INTRO: Every Monday is Jumpstart Monday so I will be trying out things to help me get into my writing for the week; hopefully these will help you too.
I don’t know if it was because I went to film school or just because I’m interested in relationships, but I love writing dialogue and having characters talk, argue, flirt…whatever.
This often means I let other things slide, especially sensory details. I tend to focus on sight and sound, forgetting about what smells might be around, what the character can touch and react to or the taste in a character’s mouth.
Today’s exercise will help you add sensory detail to a scene.
- Select a scene you are working on in your story or a scene in a published book.
- Identify any sentences that show the use of the senses. What do they tell you about the character, setting, relationships, etc?
- Identify a sense that is not being used.
- Write a sentence or two that incorporates this sense into the scene.
Did this detail add to your scene? In what way? If not, what can you do to make it a necessary part of the scene?
