Senses

Humans tend to focus a lot on sight—what we see, how it moves, speed, light, or the absence of it all. This dependence on sight is something I notice reflected in my writing, and it’s a challenge I continuously work on: to include each sense.

Sure, when we experience a strong emotion like anger or fear, our pupils tend to dilate to take in more light and enhance vision, but things happen to our other senses too. Hearing, touch, smell, and even taste can be affected. Sounds can alter or even vanish completely, while smells can intensify or dull to nothing. Attention can shift and narrow, blurring everything around the shrinking circle of focus. Our skin can become more sensitive to touch—or less. Our bodies react in such a three-dimensional way that it's easy to miss the depth of what is happening beneath the surface when our minds are focused on other responses.

A trick I learnt is to get to know your own senses, learning about each one. Studying our emotions is an excellent way to learn how our bodies react and find ways to strengthen our writing. However, since it's not always safe nor mentally healthy to provoke fear or pain, it's good to remember that the body's physical reaction is based on stress. Now, I’m not suggesting you go out and hug a snake to learn more about your body’s stress reactions for your writing. Instead, you can mimic stress responses more naturally, like through training.

The fascinating thing about the human body is that it can't differentiate between the stress we feel when an angry mom chases us and the stress released during a high-intensity training session. The internal reaction and release of hormones are the same, albeit at different intensities.

By using controlled techniques for releasing stress, we not only create a more manageable environment to widen our focus on these senses but also gain control to observe what happens in our bodies during these exercises.

Maybe you react by losing your ability to hear, or perhaps sound sharpens to a heightened level. Trying out a racetrack could erase the outside world until there’s nothing but you and the road. The same can be said about the other senses.

By learning about them, it's easier to introduce more of it into your work, reflecting the full range of complexity of your character.

Get to know your body. Get to know your reactions. The next time you write that adrenaline-pumping action scene, remember you don't have to stop with what your characters see. They've got a list of awesome senses lined up and waiting for you to explore.