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livery stable. He smelled a mixture of prairie hay and manure. He could see horse stalls to his right and rows of saddle racks to the left. He heard a horse whinny and stomp its hooves.

As explained by Evan Marshall, in The Marshall Plan for Getting Published, "Though it's desirable to make use of your character's senses in your writing, it's rarely necessary to use the actual verbs of perception such as saw, heard, and smelled. Ironically, these words distance the reader from your viewpoint character because they remind the reader that he is not actually living the story through the character." In lieu of using the verbs of sensation, Marshall recommends that authors simply describe the sensation.

Example without verbs of sensation: Cisco paused at the back door of the livery stable. The air reeked of prairie hay and manure. On his right stood horse stalls. To his left, rows of saddle racks. A horse whinnied and stomped its hooves.

ACTION VERBS. Distinct from the verbs of sensation are the action verbs needed to either:

* Maneuver the character into position to experience the sensation, or

* Describe an action the character must perform prior to being able to receive the sensation.

For example:

* Before a character can see, he may have to look

* Before a character can hear, he may have to listen

* Before a character feel, he may have to touch

* Before a character can smell, he may have to sniff

* Before a character can taste, he may have to eat

Example where action verbs set the character up to experience the sensation:

Something in the air caught Cisco's attention. He sniffed. Smoke. Mesquite wood. He clutched his Colt 45, its grip soothing to his jittery nerves. He edged closer to the door of the livery stable and peeked inside.

If the basic verbs of sensation are see, hear, feel, smell, and taste, then the plain-vanilla action verbs of sensation are look, listen, touch, sniff, and eat. For each of the action verbs of sensation there are synonyms. The number of synonyms available depends upon the sense being employed. For example, Stephen Glazier's Word Menu software lists dozens of verbs of motion and dozens of verbs of sight, but none for hearing, touch, taste, or smell. Synonyms for look include observe, study, gaze, glance, peek, and many more. For touch there are caress, finger, handle, and so on. For taste, there are various synonyms for eat, including nibble, chew, lick, bite, chomp. The usable synonyms for listen and sniff are pretty limited: hearken? inhale?

Whether

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Achieving sense perception in fiction writing

Achieving sense perception in fiction writing

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