Words have an ability to affect us.
How does that happen?
Hitting on our senses in ways we don't expect. It draws the reader in.
Using the senses in writing.
without all the nastly 'ly' words.
Visceral is something I hear bandied about a lot in writing helps. What does it mean to provide the reader a visceral experience?
Our goal, as writers, is to force the reader to feel things in ways they can't defend against.
These are in no particular order.
Smell:
"He motions me inside, where I’m assaulted by the fumes of wood polish."
Touch/Texture:
"I feel thin, not the skinny model kind of thin, the kind of thin that’s
like a string of chewing gum, about to snap."
Sound:
"I don’t have to yell. Whispering
in this crowd offers a validity that can stand up to pedigree."
Taste:
"I’ve developed a taste for trouble. Like hot sauce, I’ve built a
tolerance that I not only crave, but need to intensify."
See/Sight:
"We’ve lived on Rockwood Lane for sixteen years without any suggestion of ‘moving up’ or ‘moving out’. Then Mom bought red exterior paint and murdered our front door."
What I love about writing/reading is wording phrasing something in a way that makes me feel like a tourist in written world, experiencing things old and new in foreign ways,
thinking differently,
sensing things strangely.
