![\"Rome](\"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Rome.jpg\" "\\"Rome\\"")
<\/a>Rome<\/p><\/div>\n
I have this theory about sensory detail and reading. Since normal intake of our world reaches our brains through our five senses, if a writer can describe things clearly enough that a reader sees, smells, hears, tastes and feels them, then the words on the page have co-opted the brain.\u00a0 It\u2019s a polite form of mind control, and if you\u2019ve ever been jarred out of a book because some one calls you to dinner, or to feed the baby, then you know what I mean.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve done this to students when we\u2019re studying setting.\u00a0 I say, imagine you\u2019re walking barefoot down a wide public beach in the day time, with the colorful beach umbrellas, the regular crash of the waves coming in, the smell of coconut sun lotion, and the seagull with the orange beak flying overhead crying out a squawk.\u00a0 Someone hands you a chocolate ice cream cone that tastes half melted already.<\/p>\n
Now imagine the same beach at night, and you\u2019re walking towards a bonfire.\u00a0 The people are gone except for a few who are laughing, silhouetted by the fire, and there\u2019s just enough moonlight that you can see the edge of foam where the waves come in.\u00a0 The wet sand is cold under your feet, and as you get closer, you can smell wood smoke.\u00a0\u00a0 Someone hands you a marshmallow, perfectly toasted, and you have to lick when it sticks to your fingers.<\/p>\n
Now imagine the same beach at night, but now it\u2019s winter and the fire is gone.\u00a0 So are the people, and your coat isn\u2019t quite warm enough. \u00a0You still don’t have shoes, so you hurry over the sand. \u00a0The waves are louder now, with a sucking sound, and the foam edge of the water is barely visible.\u00a0 Then you look up to see it\u2019s starting to snow big, fat flakes that glow blue in the moonlight.<\/p>\n
If it works, you\u2019re seeing snow over a beach, by moonlight.\u00a0 Never mind that it should be impossible to see snow by moonlight if there are enough clouds for it to snow.<\/p>\n
How does this work?\u00a0 I just max out the sensory details in the descriptions.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of my favorite, favorite parts of writing.<\/p>\n
Today, I’m at a point in Book 3 where I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I can see the scene Gaia sees, and hear it and feel it, so if I try hard enough, I can just go there with her and let time go by, and a story will unfold. \u00a0It\u2019s a first draft.\u00a0 It\u2019s supposed to be fun, so here goes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My lunch apple today was just gorgeous, glowing and powerful, so much that I had to just stare at it before I could cut into it. \u00a0I am surrounded by beauty. I have this theory about sensory detail and reading. Since normal intake of our world reaches our brains through our five senses, if a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birthmarked","category-writing","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587\/revisions\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}