Come to Your Senses as You Write
On a sunny spring day, I sat with seven homeschoolers on a stretch of grass for a creative writing session. The older kids started to fidget before we even started.\n\n\n\n"What are we doing out here?"\n\n\n\n"We\u2019re going to see what\u2019s around us."\n\n\n\nA fifth grader pointed with his pen. "I see sky, clouds, cars, building. Done." The others laughed. \n\n\n\n"We\u2019re going to be quiet and listen, too," I added.\n\n\n\n"I hear birds. Done." More chuckles.\n\n\n\n"Before we write," I began, "Let\u2019s look at the sky. What color is it?"\n\n\n\nSomeone said blue.\n\n\n\n"What kind of blue? There are so many blues. Is it dark blue like these navy pants? Or is it blue like turquoise? Or is it the kind of blue you want to swim in? Or the color of your mom\u2019s eyes?"\n\n\n\nThey looked up. "Write down phrases that describe this particular blue at this particular moment of this particular day. Compare it to other things that are blue."\n\n\n\nThey studied the sky, and one by one, each started writing. \n\n\n\n"What else do you see\u2014you mentioned clouds. What kind of clouds? Puffy white cumulus clouds or light and filmy cirrus clouds?"\n\n\n\nGroup Your Senses\n\n\n\nWe continued exploring multi-sensory details. They grouped their ideas by sense, so each stanza of the poem they were going to write began:\n\n\n\nI see\u2026\n\n\n\nI hear\u2026\n\n\n\nI smell\u2026\n\n\n\nI touch...\n\n\n\nI taste...\n\n\n\nThis simple "senses" poem isn't just for kids. You could try sensory writing, too.\n\n\n\nSensory Writing Practice\n\n\n\nSlow down and tune into the space around you, ideally outdoors.\n\n\n\nLook, listen, inhale deeply.\n\n\n\nWhat do you notice at this particular moment of this particular day? Write down keywords and adjectives. \n\n\n\nCapture images and sounds.\n\n\n\nWhat smells do you breathe in?\n\n\n\nCompare those details to something else. You'll be crafting metaphors with nouns and more seemingly unrelated nouns that end up enhancing meaning.\n\n\n\nTouch different textures.\n\n\n\nTaste something\u2014well, taste what's appropriate (don't eat anything poisonous)!\n\n\n\nAs you capture the particulars, you'll realize that this moment is one-of-a-kind, and you're writing about it using all your senses, as those kids did.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPull Your Senses Together\n\n\n\nWhen you realize the poem is coming together, group the sensory details you've described to form those stanzas:\n\n\n\nI see\u2026\n\n\n\nI hear\u2026\n\n\n\nI smell\u2026\n\n\n\nI touch...\n\n\n\nI taste...\n\n\n\nRearrange as needed, of course.\n\n\n\nWrite an opening line if you like. Maybe two.\n\n\n\nWrite a closing line if you like. Maybe two. Maybe three.\n\n\n\nRead it aloud.\n\n\n\nSensory Writing for Life\n\n\n\nYou've preserved in multi-sensory detail a moment of your wild and precious life.\n\n\n\nAnd you've practiced a skill you can use in all your writing to bring your stories and scenes to life for your reader with this multi-sensory detail.\n\n\n\nYears ago I attended a writing workshop and the leader referenced Flannery O\u2019Connor, paraphrasing a section of \u201cThe Nature and Aim of Fiction\u201d from \u200bMystery and Manners: Occasional Prose\u200b:\n\n\n\n\nA lady who writes, and whom I admire very much, wrote me that she had learned from Flaubert that it takes at least three activated sensuous strokes to make an object real; and she believes that this is connected with our having five senses. If you\u2019re deprived of any of them, you\u2019re in a bad way, but if you\u2019re deprived of more than two at once, you almost aren\u2019t present. (Emphasis mine, 69)\n\n\n\n\nThe workshop leader held up an imaginary artist's brush and said, "One, two, three...and you're done!"\n\n\n\nInclude in your poetry and prose\u2014fiction or nonfiction\u2014at least three sensory details and your reader will be in the scene with you.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRead It Aloud and Applaud\n\n\n\nRight there in the grass on that day with the homeschooled kids, they arranged their poems, scribbling into spiral notebooks balanced on bony knees.\n\n\n\nWhen we brought them back inside, each child read their poem aloud for the other mom, who had stayed inside while we wrote. We applauded after each poem.\n\n\n\nOne of them read a simple series of images and metaph...