The five senses provide a unique mechanism for writers to connect to their readers in a very deep manner. When penning a story don't just tell readers what is going on. A much better avenue to travel is to descriptively show them. This venture draws readers into your story. And, I'm not just talking about blue skies and green grass either.

A good technique to discover when incorporating sight into your story is to pause, look around, and make a list of what you see. For instance, there may be a man walking down the sidewalk. Now, look closer and notice what he is doing. Does he have any tattoos? Is he staring down at the ground as he approaches? Or, does he exude confidence?

Okay. Congratulations! These are the obvious. Now, examine him deeper. What do you see? Better still, what do you not see? A good goal here is to make your readers feel like they are on the sidewalk with your passerby. This makes them perceive they are in the middle of the action. Isn't that what real writing is all about?

Descriptiveness is a key factor in writing to the senses. Picturesque writing provides the story's texture. In turn, vivid adjectives, and active verbs, help create sensory depictions. Another point to consider is evocative characteristics help form a story's dominant impression, or the basic theme the writer wants to convey from its construction.

When attempting to place the quality into your story, sight is perhaps the trickiest sense to delve into. Try to focus on a handful of details. Don't attempt to paint the whole picture. Because if you do, invariably, you will end up telling not showing. Therefore, it is much better to use the best details you can discover and leave the mediocre ones in the dust where they belong.

Sight is the most frequently used sense in creative writing. However, sight should equip your reader to learn something about the story. Now, a little more about those pesky adjectives I mentioned earlier that seem to creep up from out of nowhere when you write sight into a scene. Only use adjectives that help describe something different about an object. Additionally, to make your story much more interesting, have your character react to what they observe.

Example: a dusty pink table propped up by a stool because one leg is missing

Everyone knows most tables are brown. Coloring the table pink makes it unique and adds more flair to your story. Why is it pink? Who painted the table? So on and so forth.

Example: a pumpkin-toned feline with a snarl on its face

Did you pick up on a "pumpkin-toned" feline means the cat is an orange tabby?

Now, I am going to contradict what I said about adjectives, because, in reality, it is always best if you can explain the noun (person, place, or thing) without using them. Do you recall that pink table from the first example? Of course you do. Well, eliminate the word "dusty" and try something like bumped into it, threw it across the room in anger, or even replaced the missing leg.

Example: Tom removed the stool that supported the table and repaired it.

This act makes the reader wonder "Why would he do that?"

Perhaps there's going to be a party. There are any number of avenues this one simple gesture by your character could direct your storyline and add more interest to it on the reader's part.

Future portions of this series will examine the other four senses of taste, smell, touch, and hearing individually as they pertain to writing to the senses. So, stay tuned for the next edition.