Using the Five Senses in Writing

One of the most well-known pieces of writing advice that you may have heard is to show events rather than telling them. While I do like this piece of advice and find it useful to a point, I think there is a better approach. The whole reason to avoid flat out stating everything that happens in a story is to give the reader sensory details that make them feel like they're really there. So why not just make sure you focus on using those sensory details, and let them do all the "showing" work for you?

Let's start by taking a look at each of the main five senses and discussing what using each of them can add to your story.

1. Sight.Describing how things look in the story is simple, straight forward, and can add a significant layer of depth to any scene that will instantly give your readers a front row seat to what's happening. It's also probably the easiest to accomplish and one that is remembered more than others. The only thing you should be careful to avoid doing when using this type of sensory detail is to refrain from using common colors in your description, such as "blood red" or "fire engine red" and "midnight black" or "dark as night." While readers will immediately know the color you are referring to, it becomes boring and rather cliché to hear them in every piece of literature.

2. Hearing.When's the last time you remember seeing a scary movie without a bunch of creepy music playing in the background? The truth is, you probably haven't, and for good reason. What you hear has a direct effect on what you perceive the environment to be in a story. If a horror movie had happy music playing in the background, you might expect a different outcome than one that was playing ominous, you're-about-to-get-your-head-cut-off music. The same is true when writing. Just like good movie scripts do, well-written books suck their audience into the current scene by taking advantage of this sense. It doesn't matter what the scene is, there will always be some type of noise that the characters encounter, whether it's just the hum of the refrigerator, someone coughing, or an enormous crash of thunder as a streak of lightning touches down close by. No, not every line needs to have auditory details in it; that would just be overwhelming and silly. But don't forget about this useful sense either. Especially paired with one of the other main senses, it provides a pretty powerful environment.

3. Taste. Out of all the five main senses, this one is probably the most forgotten of all of them when it comes to writing, without surprise. It's hard to find a good place to include details about taste, other than with food. It adds a lot to meals of course, but apart from that, it can be used to describe things in the environment that give off an aroma that you can "taste" to describing blood in someone's mouth without directly stating that they're bleeding.

4. Smell. Another one of the seldom used senses in writing, smell proves to be useful tool. It's particularly good for building suspense if a character is in a dark environment and is trying to figure out where they are. It's a prime way to triggering memories for characters within a story.

5. Touch. What better way to establish urgency than to have a character groping their way around in the dark? What better way to establish a sexy, romantic scene than to describe the soft, caressing touch of a lover's body? What better way to make a reader want to pet that soft, fluffy kitten? What better way to pull your reader into the slimy, sticky muck? You get the point. There are so many different textures to explore in this awesome world we live in. My toddler knows that perhaps better than anyone. And there is no better way to explore those textures than by sense of touch. Using this detail in your story will give your writing texture as well and make the situation much more realistic to the reader.

Using the main five senses clearly has the potential to give depth to your story and make the environment a vivid one. It will even help take care of that pesky "show, don't tell" rule that editors often try to hammer home. But remember: Don't just describe what you see and hear; feel, smell, and taste your way through your writing too. Even better, don't just limit yourself (or your audience) to the main senses. Pain and temperature are two additional sensory details that really make your writing pop; they're easy to relate to, and they heighten the environment quite well. They can even help develop the mood for a particular scene.

With just a little bit of work, sensory details can transform a great piece of writing into an extraordinary one.

Sentence VaRiAtIoN

The topic I'd like to discuss for today deals with the style of writing. One of the biggest amateur mistakes with butchering the writing of a piece (apart from grammar and spelling) is not having enough sentence variation. What do I mean by that? Well, to illustrate, let me start by showing you how not to write a paragraph. Judy came home. She found her door wide open. Chills ran down her spine. Something seemed off. The lights were out. Nothing looked out of place. Something felt off though. She flipped the switch next to the front door. No lights came on. She grabbed her cell phone. She opened it. She used the faint light from the screen to look around the front room.

What's wrong with that paragraph? There's a clear lack of sentence variation. The sentences are short and choppy with the basic structure never changing. Each has a subject and verb (sometimes with an object thrown in) and nothing more. There is never any change to the length of the sentence or the style in which it is written. Now let's take that same paragraph, add in some strong verbs, some commas, and move the words around a bit.

Judy walked up to her front door, finding it slightly ajar. Chills jolted down her spine. Something seemed off. The lights were out, and nothing seemed out of place, but something felt horribly wrong. She flipped the switch next to the front door; no lights came on. She grabbed her cell phone from her purse and opened it. Using the faint light from the screen, she looked around the front room.

Now we see a plot starting to form, and it's clear that something bad is going to happen. Suspense has been heightened, and very real sense of the character's impending danger is developing. All this from sentence variation. Most of the same words were used; all that changed was the style of the sentences.

That's not to say that all literary problems can be solved by rearranging a few sentences, but there's certainly something about it that adds to any piece. If you opened a book and saw the original paragraph as the first one in the book, you'd probably close it immediately and never have a second thought about it again. But if you saw the second attempt at the same paragraph, you might be more interested in continuing.

In order to master sentence variation, one needs to study the types of sentences that there are a bit more. I won't go into great detail with all of these, but here are the main ones:

1. Simple Sentence: A simple sentence is an independent clause that contains a subject and verb, expressing a complete thought. Example: Jack and Jill ran up the hill to fetch a pail of water. There is a subject (or in this case, two), a verb, and one complete thought. Simple.
2. Compound Sentence: Much as you'd expect, a compound sentence is two independent clauses that have been joined together by a conjunction, or coordinator. Example: Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after. First, Jack fell down the hill and broke his crown, then Jill tumbled down after him. Two ideas joined together using a comma and the conjunction "and."
3. Complex Sentence: Complex sentences contain both an independent clause (one that can stand on its own as a complete sentence) and a dependent clause (one that needs an independent clause attached to make it complete). Example: When Jack tripped over the rock at the top of the hill, Jill didn't notice. The first half of the sentence is actually the dependent clause in this cause. It signifies a specific period of time in which the event happened (when Jack tripped), and therefore, relies on an independent clause to clarify what the event actually was (Jill didn't notice). The semantics are more complicated and more in-depth than that, but there is the gist of what a complex sentence is.

Of course, you can have variations of these types of sentences within the English language, such as compound complex sentences, but as long as you at least vary between the three main types as you're writing paragraphs, the style and overall appeal of your will be more desirable. A well-written paragraph will sound almost musical. The length of one sentence has a big influence on the tone of the sentence, and when combined, different types of sentences can build paragraphs of suspense, bliss, and even turmoil.

Caution: NOT all publishers are created equal!

The publishing industry has changed tremendously in the past decade or two, not to mention the last century. What used to be primarily a publishers-seeking-authors market where only the best got published has been lost to the generation of advanced technology, self-marketing via Internet media outlets, and cyber scams. Now, that's not to say that scamming didn't happen in the past; it certainly did. And technology has brought about a wonderful space for amateur writers (and other types of artists) to spread their wings and share their talents with the world. But what I feel is the core of the publishing world that was first created has long been thrown to the sharks. We live in an age where anyone can get published, no matter how much or how little talent there is, and who you know is more important than what you can do. I suppose who you know has always been important, but these days, it takes precedent over skills, which is quite a sad thing in my book. Yes, there are still traditional publishers out there, but the chances of being accepted with one of the big fish are generally one in a million. All that being said, you really need to be careful when searching for a publisher these days. Publishers know that new writers are trying to get published all the time, and many take advantage of that. They will try to win you over, then take your money, and leave you high and dry. But no two publishers are created equal. So for that reason, I'd like to take a brief insight into a few types of publication there are available, and which ones new writers in particular should avoid.

Self-publishing. Since this is the route that many new writers are forced to end up taking, I will start with this one. Self-publishing has its perks of course; you control what gets published and when, you don't have to sit around waiting to hear if you've been accepted or not by some well-known publisher that you hope will take you under their wings and show you the ways of the publishing world. And you don't have to worry about getting an agent or fight with an editor about how a sentence should be worded. You also retain all the rights to your book. The downside? You have to pay for everything yourself, you have to do your own marketing, you have to hire your own editor (if you don't want to hear the never-ending critique from your readers, that is; of course, that's up to you), and on top of all of that, your book will usually only be available in limited places (Amazon and the like) unless you happen to get lucky enough to sell enough copies to get picked up by a big name publisher. However, you know that and expect of those conditions up front.

So what's my recommendation on this route? Well, if you've exhausted other means of getting published without blowing a ton of money, and you have the extra monetary resources to do so, I actually think self-publishing can be a decent way to go, especially for authors just starting out. You can get your work out there and let others discover you when you might not otherwise get the chance. However, as I said, you should at least hire an editor for your piece, before you ever consider getting it published. Good editors won't just fix grammatical errors; they will tell you what they think could be added into your piece or taken away, how wording suggestions could help sculpt your book into a more refined and professional document. They're really worth investing in if you have the time and money.

Another person you might want to consider consulting if you decided to take this route is a marketing person or agent. They can help you increase the sales of your book, and they can give you tips on what publishers might pick up your book if it does well enough. However, an agent isn't necessary for this route, and many self-publishing authors choose to create their own marketing documents, which is fine.

Publish-on-demand or vanity publishing. Out of all the ways to go, this is probably the worst. While you do retain all or most rights to your book, and the publisher will often even accept your book for publication at no cost, they generate the initial loss in revenue by getting the author to buy their own book. Some key signs that a company is a vanity publisher: they offer to completely bypass the editing process to get your book out there faster, notify you that you will have to do the majority of the marketing, and pay you in royalties based off of the sales generated in a given period of time (i.e. the more money and effort you spend on selling your book, the more money you will get in return, minus the chunk that you are giving to these guys). A vanity publisher will provide low-detail statements of the sales that were made during a period of time outlined in the contract, meaning that they only have to pay you for what they say actually sold.

When I was 19 and got my first book published, I opted to go with one of these publish-on-demand publishers. I was naive and thought I had done proper research on the matter, but I hadn't. Like so many thousands of people before me, I feel I was cheated out of some money. No, it probably wasn't all that much, considering it was a rather awful poetry book and I was inexperienced, but I have record of some purchases made that they would never verify. In the end, it wasn't worth the battle, and I only ever saw one or two paychecks, and that was during the first few months of my book being available.

Though it's rather obvious by now, I do not think highly of these types of companies, nor do I recommend this route for publishing. Many publishers will try to hide the words "publish on demand"  or "vanity publishing," because they realize that those words are not very reputable or well perceived. But the deal is all the same, no matter how they state it: The publishing company will publish your work, bombard you with special offers to buy more copies of your own book so that you can sell them yourself and do all the leg work, only stock it to online distributors so that there is minimal printing cost for them, and they only have to stock your book as long as it's selling. In the end, it's purely a win-win situation for them, and a loss for the author. You get nothing out of publication this way, except to have your name floating around in cyberspace in my experience.

Subsidy publishing. Though not very common from what I can tell, subsidy publishing is another route similar to vanity publishing, with a few differences. Authors will retain only particular rights to their work, as detailed in the contract made with the publisher, though they will retain ownership of their work. And like vanity publishing, they will generally fund the majority of the marketing costs involved and handle most of the sales. However, unlike vanity publishing, the author agrees to take on a set amount of the cost up front. The publisher handles all facets of production and shoulders the cost for it. They fund the advertising and promotions for public awareness of the product. The author then takes it from there. Similar to vanity publishing, there is no royalty advance, so authors are paid by the number of books sold.

If you choose to take a route other than traditional publishing or self-publishing, subsidy publishing isn't all that bad. There are of course some downsides to it (mostly monetary), but it's more of a partnership than vanity publishing for sure. Another upside is that while subsidy publishers accept more manuscripts than a traditional publisher, they are still picky enough that they won't accept just any manuscript; they want to be fairly confident that it will sell at least a reasonable amount of copies. Subsidy publishing is the most "middle ground" of all the various types of publishers.

Traditional publishing or commercial publishing. Traditional publishing is by far the hardest to get into. Your work doesn't just have to be good; it has to be entertaining, well-written, and above all, marketable. If you don't make the first few pages captivating, your book will be tossed aside along with thousands of others. Few are accepted by these types of publishers, but those that are usually make a respectable career out of writing.

The biggest upside to this type of publishing is the monetary rewards. The author typically receives a royalty advance for the projected future sales of the book. The publisher handles everything: production, sales, promotion, and funds. There is absolutely no cost to the author. The publisher does buy the rights to the book in order to do this, but they are generally considered the most reputable type of publisher, because they only make what they sell. They are responsible for, in my opinion, everything that the publisher should be responsible for. If you're good enough to hit it big with one of these guys, you're golden.

I hope my insight to the publishing world has been helpful for those with unfamiliar with the industry. I wish all of you out there trying to get published the best of luck, and I hope that you will find the path that works best for you.

As additional source on the types of publishing, I'd like to recommend http://www.brightonpublishing.com/Pubtypes.html. The site has additional details on each type, including the typical royalty rates.

Beating Writer's Block

At one time or another, every writer experiences writer's block. It's rather frightening not to be able to come up with new ideas, even if it's just for one piece in particular, especially when you've been writing for what seems like your whole life. Not to mention, it's frustrating, disheartening, and can even strangle a writer's creativity and passion for writing if it persists too long. So what can you do to prevent writer's block?

Well, while there isn't a sure way to prevent it from ever happening (that I know of at least), there are ways to keep it from coming often and from staying long. So here are some reliable methods to help keep your mind sharp and your creativity at it's peak, nipping any lurking writer's block in the bud.

1. Be creative in other areas. Often times, people who enjoy writing also have other creative hobbies that they pursue. Allowing yourself to dabble in other creative hobbies frequently gets the creative part of your brain back in shape, and new ideas will come about for your writing. A few of the hobbies that can help get your creative juices flowing are photography, drawing/painting, sewing, and music, but there are many others. If you prefer to build something or do some coding on the computer rather than the aforementioned activities, go for it. Anything that is creative will stimulate your mind.

2. Practice writing exercises. Though it can seem silly and pointless (I've been down that road myself), doing writing exercises actually will help you evolve your writing quite a bit. If your working on a particularly story and are having trouble with one or more of the characters, find a writing exercise that involves sticking those characters in a situation outside of your piece of writing, and see how they react. You might be surprised how much you can learn about them this way. If it's the world in your story you're having trouble developing, do some exercises specific to working on atmosphere and environment.

Whatever the specific issue you're having for your particular piece of writing, there is guaranteed to be a writing exercise for it. If you're just having trouble in general, or you are looking to come up with new ideas altogether, try a number of writing exercises. Eventually, you will stumble on to something that could turn into much more.The Internet is a writer's haven for these types of exercises. Here is one good resource I've found for such purposes: http://mysite.du.edu/~bkiteley/exercises.html.

3. Read. It's simple. The more you read good writing, the more you will be able to produce it. Find a few well-written works from your favorite authors, and even some you're unfamiliar with. You'll get a wide variety of styles of writing, and some of the pieces may even spark some ideas for works of your own. In doing this though, there are two things you want to be careful to avoid, the first of which is plagiarism. So how do you avoid it and still get some ideas from others' pieces you've read? Let's say you like the Harry Potter series for instance. Rather than creating your own world similar to Hogwarts, or even writing a story about witches and wizards, you can use the main theme in the book to come up with your own piece that is unique and doesn't steal from Rowling's ideas: good vs. evil. There are countless stories that can be told of good vs. evil, and they don't have to involve supernatural characters or world at all. In fact, they don't even have to be very long.

The second thing to avoid you'll want to avoid is poorly-written books. This can be a bit more challenging. With books such as the Twilight series and 50 Shades of Grey at the top of the "best-sellers" list, it's easy to be deceived about what is good writing, and what isn't. A good place to start is with the classics. Yes, they're not everyone's cup of tea, and not all of them are great, but there's a reason for them being categorized as classics; they're timeless, and most of them are quite beautifully and elegantly written. It's quite a different story for most of the garbage that's published today. The problem is the changes in the publishing industry. It's now much easier for the average joe to publish a piece of writing, particularly without going through any editors or agents. The result? While a lot of good books get to market that otherwise might not have made it, so does an equal amount (if not more) of poorly-written books. If you are wanting to go with a more modern book though, there are ways to find good ones.

a. Search online. Amazon is a surprisingly good resource for determining whether or not a book is worth reading/buying. The reviews of a book are truthful; the customers who comment have no reason to be dishonest about something that they spent money on. If you go through and actually read the reviews rather than simply looking at the stars at the top, you will quickly see which comments are valid and which aren't. Also, for those with Kindles, Amazon offers samples of most of their books that are available for the Kindle. This will give you a taste of what the book is like without you ever purchasing it. A win/win in my book!

b. Sample the book. Flip through the first few pages/chapter. If you aren't hooked by that point, you likely won't be for the rest of the book either. Though there are instances where this isn't true, good writing generally applies throughout the entire book, not just sections of it.

c. Check for spelling and grammar errors. If you have trouble deciphering the writing on the first few pages due to back grammar and spelling, or you notice that the book is written at an incredibly low reading level with no sense of detail, originality, or a distinct voice, pass on the book. If the author can't get the most basic writing right, they certainly aren't going to be able to create an intricate story line that proves to be interesting and innovative.

I hope these few pointers will help you not only to improve your writing but also to hinder the evil leech that is known as "writer's block" the next time it decides to latch onto your brain and suck all your creativity out.

Also, for another cool tip on beating writer's block, check out my friend's blog: http://smwright.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/redux-tarot-for-writers/.