Post #13 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Written by: Promptly Portland
Yesterday I took a walk on a pocket-sized beach, the ocean roaring in my ears, the wind rushing past my cheeks, the fraternal scents of salt water and seaweed in my nostrils, the gritty sand beneath my bare feet, brown freckled pelicans gliding impossibly close to the water. When I returned to the car, I realized that all my senses seemed to be alive, rejuvenated by my walk.
Usually our minds are busy with the everyday necessities of life and we don’t slow down to consider how much our five senses contribute, even in the background, to our experiences and specifically to the memory of people, places, and events. We need to decelerate the pace of life every once in a while to fully appreciate the richness of our five senses. An awareness of the five senses, used in our writing, will enrich your stories.
To help you, here’s today’s writing prompt:
1. Find 10 minutes when you can excuse yourself from daily demands. If you can get outside for those 10 minutes, then stop and look around you. If you don’t have time or the weather doesn’t permit being outside, you can use the room where you are.
2. Be sure to make your presence in the area different. If it is a room where you usually sit, then stand for the 10 minutes. If you usually stand, do just the opposite. If you can go outside into an area you usually just walk through, then stand silently. Well, you get the idea.
3. Release all the “I should be doing…” from your mind. Instead, have your mind pay attention to even small details. What does the scene look like? Are there scents in the air? What about sounds? Touch something near you. What does it feel like? Anything nearby that you can taste? A cup of tea? Coffee? A favorite piece of chocolate? Perhaps just remember your most recent meal and remember a specific taste. Did you eat near this area?
4. Let your senses come to life. Heighten your perceptions of everything around you. Look in all directions, take a few steps forward or backward. Surround yourself in the sensory world that we often ignore.
5. After your 10 minutes, return to a desk and quickly write from your memory what you tasted, touched, heard, smelled, and saw. Write them in this specific order. So often we let sight be our dominant sense and it seems to crowd out the others. Draw on your memory as you write. Each of our five senses has a specific location in the brain. Call on your memory to write five brief, but richly detailed descriptions of what each of the senses perceived.
Next time you are working on your life story, remember that you can help set the scene for your readers by sharing the sensory details of the specific story you are telling. It will bring your vignette to life.
Until next time,
-Promptly Portland
