Describing a setting using all five senses

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I have done this for my stories before I even start writing them, so I can get a feel for what I am writing about, and expand on it from that point. Try it- describe what you see, smell, hear, taste, and feel.

See- that's easy. But describe it in detail.
Hear- there's usually a creaking or the sound of wind even in the quietest of rooms. Or maybe you can only hear yourself breathe.
Smell- that's pretty easy too.
Taste- sometimes it's hard to think of what you can taste in a place. The dust? Or maybe the last meal you had (ew... makes me want to brush my teeth).
Feel- pretend you are running your hand over a chair in the room. Or a stuccoed wall (etc., etc...).

Post what you write here!
"A people without history is like wind in the buffalo grass."

-Sioux Proverb




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I do that too...usually I just sit down and make a chart. I come up with all the different places in a chapter and then use the five senses. I also add a sort of 'sixth sense'--how my character would react.




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That's a really good idea-- it's just that sometimes when I do that exercise I don't have my character developed yet. I focus on the place first, and then the people it concerns. But I'll have to add that later.



You, who have all the passion for life that I have not? You, who can love and hate with a violence impossible to me? Why you are as elemental as fire and wind and wild things...
— Gone With the Wind