I know that I said “six senses” but I was half joking when I say that. For the six sense, I will be using my magic system for that, but I would still need help in that matter.
Moving onto the topic at hand, I want to get better at using the five senses when I write my stories, especially when I am describing a location. Still, I want to get better at using the five senses.
This thread is in correlation to the white room syndrome or talking head syndrome thread I made.
Do you know ways where I can get better at using the senses?
It’s pretty tricky but you can try to improve by doing exercises! You could try finding images online of beautiful (or not so beautiful) spaces, and try writing down what it’s like. You could even try writing a description of a space you’ve been IRL, even if it’s just your room. How does the air smell? Is something cooking, or has there been a storm recently that’s made the air smell different to normal? If there’s furniture in the room, how does that feel? Does the character sit on a soft, plush chair, or run their fingers against dusty, strong wood?
Honestly, I was thinking about doing an exercise for such a thing.
I was going to take a location and write down what is going on in the location. I would also make up a character and how they are dealing with the location.
I hope that makes sense because I’m getting brain fog. LOL!
exercise 1:
challenge yourself to write 250- 500 words using only one sense ie only things you can see
exercise 2:
get a dice each number on the dice corresponds to one of the senses. every 2-4 lines or 5-7 sentences (whichever is easier) roll the dice again and write in accordance to that number and only with that sense for that many lines
exercise 3:
write without any commentary (its not addressing senses directly but)
exercise 4
take something you have that has ‘talking head syndrome’ or ‘white room syndrome’ rewrite it using senses or variations of each of the exercises above
Oh, I did an exercise for this years ago to improve my own!
What I did was imagine myself in places that I have been before, or, what you could do since I know you have trouble seeing in your mind’s eye is try to describe all the five senses in a place you go or a thing you do.
Say you go to the library. What do you hear? What does the table feel like when you touch it? What smells are there? What do you see around you? (and don’t just say books. Tell me about the dust, too. The little things.)
But taste, well, you can’t exactly do taste in a library. Don’t eat books XD
Say you’re eating at home. What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you taste? What do you see? (you can describe the sky or the garden)
The more you do it, the more you’ll get used to describing and, hopefully, you’ll be able to do it in the fictional world, too.
So, instead of my character in the fictional world, I would first imagine myself in the fictional world. Idk if that would work for you, but you could try.
I believe my problem is that I not only suffer from aphantasia but when I do think about my stories, I am able to see things very clearly and vividly. The issue is that it happens when I am unable to write down what I see in my mind. But as I am writing, I can’t see anything. I can only see things when I am not writing. I don’t know why I work in such a weird way, but my brain is bizarre.
Still, I want to try some ways of getting better at descriptions for my own sake. I want to get better at writing.
So, what can I do to help myself get better at this?
I just read up about a few writers who are on their creative journey with aphantasia and… nothing useful The only helpful-looking tip was writing down everything that looks or sounds interesting irl to get used to describing things in general.
Maybe you can do that? Try to get used to describing things in real life? Or things in real life that you would also need in your story? Maybe you need a castle. So, you look up a castle and now, there you have it, a real castle photograph to look at as you describe it.
If you still don’t know how to describe a castle, I would recommend blogs and documentaries of famous locations because those will give you lots of great descriptions and visuals.
technically thats not aphantasia then. its a working memory problem.
right now your brain can’t hold both the image in the mind and the word you need to write at the same time. if it was truly aphantasia it would happen even you are just thinking about your story.
so one reduce the load on your working memory. instead of trying to see the whole story and write it all. do one detail at a time.
if even that much is too much or its still drawing blank.
then simply let yourself sit and imagine the story visually / other senses without writing. don’t stop imagining until you physically feel the sensations in your body- so not based off of what is in your head. then start writing,
Job is to get the story written. Edits is to hone the craft.
When you get onto the next book, you improve naturally on what you worked on in edits…maybe not enough to make it feel like progress, but it’s still the act of refining your work that improves your work.
I’m not prone to losing a lot of information or ideas on a story, but it does happen. But: I have hit moments where plans won’t work, so what I’ve come to accept is I can’t make everything work. Because of this, I need to learn the difference between sufficient, in this story, and not good enough. And that’s a moving scale, for each stroy.
You could try finding images online of beautiful (or not so beautiful) spaces, and try writing down what it’s like. You could even try writing a description of a space you’ve been IRL, even if it’s just your room. How does the air smell? Is something cooking, or has there been a storm recently that’s made the air smell different to normal? If there’s furniture in the room, how does that feel? Does the character sit on a soft, plush chair, or run their fingers against dusty, strong wood?
The only helpful-looking tip was writing down everything that looks or sounds interesting irl to get used to describing things in general.