Is your writing sensuous?
A presentation by a writers group “Writers In Time”, focused on developing writing with sensuous details that tickle the taste buds. Use the five senses and one other; smell, touch, sight, smell and the soul. A scene or place described richly will come alive and draw the reader deeper into the atmosphere and emotion. The reader will fall in love with your writing.
In ‘Oliver Twist’ by Charles Dickens’ the writing is vivid.
“It was market-morning. The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam, perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above.”
The reader can almost smell the marketplace. (He does use a passive voice, which we try to avoid these days!)
Dylan Thomas wrote about his dying father:
“Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
He talks about ‘the dying of the light’ and ‘rage’, unusual uses of words that convey a powerful emotion about death.
A simple boring description of women going into a pub could be:
“They went into the pub and sat in the corner. Heather ordered a beer.”
Or something more vivid with sensuous details from my book:
“The heavy oak door swung on well-greased hinges into the bar of the ancient pub; timbers blackened with age and hundreds of years of smoke. Heather, as always in charge, found a secluded table in a shadowy corner, away from curious eyes. Veronica wrinkled her nose with distaste at the sour smell of beer.”
I don’t write romance, but sensuous details would definitely be sexy.
I take the time to enriching my writing. I want my readers to see, smell, taste, hear and feel my scenes.
Check my progress click: Jenny Ferns Writer
