You know your writing should evoke all five senses, but here’s a handy tip for not only making sure you’ve included sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell in a scene, but also that you’ve balanced your use of the senses:
Color Coding for the Senses:
- Pick a passage from your writing.
- Pull out your highlighters or colored pens and assign one color to each of the five senses.
- Now, read the passage and use the appropriate color to highlight or underline each word or phrase that evokes a sense. If certain words or phrases evoke multiple senses, use both colors.
- Hold the paper at arm’s length for a quick and easy-to-read snapshot of how much sensory writing you have included and which senses you’re evoking.
- Based on what you see, go back to your piece and edit.
I most recently heard this piece of advice on an episode of the excellent Writing Excuses podcast, but I had come across it before in a Grub Street class I took with the lovely and slightly wicked K.L. Pereira. For class, Ms. Pereira had us read a piece by Angela Carter called “The Kiss.” Here’s a brief excerpt with color coding:
The market has a sharp, green smell. A girl with black-barred brows sprinkles water from a glass over radishes. In this early part of the year, you can buy only last summer’s dried fruit—apricots, peaches, raisins—except for a few, precious, wrinkled pomegranates, stored in sawdust through the winter and now split open on the stall to show how a wet nest of garnets remains within. A local speciality of Samarkand is salted apricot kernels, more delicious, even, then pistachios.
In this example, orange is sight, sky blue is taste, lime green is touch, and teal blue is a mixture of two senses (“sharp, green smell” evokes smell and touch, “sprinkles” evokes sight and hearing). Using this technique, you can immediately see that Carter has not only used a wide variety of the senses, she has also balanced her use of them well. (Side note: Carter is particularly well known for her expert handling of the senses in her writing, so don’t be intimidated by this example.) 😉
Try this exercise with a piece of your own writing or with an excerpt from someone else’s work to gain some valuable insight into different ways to use of the senses in a scene. Even if you use someone else’s work, go ahead and see if you can improve upon it based on what you learn from the color coding.
You can also practice by writing descriptions of simple settings and actions, but doing so in a way that uses all five senses. For instance, you could write about riding on a train, folding laundry, filling a bird feeder, or making a sandwich. Keep the subject matter simple, but see how many sensory details you can work into the telling. Think of all the ways you could use the senses to describe making (and eating!) that sandwich pictured above: the crunch of the bread, the vibrant crimson of the cranberries, the fresh coolness of the lettuce, the rich scent of roasted turkey … Mmmmm … I’m getting hungry!
Have fun with it. Explore your senses and how you can use them in your writing. With a little practice you’ll add a whole new dimension to your scenes.
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Jamie Lee Wallace Hi. I’m Jamie. I am a content marketer and branding consultant, columnist, sometime feature writer, prolific blogger, and aspiring fiction writer. I’m a mom, a student of equestrian and aerial arts (not at the same time), and a nature lover. I believe in small kindnesses, daily chocolate, and happy endings. Join me each Saturday for the Weekend Edition (a fun post and great community of commenters on the writing life, random musings, writing tips, and good reads), or introduce yourself on Facebook, twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. I don’t bite … usually.
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Some good advice here, thanks.
You’re very welcome. (Love your profile pic, by the way) 🙂
I think these things like mist rise naturally. The best instance I know of this is Keats’ “To Autumn.” http://www.bartleby.com/126/47.html
That is a beautiful piece. Thanks for sharing the link – a lovely way to begin my day.
Oh, good. I love it too.
Jamie, this truly something new for me. I think it’s really good piece of advice to include five senses in article
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and you know what? It’s actually kind of fun to practice!
This is a valuable/helpful reminder/tool to keep. Thanks Jamie!
Glad you think so. 🙂
Is that a new profile pic you have? Love it!
Yes, It’s almost new year. Time for a new profile picture I thought. Thanks!
It’s lovely!
Reblogged this on robertcdeming and commented:
I have been told there isn’t enough color in my writing. Now I’m looking for colored markers to do this exercise.
I’ve been told there isn’t enough color in my writing. Now I’m looking for some colored markers …
Can’t wait to hear how you make out! 😉
hi .. I’m new to the whole blogging scene.. please check out the_addiction .. looking forward to your comments.. also find me on Wattpad https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/56398540-the-addiction
This sounds like great exercise – I’m going to have to try it! Thank you for sharing!
You’re very welcome. I hope it’s helpful!
Very helpful suggestion, Jamie. I look firward to reviewing some of my essays with colors in hand!
🙂 Have fun with it. Love to hear how you make out.
Great tip. I find that taste is a difficult sense to describe. Will have to try this exercise on some of the weaker scenes in my book.
That is a tough one for scenes that don’t involve food 😉 I suppose you can play around with taste-related words and phrases like “overbearing sweetness” or “saccharine smile.” Also, smell and taste are very closely related, so a word like “cloying” can sometimes invoke both senses on different levels. It’s like a puzzle!
Nice post. I will definitely have to try this out with some of my earlier work. I do believe it could be very enlightening. Thank you.
I hope it’s both fun and informative. 🙂
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Excellent advice, implanting in my writing. Thank you!
Have fun with it! 🙂
Insightful. thank you
You’re welcome. Thanks for being here.
Copied it all in the “tips and tricks for writing” section of my diary. 🙂
I love when I make it into someone’s diary. 😉
TKS!
very insightful…Thanks
You’re very welcome. Hope it helps!
I think snow will easily show touch and grass touch, smell we can include them to add beauty in our writing. Awesome post:)
Thank you and happy writing!
I like this! May be difficult to include all senses for the medical/health blog I do, though. Any ideas?
Difficult for me to say without really investigating, but I wonder if there’s an opportunity for you to bring elements of daily life into your discussion of health. Metaphors can also give you a chance to add some color to your writing when the topic is a little dry.
Good luck!
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Inspiring and didactic as usual
I’m glad you liked it. TKS!
This is an incredibly helpful post for a fellow aspiring fiction writer. I’m all geared up to use this technique on the next piece I write. It has also served to remind me that I should get some coloured markers for myself, a task long overdue. Thanks a lot! 🙂
I LOVE colored markers … and pens. And, I love the process of editing on a hard copy rather than on-screen, but that’s a topic for another whole post!
Glad you found this tip helpful. I’m happy to pass it along.
Enjoy your writing!
Thanks for the advice! I’ve always had trouble with balancing my descriptions/senses. I hardly ever use smell (mostly because of my trouble with actually smelling), so this is a good exercise to do. I like the use of different colors, it finally gives me an excuse to use all my highlighters. Thanks for sharing.
Love to play with highlighters. 😉
Glad you find the idea intriguing.
This is a cool idea!
I thought so. Glad you do, too! 🙂
love this!!
🙂
Intriguing, but sounds a bit time-consuming. In your experience, used as a regular exercise tool (like morning tai-chi) would it really be expected to lead to a more automatic “colour-senses” writing style?
I think it’s meant to be used sparingly just as a “spot check” to see how you’re weaving the senses into your writing. I wouldn’t want to color code an entire novel, or even a whole short story. In class, we were asked to pick a paragraph or two, no more.
Thanks, I’ll try it out then. Maybe on a couple of posts – I’m still trying to figure what works best for me
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