FEATURE ARTICLE: SENSATION: How to Portray Your Character's Perception of the Senses
by Mike Klaassen
HIERARCHY OF SENSES. Not all of the senses were created equally; some are more powerful than others, depending on the situation. For example, as stated by Ron Rozelle in Description & Settting, "I heard or read somewhere that the sense of smell is the most nostalgic of the five senses. The fact that your reader's olfactory memory is laden with treasures is reason enough for you to take full advantage of it. If this truly is the most nostalgic of the physical senses, then you should draw on it like a bank account, tapping it often to engage your readers more fully."
Also according to Rozelle, taste is perhaps the most reliable of all the senses. "The others can sometimes be deceptive, but what something tastes like is usually quite simply the pure essence of the thing." Think of cinnamon, pepper, sugar, salt.
According to Todd A. Stone in Novelist's Boot Camp, some senses are more intimate than others. He outlines a hierarchy of senses, ranging from least intimate to most: sight, sound, touch, smell, taste. Stone encourages writer's to build a connection between the reader and the story by using the more-intimate senses to make descriptions emotionally powerful.
CHOICE OF SENSATION. If you were a carpenter, you wouldn't build a cabinet using just one tool. You might use a saw, but you would probably also use hammers, chisels, planes, and routers; each in its most appropriate time and place. According to Rozelle, "Too many writers make the mistake of packing almost all of their description into showing what everything in the story looks like, bypassing more effective senses." Limiting portrayal of sensation to sight may also mean that the writer is overusing the least intimate of the sensations, and failing to take advantage of opportunities to utilize more intimacy.
To get a feel for the telescoping effect of intimacy in sensation, try this exercise:
- Imagine seeing a coffee pot
- Imagine hearing coffee dripping into the pot
- Imagine touching the hot pot
- Imagine smelling the fresh coffee
- Imagine tasting the fresh brew
Real life engages more than one sensation at a time; why shouldn't fiction?
NARRATIVE DISTANCE. Donald Maass, in Writing the Breakout Novel, notes that since the invention of the novel it has been transformed by a progressive narrowing of point of view: from the once-essential author's voice, to omniscient narration, to objective narration, to first- and third-person narration, and most recently to close third-person narration.
According to Maass, today's reader wants an authentic experience. Skillful inclusion of a character's sensory perception can go a long way toward adding verisimilitude to fiction, involving the reader, and making it seem more realistic.
According to Ron Rozelle, ". . .the success of your story or novel will depend on many things, but the most crucial is your ability to bring your reader into it. And that reader will be most completely in when you deliver the actual sensations of the many things that comprise your story."
Renni Browne and Dave King, in Self-Editing for the Fiction Writer, observe that "One of the signs that you are writing from an intimate point of view is that the line between your descriptions and your interior monologue begins to blur. Readers move effortlessly from seeing the world through your character's eyes to seeing the world through your character's mind and back again." Although Browne and King were referring to internal monologue (introspection), the same could be said of sensation.
Today's reader expects to live the story through the mind of the character, experiencing the story as if the reader is the character. Effective use of the sensation as a fiction-writing mode can go a long way toward making that experience a virtual reality.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Author Mike Klaassen publishes "For Fiction Writers," a free monthly e-zine.
