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Using the five senses in your writing is vital to creating a sense of reality in your stories, but while these are things that we deal with every day, writing down those feelings can be far harder than it seems. The words that we use to describe smell, taste, touch, sight and even sound go beyond language in some ways. Living in parts of our brain that are far more basic than those in which language are formed. So how do you create a real sense perception? How do you make someone smell the bread baking rather than simply using the words we all use?

The first step is to begin to focus on your own senses more. Try to explain to yourself throughout the day what you are feeling. Think more carefully about the specifics of what you feel when a cold wind blows across your face. Do you simply feel cold, or do you feel your jaw tensing as you struggle to keep your teeth from clattering. Are you cold across your entire body, or it your nose that feels it most.

These small details that we often don't think about are what makes our fiction feel real. The smell of coffee in the morning evokes some smell, but if you can explain the details of that smell, how you can almost taste it, how you can hear the gurgling of the coffee maker and feel the warmth even before it touches your mouth then you can create a more true experience.

As with the example of the coffee it is often useful to remember just how many of our senses are involved in things that we do. You do not simply see a cup of coffee, you smell the coffee, feel the warmth of the cup, hear the coffeemaker and more. Using multiple sensations to explain a single tactile experience can be helpful.

One of the best ways to learn to do this is through short stories. In this case it is valuable to attempt to write a story from the point of view of someone who is blind. This will force you to think more carefully about every other sensation, and just as the person who is himself blind you will find that your other senses begin to become more acute as you learn to rely on them.

No matter the type or style of the story that you want to write about the ability to put the reader into the story through sense perception is a vital and valuable tool. So, spend some time each day thinking about how you really perceive the world around you , use all of the senses to give a single unified sense and practice and you will begin to create worlds that feel far more real.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
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