by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

Last month, I opened the conversation by asking when is a novel like a layer cake? By adding layers, of course! And we talked about hearing and smell. Today is the rest; it’s all about Sight, Taste, and Touch.

Sight

As I drove home from grocery shopping, a teenager dressed in gym shorts, a tank top and running shoes rounded the corner from his subdivision onto the main road. This was not an afternoon jog. This young man was in training.

Seeing him evoked a vivid memory from my teen years of sitting beside a track watching the boy—on whom I had a major crush—train by running laps. The thrill of wearing his letterman’s sweater while I watched him run felt fresh. I was fifteen again and “in love.”

Like the sight of that runner evoked memory for me, sights can set the mood you want in the scene. Don’t tell us your main character is feeling hopeful; let her walk out her door and see the first robin’s nest of Spring. If the mood you want is somber, have gray skies threaten rain. Or fog render the view to only a few feet.

In one WIP (Work In Progress), the mood needed to be dark. My protagonist is haunted by guilt. To arouse a feeling of haunting secrets and guilt, I’ve filled the scene with grand, old oak trees, dripping with Spanish moss.

Taste

From a romance, I recently read: When he bent to kiss her, she puckered up like she’d sucked on a persimmon.

My immediate reaction was to chuckle and then to ask, “Why?” I speculated it was perhaps her first kiss, and she didn’t know what to do. Or did she dislike him? I had to find out and kept reading. I have never eaten a persimmon, but I know they have pucker power. And so did the author, who used it to give me a visual or “taste” of the heroine’s reaction.

Have you ever watched a video of a dog tasting a lemon? Their lips curl up in a natural reaction. And to some people, heavily sugared foods can bring forth that same reaction.

Observe people eating and record their physical reactions. Taste can leave a lasting impression, so use it to your advantage.

Touch

From the womb, we are wired for the sense of touch. It is the first sense to develop. According to Psychology Today, “babies who are not held and nuzzled and hugged enough will literally stop growing. If the situation lasts long enough, even if they are receiving proper nutrition, they will die.”

In a scientific study, participants were asked to see if they could “read” a stranger’s mood by their touch. All were blindfolded. The scientists predicted only a 25% or less accuracy rate. They were surprised by the resulting 78% rate of correct identification of emotion.

How do we best incorporate touch in our stories? By showing the character’s response to the touch. When the hero’s hand brushes against the heroine’s, her heart thrills. A burst of adrenalin is released, and the rush tickles her stomach as well. She becomes flustered or blushes. Sweet or Christian fiction can be sensual without being graphic. When a loved one brushes their fingers down your neck, it sparks an adrenalin surge.

When you touch a hard surface, it is unyielding. A strict disciplinarian is like that. Or a man who guards his heart. By comparing emotions to touch, you can give the reader better insight to your character.

How much better to read: “A heart of petrified wood beat within his chest” than “He’d built a protective wall around his heart.”

Readers’ emotions are engaged when we use the five senses in our stories. Without them, the reader sees mere words on a page. But by using all the senses, we enable the reader to experience the story with the characters. And isn’t that what we want?

Which of the senses do you use the most in your fiction?

Ane Mulligan has been a voracious reader ever since her mom instilled within her a love of reading at age three, escaping into worlds otherwise unknown. But when Ane saw PETER PAN on stage, she was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. And so, by night, she’s CEO of a community theatre company and by day, a bestselling, award-winning novelist. She lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.