Helping Authors Bring a Setting Alive

Using all five senses in creating a scene will make it more vivid. Here are tips for helping authors use the five senses in the setting of a book rather than relying solely on visual descriptions.

How to Use the 5 Senses When Writing the Setting of a Book

Authors often visualize their stories as if they were movies unreeling in front of them. This is unfortunate because it often means they focus heavily on the visual when the world of narrative offers so much more!

Namely, the other four senses—sound, smell, taste, and touch.

foundations of storytelling for writers.

Using the FIVE Senses: Setting of a Book

Sight alone does not make a reader feel immersed in a story. When authors do this, the setting often feels as if it were merely a backdrop to the unfolding story events and not an actual place where the characters interact.

My basic rule of thumb, and a place to start, is that every page of the manuscript should have a sense other than sight on it. Bells should jingle, and trash cans reek. The skin should prickle, and mouths should pucker.

Often, the challenge is that authors lack the vocabulary or language of the senses, so it can be helpful to provide resources for them. WritersWrite.co.za has some great resources on describing all five senses. Here’s one.

We can also encourage the author to show the characters reacting to their senses: “The stench of putrefying flesh turned my stomach” versus “It smelled disgusting.” This is a matter of showing the character in the setting, not just posing in front of it.


Tips for Editors & Writers

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    Back when I edited a custom magazine, I assigned and edited a package about an upcoming event (similar to a business conference) which included profiles of some of the attendees and speakers, a how-to-get ready checklist, a travel piece on side trips to take at the location, a celebration of highlights of the event over…

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  • Using information products to boost your bottom line

    People like to pretend that you can write a book and make passive income from it.  You can’t.  If you write a book and stick it up on Amazon and never do anything to promote or market it, you’re not going to sell any copies. Okay, you might sell three or four to people who…

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  • The Fine Art of Copyediting Fiction

    When copyediting fiction, it’s common to run up against issues that pit author preference against standard editing approaches. For example, in a story I wrote some years ago, the main character’s neighbor is referred to as “3-B” as that is her apartment number and the MC doesn’t know her name. Fine. She can be referred…

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