Using Your Character’s Five Senses

Think of our five senses: taste, smell, sound, sight, and touch. Now look around the room. Do you know what everything tastes like? You might, partly because of your sense of smell, but also because years ago when you were a baby, you probably tasted plastic toys, cloth, sticks, dirt, and rubber. Remember, tastes can be an important part of your character’s fictional life. Maybe your character tastes the dirt when he gets knocked down or tastes blood from a cut lip or tastes the ash in the air after a fire.

Smells can trigger memories of places and events. For instance, a particular combination of scents—coffee, lotion, and potpourri—brings a vivid image of my grandmother’s old apartment to my mind. The smell of hot pavement, stale smoke, and funnel cakes makes me think of an amusement park. A specific scent can begin a train of thought or action for your character.

Sounds, from music to language to strange noises at night, can still or move us. The same is true for your characters. A bell, an alarm clock, a shout, or a whisper may move a character forward, triggering behavior or resolving a problem.

Touch is another important sense. There are so many important things that we touch in life—a baby’s cheek, a friend’s hand, the silky ears of a dog. The feel of a satin wedding gown is very different from that of a rough riding cloak. It’s not necessary to describe the way every object feels to your character, but imagining those sensations can help you write more realistic scenes.

Sight is a terrific sense for directing and informing readers. Because it is easy, beginning writers and even experienced writers too often get caught in telling, not showing. Sight is two-dimensional, but a story needs to be more than that. Your characters need to be vivid and believeable. Once you learn how to successfully use all the senses in your writing (without overdoing any of them), your characters will be closer to achieving that 3D quality in your readers’ minds.

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