#28: Crafting Immersive Experiences: Enriching Your Stories with the Five Senses

Imagine transforming your stories from mere words on a page to a sensory-rich journey that captivates and lingers in the minds of readers. That's exactly what we're unpacking today – the secret to harnessing the five senses in your writing to create a deeply immersive experience. With anecdotes and examples, I guide you through the process of crafting vivid scenes that engage sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. This approach isn't just for writers; it's a vital tool for anyone looking to leave a legacy of memories that are as textured as life itself.

During our exploration, I share insights on how to effectively plan your stories and perform sensory exploration. By using visualization techniques, writers can create a 'sensory menu' that can be drawn upon to enrich their narratives. Whether you start with a first draft and layer in sensory details afterward or use your senses as the building blocks of your story from the get-go, the strategies discussed will ensure your writing process is both efficient and evocative. This methodical approach to storytelling not only heightens reader engagement but also aids in preserving the nuances of our histories.

As we wrap up this sensory adventure, the conversation turns to the transformative power of sensory imagery in connecting us to our collective past.  By sharing the podcast and participating in this storytelling journey, you're helping to keep alive the art of crafting narratives that resonate across generations. So, let's continue to celebrate our shared heritage through the power of vivid, sensory-rich stories.

This group is for people who are in the process of writing their own personal stories to preserve their past for their future. It’s a place to come for story writing inspiration, weekly writing-related events and memes, and continued support from me and the other members.

Join like-minded people and get your stories down on paper for your future generations!

Transcript

melissa: 0:00

Have you ever noticed? There's certain writers who can just bring you into a moment and make you feel like you are back in time, right there with them. Or maybe it's not even an actual moment in time, maybe it's a fictional story, but because it feels so real, you are there with them. One of the devices they're using to bring you to that moment is sensory imagery. Sensory imagery is a literary device that writers use to engage their reader's minds on several levels and bring you into the writing. It can take someone from flat and factual writing to a more experiential and compelling experience. In today's episode, I'm going to be taking you through three ways you can use to add five senses to your writing that will add depth and detail and engage your reader's interest. So let's go over and listen.

melissa: 1:03

Welcome to the Preserve your Past podcast, where we'll explore all things related to the creative process of writing your stories for future generations. I'm your host, melissa Ann Kitchum, author, teacher, speaker and coach. I believe that your personal history is a priceless gift for family, friends and generations to come, whether you consider yourself a writer or not. We are discussing the topics that help with every step of the process, like how to mine for the juiciest story ideas, or how to refine them into polished final drafts you'll be proud to share. Let's face it sure your stories can be overwhelming, but I've got you covered. We all have a lifetime of memories to share, so why not save yours to pass along? Let me help you leave your lasting legacy. Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Preserve your Past podcast.

melissa: 2:06

This week's episode we are going to be talking about three ways that you can use your five senses to engage your reader's interest and add depth and detail to your writing. We're going to be looking at this in a literary device way today, which is a lot of fun and a little different. Let's talk about what using your five senses is technically in writing. We call that sensory imagery. That's a literary device that writers use. It's used to engage the reader's minds and several levels to pull them into just not being flat, but excite your reader and awaken your reader and use different parts of their brain. Using sensory imagery can help us take our writing from flat and factual to a more experiential and compelling experience. Sensory imagery also can explore, or is about exploring, our five human senses sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. When we put that in our writing. That's how we can wring your writing to life. I want you to think about how you can use your sensory imagery to build a specific sensory experience for your readers that will help them better relate to your story. The stronger the use of the five senses, the greater chance that your reader will place themselves in the story. Today we're going to talk about three ways that you can use sensory imagery when you are writing your stories. The first way is going to be two parts, because the first way is that you are going to use those five senses to bring your story alive. In just writing your story, what are ways that we can use your five senses to bring that story to be a more enriching, a more exciting story and again bring it alive? The first way that I want you to think about this because I think we can come at it from both parts.

melissa: 4:15

There are some people who like to plan ahead and do some pre-writing work. There are other people that know there are a lot of ideas coming out. They want to get it on the paper and they're going to come back to that writing and think about how they can make that writing come to life and be more real, depending on the story you're writing. Is there a lot of facts? Is there a lot of information? Do you need to just get it out of your head first, because you're not really sure what the story is going to be? Are you at a point where you know what the story is? But you need to get there. You need to go back there and be in the moment again to write even just that first draft.

melissa: 4:56

Let's say you're going to start with the senses and then write the story. You want to go back into that moment and think about all the details that you can before you write your story. Just doing this, having that pre-work, means that you're pulling out all those details, you're really thinking about it consciously and then you are able to be present and connect those as you write the story. So, as you're writing the story, those become intentionally could drive what the story is right. So you're starting to do this. The step that you would take is to start with your prewriting by listing out all the senses that were part of that memory or story. So you know how I love a good visualization and we do this a lot in our first step of our writing.

melissa: 5:51

And I have you pause and I have you close your eyes and I have you go back in time. That's what I want you to do when you're using your senses to create your story. I want you to close your eyes, put yourself in that moment and take time in that memory, in that moment, to think about what did you see at that time, what were the sites? And this is where you can go around the room, right, because you're not just writing to get the story down beginning, middle, end You're actually in the moment where the story happened. You're closing your eyes, you're looking around and maybe there's things happening oh, my gosh, I forgot that that was there and that this would have been here at this time or this would have been here at this time. So think about what you saw and then go back into that memory. Actually, I would say, once you do each sense to then record that right. So do your site, what did you see?

melissa: 6:52

Take that moment to do that almost meditative scan in your mind and then write it all down and go back and look around some more and write it all down, and then I want you to go to another sense, so hearing like what did you hear? Or what did they hear? Because, remember, we might not be writing our own story, this might be a memory or this might be a story that we researched and have been told. And now we're thinking of what would they have seen? And then the part two would be what would they have heard or what did you hear? So you're closing your eyes and you're putting yourself in that story and you're listening for the sounds. Was this story outside? Was it near the water? Was it inside? Was it summertime or wintertime, spring? Were the windows open? Were there birds singing, or was it wintertime and there was a fire crackling or whatever it is? What can you hear? Is it someone baking and all of the clanking of the dishes and the metal of the measuring cups? What can you hear? And write that all down and then go through that same experience, thinking of what did you smell or what did they smell, and again you're kind of sitting there, you're really closing your eyes.

melissa: 8:18

I think helps you open up to that one sense, focus on just that sense. I think starting with sight is good to kind of get that behind you and think about the story. It's natural and then to go to the other ones that we tend to forget about that smelling, that feeling. What was the air temperature? Once we get to feeling, was there a texture that you could feel? Was there taste? Was this about a recipe or food, or was this something that was a taste in the air or something, depending on what that memory is about?

melissa: 8:54

I want you to scan your memory and just write out your story, or write out those. Scan your memory, write out those senses, and the next step will be to go and write out the story on a story map using the bulleted lists by sense that you got when you did that other exploring. So, after you explored the scene with all your senses, it's time to begin writing the story. And now you have this menu, these menus, these lists of all these sensory experiences that you can pull into that story. So that's an example of starting with your five senses, writing that sensory menu and then taking from that menu those details as you write your story, because now, when you go into that story to write it, your body is gonna be fully there with all your senses.

melissa: 9:50

Now, another way to do this that's not right or wrong, but might be different, because maybe you have a story that you have that you just need to get, like, the details down and remembered. Or someone's telling you what the story was, or it's a bunch of memories and you're not sure the order and so you're really focused on just getting the story down. Whether you're trying to think of what's the best way to tell the story, which point of view are you gonna use, what's the most compelling order for the story to happen. If you're really focused on that, get the story down first, write that story out as a first draft, Just focus on telling the story and getting it all out.

melissa: 10:28

And then step two would be go back to your writing and using those five senses, and again I would go one at a time, I would reread your story and I would look for where are the places that you can add sight, what you saw, what they saw, what are the ways you can describe that. Maybe you talked about it, but what were the colors, what was the lighting, what were the views? And then do the same thing again with sounds what was happening in the background, what was happening in the foreground, what did the voices sound like? And then taste, touch and smell again. So you're in your story, you're going through. If there's a spot for a taste, add it in. If there's textures and touch and warmth or coolness, temperature, whatever you can put fabrics, skin, warmth, all of that touch and then smell Again. Is that the smell of the air? Is it the smell of flowers or cut grass or baking or something that's happening in that story that you would have written about the story and you would have written about the memory and you know, maybe like the cooking, for example, a recipe story we know we're gonna be smelling things and we're gonna be tasting things.

melissa: 11:56

But there's also a visual element. When I think about baking with my Bubba, who's my maternal Polish grandmother, I can picture all of my senses because it was such a sensory experience for me and I think part of that is the age I was at right, I was very, very young, but I can go back to that and I can think of the smells I can think of in her kitchen. I can smell the pies baking, I can smell the dish soap and all that. So when you're thinking about those stories, going back into it and adding those not so obvious senses is very important. So I invite you to try those Again.

melissa: 12:42

Number one is using your five senses to bring your story alive. So that's your purpose. But you can do it either by starting with the senses and writing the story, or starting with the story and then adding your five senses, and, again, no right or wrong Really depends on how you're feeling about your story. Let's talk about tip number two, the third way you can use sensory imagery when writing your stories, and I think this one's a really fun one because, again, I talked about my Bubba and I think, as I had talked and started thinking about that and I actually use a childhood memory in my book Bridging the Past and Future, or Bridging your Past and Future, I use a story about growing up in my house in Orleans and the lemon fresh kitchen smell of my mom cooking. But one of my other strong, strong, strong memories when I think of using the five senses is my Bubba. And so, aside from a moment of a story, I want you to use the five senses to create a sensory biography of a loved one.

melissa: 13:58

Now, this one, I think, would be really cool to either do as a written story or to maybe put a photo of that person there and do it as a visual, beautiful, handwritten, maybe even maps out, lines out with some details surrounding them, of the five senses describing them. So, again, it could be a written, full written final project that would be a product of you writing a narrative story, or it could be a visual with a photo or picture of that person and those sensory memories and sensory language, words and phrases around them. So when I look at and we can do this with people in our past, but we can also do this with people who are with us right, I can go back to my Bubba and I can literally think back to the senses of being at her house. And so when I close my eyes and I think of Bubba, I think of the smell of lilacs outside. I think of the smell of ivory soap in the bathroom. I think of the taste of cinnamon and sugar, because we used to make these little cinnamon rollups with the leftover pie dough, which brings me to the taste and smell of fresh baked blueberry pie. That bring me right to her blueberry pie out of the oven.

melissa: 17:23

Bubba Sounds that make me think of Bubba or Red Sox game on a transistor radio. I mean I could be anywhere and I hear that and I'm like I want to close my eyes and lie down on a nice, quite crisp white pillowcase and take my nap, because that's what I used to do. So the transistor radio with the Red Sox game and some birds chirping will literally put me down to sleep. Still, and if I think about feelings, the first feeling that comes to mind, actually when I think of her, is I think about.

melissa: 17:58

She had a blue couch. That was this shiny material but it had texture. It was bumpy, it was I don't even know how to explain it but it was a shiny thread and it had texture and I remember rubbing my hands on and over that couch because it just had this very unique texture. I may go down a rabbit hole of investigating couches from like the 1960s and 50s and see if I can find this couch fabric, but I can feel that. So that's funny, because when I talk about feeling, oftentimes, and with her, I think about warm sunshine, because I talked about napping in the summertime. I think about the crisp sheets, because she had this room and it had the bedspread was white or pink, with a little toughs. I'll look up what that is, I'm not gonna hold you back. Oh my gosh, I can't even think what it's called, but the sheets were always crisp and clean and there was a gentle breeze coming through the window, because I would be taking my naps in summertime and then, when I think about the sights, I would be thinking about soft lighting in that room, the white ruffled curtains blowing. I can think about this picture that hung over that blue couch. That was this idyllic hillside with sheep and trees and little water, rivers and little ponds. That hung above her blue couch in her living room.

melissa: 19:36

So just that alone, a biography of all the things that make you think of your loved one. Again, it doesn't even have to be a full written and paragraph narrative form, fully baked, like fully done story I was gonna say fully baked, but we were talking about fresh baked eye but even just that person's name or a picture of them, and then all of those with your five senses around Beautiful, beautiful way to remember a person, and it can be a finished product just with those words around them. For family members, it could be an activity that you all do together to remember that person. Everyone gets to put in their words and their things. I love, love, love that. I can't wait to try that. So that's number two. Number two is using your five senses to create a sensory biography of a loved one.

melissa: 20:29

The last one is to use your five senses and to explore a memory and a photo, because I love popping myself into pictures and I think photos help us when we're writing, especially our own personal memories of childhood and things like that. Those of us of a certain age that do not have, do not have Facebook to go to, but we have to go to the actual books of photos that hopefully we have some, because that's another thing that I know is a treasure, because keeping old photos is a lot, it's a challenge, and I know lots of people who have lost them or they've gotten damaged. Some of ours have gotten damaged. So going through that, even with newer photos, and exploring those photos in with your five senses Again, it could be in the idea of writing a story about what's happening in the photo, or it could just be you have the picture in the middle and you're putting those senses around it, line by line, just to have them there to bring you back into the past, and it's such a great way to connect with the past and go back to that moment.

melissa: 21:45

So for this one, you would choose that photo and I would say take a blank sheet of paper and either remember we talked about mapping putting each sense in a bubble and then having lines going out of each of the senses, or you could divide it into five columns or, however you wanted to do it five squares on the paper. I know five is hard, you can't like fold it into five easily, unless you're a teacher and you had to do that a lot, which I did for the five days of the week spelling. But anyways, with your five senses, you will then look at the photo, have your blank paper next to you and, while in the moment, go through, put yourself in there again, closing your eyes, thinking about that or just literally mesmerizing yourself with that photo. Right, getting into that photo and taking a moment first to just explore it with each sense and then write about those. So what do you see? And go beyond just the people in the front, what's in the background, what's on the bookshelves?

melissa: 22:49

There's a picture I'm thinking of from Christmas that I had of me standing up holding a stocking and I started looking at the bookshelf and it just brought back so many memories of the books that we had in that bookshelf and just different things that I had forgotten about, even little knickknacks that my mom had much later on as I was older, that I can see in that picture. So, taking time to explore what you can see, thinking about what you would have smelled, what things felt like in that picture, what can you taste, what can you hear, there's so many ways that you can go through and explore that picture with your five senses and again it could take it into an actual completed story. Or it might just be a way that you are going to explore the photo and kind of have it as your own experience, or even creating some kind of piece of art of your own, with the picture in the middle and your own writing on the outside, and again I believe like that could be an amazing activity to do with others. So those are three ways that I want you to think about Now, remembering that the purpose of this is just even in your other writing. Take a moment to think about what are the five senses? How can you add some sensory imagery to any of your writing to strengthen it? But doing it in this way, in a very intentional way, is going to make it even more. Be more, pop, right, gonna pop even more when you're being super intentional about it and then, as you go through each of these and get more experienced with using this and practice more with it, and it's going to become natural. But I always love to think about different techniques as I go through and either revise my writing or, as I'm needing a creative outlet, to get started with my writing, because this Is a nice way also to play with whether it's a picture or a memory without having to think about what's the exact story I'm telling, and then tell the story.

melissa: 24:59

Once you get all those ideas down, you might even, from looking at the pictures in that third part, you might even find a story right. There might be something in that picture that reminds you of a childhood memory that you could write about, like the encyclopedias that were on that bookshelf or one of the knickknacks that my mother might have had. Some memories might come around that or the tradition of why I was standing with my stocking, or my puppy dog that was in the picture with me, snoopy, and my memories of when he ran away and we thought he was gone forever. And I'm telling you those are. I had to be three or four when that happened and I can clearly remember it Because I think a lot of our sensory memories are the stronger parts of our stories and our memories are our senses even more, because we didn't always know why things are happening, but we could feel them and see them and smell them when we were younger. So bringing that into our adult life and our adult writing is going to only improve our stories.

melissa: 26:01

So I invite you to try out those. I would love for you to tell me which one of these ideas that you think would help your writing better or appeals to you the most. If you try it, I would love to hear about how it works for you. I also want to tell you that I am really appreciative of everyone following the podcast. We are going to be approaching 30 episodes, but we're also getting to approach a thousand A thousand downloads, and one way you can help me to get that is to share this podcast with your friends and family, because this is family oriented. It's about our family stories. Share this with the storyteller in your family. Share this with someone you know that loves genealogy, ancestry or just telling their family stories, anyone who loves to listen to other people's stories. Maybe they're not going to be the storytellers, but you know, we have lots of interviews and I Inter.

melissa: 27:10

I like to insert story throughout our Podcast. So if you know people that love a good story, that want to write their story or would just enjoy this podcast, I would really appreciate it If you could share that with them also, wherever you are listening to your podcast, if you could put in a review. The more reviews we could get, the more that we can reach people out there and we're getting close. So share, listen and I'd love some feedback. If you have any thoughts and ideas of what you want to hear or what you need to learn about, please message me at Melissa at Melissa and kitchencom.

melissa: 27:50

Remember you can always find this podcast on the blog at Melissa and kitchencom or it's like blog and it's going to be a similar title that you see the podcast on and we are now working on creating our YouTube videos for each of our podcasts. Those get put up a little bit after the podcast, so there may be a delay, but if we are telling you during the Podcast that there is a YouTube video, then you'll be able to go and find that. Today we did record our video and any of the tools and tips will be in the blog. Any links to external resources that I mentioned will also be there and in our story notes for this podcast. So Again, thank you so much and here's to writing your powerful personal story.

melissa: 28:46

Wasn't that a fun episode. I enjoyed our conversation so much and if you would like to continue our conversation, be sure to follow this podcast and share with friends. This helps share the mission of preserving the past with stories. Want more tips, tools and inspiration? Head over to Melissa and kitchencom and, as always, let's get writing your powerful personal stories.