By Sara Beth Williams @WilliamsSaraB
If you’ve been following my series, you’ll have learned about how Secrets, Character Conflict, Misunderstandings, High Stakes and Mistakes can help create a great and compelling story. In fact, many great stories incorporate multiple aspects listed above.
What if I told you, you could nail all of these things as a writer, and your story still might be forgettable? Boring? DNFed? (Did not Finish)
No one wants their story DNFed.
What else makes a story rise above others?
It’s all about the little things. Namely, The Five Senses
Think about your favorite movie, book or play. Do the characters stand and yammer at each other in a white-walled room with their hands hanging at their sides? What does your character do while they talk or while they’re journeying toward their goal? How does he interact with his environment? What does she see, or smell or taste? What little things around the environment add value to your character and to the story? How do those little things create a great and memorable story?
Spoiler Warning Ahead!
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Stories that use the five senses: Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, Smell
The Pursuit of Happyness: (2006) –
(Sight, sound, touch)
At one point in the movie, main character Chris Gardner (Will Smith) receives a very fortunate call late in the evening; a man invites him to interview for an internship that could change the course of his life.
Literally, while he’s on the phone, he’s scouring, digging all around his messy apartment for a pen and paper but can’t find one. The man gives him a 10-digit phone number and a 4 digit extension. He is forced to commit the number to memory. Then he heads down the street to a liquor store so he can borrow a pen. The entire time he’s repeating the phone number while he walks. Before he can reach the store, an acquaintance runs into him and starts talking about the latest basketball game, who won, by how many points, how many seconds were left. Gardner’s like, “Dude, don’t talk to me about numbers right now,”
Not remembering those numbers would have resulted in Chris losing the opportunity of a lifetime. The obstacle in front of him was nothing more than the fact that he couldn’t find a pen.
How your characters interact with their environment is essential. It’s all about the little things.
Heist by Laura Pauling
(Sight, sound, smell)
The little things have everything to do with what senses your characters experience, and even what they don’t hear, or don’t see.
Here’s a short passage from Heist by Laura Pauling that illustrates my point.
Some setup: This teenage boy is searching for his dad and while doing so, he encounters an art festival.
“After several deep breaths, I shuffle down rows and rows of tables lined up on the side of the park closest to the museum. I barely notice the paintings and sculptures. The sound of popcorn popping rattles my nerves. The smell of fries, hot and crisp, just pulled from the grease turns my stomach. I want to grab the next whiny kid begging for food and shake him. So many people dressed in green velvet coats and green wigs. Overkill. All the sounds and smells blend together in a buzz.”
UP (2009)
Sight, smell, touch,
Here’s another example of how a character’s interaction with their environment creates a great, memorable story.
The beginning sequence paints a beautiful picture of a young Carl, who falls in love with a girl. They get married and promise to go on adventures together. However, before they can visit Paradise Falls, they grow old together, and she passes away.
Then he ties thousands of balloons together, strings them through his chimney and somehow creates a flying house so he can fly to Paradise Falls.
Everywhere you look inside Carl’s home, you see pictures of his wife. Items that his wife loved. A bird. Dinnerware. All kinds of nick knacks. When the flying house hits a massive lightning storm, the first thing he dives to catch are the picture frames, and then anything else that his wife valued. He hangs onto these items for dear life while the storm rages.
Why? Because those are the most important things to him in his environment. All of these little objects represent his wife’s presence and his ultimate goal was to bring her with him to Paradise Falls. Without her presence, why bother going?
The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Sight, sound, smell, taste, touch
This moving novel about a teenage boy, Brian, who survives a plane crash, could be boring if not for the intricate descriptions woven throughout this story. It’s an extremely visual and detailed read.
The visuals of the wilderness landscape, the weather patterns, his intricate efforts trying to start a fire, his experience when he eats something that makes him sick, all of these senses bring the reader deep into this wilderness world according to Brian’s point of view.
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Adding the five senses to your story will help create a visual experience for your readers. Readers will be able to hear, see, taste, touch and smell anything you want them to, when you take time to include these senses in your characters’ interactions.
What little things do you love to add within the tapestry of your stories?
Check out the rest of the What Makes a Great Story? series posts
Sara Beth Williams is a published author, an ACFW and CIPA member, wife, mother of two daughters, and dog mom of a lovable, spunky Pomeranian-Shih Tzu mix. Her third novel, Anchor My Heart, was a 2022 Selah Award finalist. She lives in Northern California and also works as a freelance publicist. When she’s not held hostage by the keyboard, she enjoys playing guitar, reading, and spending time with her family. Get to know her better on her website, www.sarabethwilliams.com
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