader wants to know what's going to happen, and how things are going to turn out and not whether the owl is grey, or grey with brown spots.

And that brings our series to an end. :) I hope that you have enjoyed it, and that it has been of help to you. I love to hear from you. And I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on writing, and description!

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Description; the 6th Sense–Part 4 the Sense of Touch

The next post in the series. (If you have missed the first 3 other parts, you can get to them here: Description; the 6th Sense–Part 1 the Sense of Sight; Part 2 the Sense of Sound; and Part 3 the Sense of Smell.)

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. The smell of on coming rain taunted Patience's nose, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all silence.

Touch. . . . What a special thing it is. It's the feeling of the strong arms of someone they trust, which give's a little child the sense of security. It's the softness of a puppy's fur, or a chicks feathers that gives us the delight of holding or touching them. Touch– it is the feeling of warm earth squishing between our toes that we keep wanting to come back to; it is the kiss of a butterfly's wings, or the rush of wind upon our face. Touch. But how do we interpret that onto paper? How can we say what touch is, when you have to feel it in order to truly understand it. But not necessarily. . . . Like smell, you have a memory of things you've felt; the roundness of a ball that you have just thrown; the rough grains of the wood of the chair you have just sat in. That memory, can be harnessed and used to help your writing. Let's say that the character that you are writing about has picked up a piece of cloth. You can phrase what they feel in some way like this: "He ran his fingers over the material, it was like thin silk, smooth and soft, yet in other ways it was different. . . tougher for instance, it almost had a leathery feel to it." You see, first you get the feel of silk, then of leather, mix it together and vwalla! You have the feel of this new material.

But not all things are like that. Many you have to create your own texture for, such as darkness. You can't feel it in the literal sense. And yet, it wears on you, and seems to close in on you. Fog adds a chill to the air, and strains your eyes, so that it almost feels as if it were pressing into them. You can feel someone's stare, although they are touching you in no way. And the list goes on. Experiment, touch things, and see if you can word what it feels like and that way the next time you come to a part in your writing, where you need to describe touch, you will know what to do.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. A gust of wind swept over Patience, gently caressing a lock of hair over her cheek. An especially long piece of grass tickled her ear before springing nimbly back into place as the wind slowed. The smell of on coming rain taunted her nose, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all quiet.

(Thank you Hannah for your suggestion on the last sentence, I do believe it flows much better now. :) )

The 5th, and final part of the series will be coming soon. :)

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Description; the 6th Sense–Part 3 the Sense of Smell

Next we move on to the sense of smell. (If you missed that I am doing a series on description, take a look at Description; the 6th Sense–Part 2 the Sense of Sight and Description; the 6th Sense–Part 1 the Sense of Sound) The senses of sight and sound are sometimes the easiest of the senses to describe. Because when we first encounter something, first our eyes take it in, then we listen, then, once we have noticed it in those ways, we move on to smell, touch, and often lastly, taste. And because of that, often these last 3 senses can be left out when you describe things in your writing, for sake of slowing the story line down and leaving your reader uninterested. Though at times it is necessary to add them, and if you are able to discern those times, it will make your story on the whole much deeper.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. Patience turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all silence.

Smell is quite interesting when you think about it. You don't even have to have a bouquet of flowers in front of you, but when you think about one your nose immediately picks up the memory, and you can smell it. But lets just focus on what IS in front of you. In a meadow, like the one that Patience is sitting in, you would most likely smell grass, earth, and flowers. With the storm coming on (I love this smell) you would catch the scent of rain in the air. If your by a fire however, the smells are altogether of a different sort. You may smell ashes, and and smoke, intermingled with the scent of the wood that is being burned. Some wood types have stronger, sweater aromas then others, so if your portraying a place of comfort, peace, and beauty, you may pull that out in your writing. Where as, if you are in some place different, such as a dungeon, or the camp of the enemy, then you might have it be wood of a more foul sort being burnt. Like I said before, the smell of things, is so small, that we often don't make ourselves conscious of it, but our bodies take it in, and it is part of our surroundings. Part of what makes us feel alert, or relaxed. It weaves through our senses, and directs the path that our emotions take.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. The smell of on coming rain taunted Patience's nose, and she turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all silence.

Assr vísa ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Description; the 6th Sense–Part 2 the Sense of Sound

To continue our series, we move on to the sense of sound. (For those of you who haven't read the last post I posted, I'm doing a series on description. In the series, I gave an ordinary sentence without any descriptions, and am going through all of the 5 senses and adding description to it, until it is completed, and we have developed the 6th sense; description. To read Part 1 click here.)

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. Patience turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head.

So, it now has sight. The most basic of the senses, and the one which we most often look to first, before moving deeper. Sometimes we forget to look deeper though, and just stop here (I've done this many a time). And though this does work in many situations, think of how much deeper, how much more real the seen you are laying before the reader would feel, once you get all (or at least most) of there senses participating, not just their eye. The sentence above seems complete, and I must admit, I felt that it was finished. And yet, as I thought about it, I found small ways to worm the other senses. Just small changes here and there that make not near as much difference as when we added sight to it. But once it's finished, it will feel more complete.

You're ears are probably the second thing you move to, once you've viewed everything with your eyes. You hear the thudding of boots, or the rustle of grass. When you're blindfolded, or in the dark, you can't rely on your eyesight any longer, so your ears become more open. You hear every creak, every bump or stir in the darkness. You can hear chains clinking, or voices. Let's go deeper into the voices; you can make it rough and rugged, with slurs, and/or an accent. Or you can make it proper and learnt, with long words, and saying things in a more correct way. But you can also make them demanding, or curious, simply by saying so. 'Why?' Gregory piped up again in his curiosity. You see? You don't just have to make sounds, but use words to describe it. Like if someone is nocking on a door, you don't necessarily have to type out; nock-nock, or tatt-tatt, or something like that. You can just say, he rapped his knuckles twice in quick succession against the wooden door. I'm not saying at all that you can't type out the noises, it all depends on your preference, or style of writing, whether you want to do that or not.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark whistled its shrill cry, as it swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak. Patience turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head with a rumbling growl that shook the air and disarmed it of all silence.

Keep a look out for Part 3, coming soon. :)

Assr lei∂r ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~

Description; the 6th Sense–Part 1 the Sense of Sight

It seems that a lot of you are wanting tips on writing and stuff like that. So I decided to do a series on description. (Take note, that I am by no means an expert, feel free to comment, and tell me what you think, or if I have stated anything wrong–though I will ask you to please state your mind respectfully, I want to hear from you and your thoughts on the subject.) Description holds a certain wonder on me, how it magically turns plain, uninteresting sentences into ones that captivate you, never ceases to awe me. Simple words, like dark, and ominous, can make a reader shudder. While other words, like bubble, and beautiful, can make them smile with contentment.

In this series I'm going to give you a sentence, a plain, ordinary sentence, with no descriptions what-so-ever. Then, slowly, we'll add description based on the 5 senses; sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. To end with the 6th sense; description. And a much more intriguing, and satisfying sentence (or sentences, depending on how long it gets.)

Are you ready?? Alright, here is the sentence that we'll be using:

Patience sat in the meadow, when she saw a storm coming on. 

So we've go the sentence. Nothing fancy. . . like the string of a necklace, now we just need to add some beads to it. First, we'll start with sight.

So we've got Patience sitting in the meadow (btw, I named her Patience, because she must have been sitting in the meadow a very long time, and she'll be remaining there until we've added all of the senses, so she's got to be very patient. . . . ). Now close your eyes, and put yourself in the meadow, we're she is. Picture everything. You don't need to worry about touch or sound or any of that, we'll work with that in another post, just focus on the sights. Are you sitting beneath a tree? Or in the open grass?? Are there lots of flowers in the meadow? Perhaps is there a bird flying around?? Dig into the deep things (because though you don't always need to add the little things, it's good to know what they are, just in case an opportunity rises.) like the bugs. If you really think about it, bugs inhabit the grass. Most of the time you can't see them, but when you walk, they sometimes go jumping off, in order not to be squashed. So perhaps you want to add a few crickets, or grass hopers hoping about on the grasses. Is it windy?? With a storm coming on, it may just be, otherwise the clouds wouldn't be moving very fast. Are the dark clouds rearing up like a monster? Or are they spreading across the whole of the horizon, like a deadly plague? 

Alright, you can open your eyes now. Now let's add some sight to this sentence.

Patience sat amidst the tall grass in the meadow. A lark swooped into the violently waving grass, before soaring back into the quickly darkening sky, with a cricket gripped tightly in its thin beak.  Patience turned her eyes to the horizon, where a large black monster crept silently over her once peaceful surroundings. Lightning flashed inside it's belly, as it reared up it's angry head. 

As you can see, sight can change a whole lot about the atmosphere of a scene.

I hope this has been helpful! :) In a few days or so, I'll continue the series with the sense of sound. 

Assr lei∂r ykkarr or∂.

~ElizabethMarieKauffman~