Using the Senses in Writing
Senses – see, hear, smell, touch, taste. As the song refers, our senses working overtime! Who remembers the XTC song, from the seventies?
Those five senses are not the only ones referred to these days though. Intuition is perhaps a sense, certainly it is held to be so.
What about a sense of direction? Some people, if they’re outside, always know which way is north, useful sense to have at times, for sure. Another one is a sense of time.What about a sense of decency, or even a sense of occasion. I could go on and on with these, using Google, but you could do that for yourself, if you wish to explore it further …
So, a poem about the most delicious smelling meal ever, or the glorious sight of a rainbow after rain. The taste of that delicious smelling meal! What was it, anyway, your favourite meal, use all of your senses, the sound of cooking steak, yum!
And of course, the feel of fur, on a soft and warm pussy cat, sensuous and lovely! I love the sound of rumbling thunder, and I also love the sound of wind rushing through tall trees. I hear that sound quite often at home, because we have some tall pine trees on the western of our front yard.
How about a sense of unease? That may be interesting to write about poetically … that gut feeling that something is wrong, but you don’t know what it is, or you know exactly what it is, but can do nothing about it …
Do any of these writing prompts spark any ideas for you? If they do, that’s great. If they don’t maybe a sense of unease might be writing, making you wonder if you’ll ever write creatively again. Write about that!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 