Food

Writing about a critique sandwich last week must have made me hungry. Today I have food on my mind. 

These sugary donuts make me want to dive into the box and eat one. (Or even two!) 

In real life, we can see, touch, taste, and smell these donuts. (We can maybe hear them if the frosting slides off in a big glop.)

In our writing, we have to see, touch, smell, and taste with words. How do we choose the right words, so that our readers long to step into our story and pop donuts into their mouths? 

Just as in real life, we use our five senses. 

Pick a donut from this box. Is it the braided cruller, or the donut with pink sprinkles?

What does it look like? The frosted donut was a pink, round rainbow with sprinkles. 

What does it feel like? The sticky frosting felt like a smooth river of caramel.

What does it smell like? The cloying scent of the fat, puffy, sugary donut overpowered the room. 

What does it taste like? The chocolate donut exploded in my mouth like cocoa fireworks. 

Did you notice I used similes and metaphors to describe the donuts? Making comparisons is a great way to tap into our senses. 

What does your donut look, feel, smell, and taste like? 

Smells and Similes Part 2

Last week I wrote about fall, and I still have this beautiful season on the brain--especially the smells of fall or autumn, or whatever you like to call it. 

As I wrote about before, smell can be one of the hardest things to describe in our writing. It can help to use a simile--a comparison with "like" or "as." 

For example.

• The squash soup smelled like a sunny day at the end of October. 

• The crisp air smelled like a newly ironed shirt. 

Try using a simile to describe the smell, scent, aroma, or odor of the following things:

• Dog breath
• The inside of your refrigerator
• A banana peel on the sidewalk
• An old pizza box
• Your cat's fur
• Chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven
• A baby's hair
• A rubber band found in the back of a drawer
• A bag of Halloween candy

Smell adds texture to our stories. Similes add new layers of meaning. Combine the two, and you'll give your readers a double dose of reading pleasure--no matter what the season. 

More About Color

It must be those fall leaves again, but I'm obsessed with color these days. 

I just finished reading The Light Beyond the Forest, the second in the fabulous King Arthur trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff, and she pays attention to color. 

Here's how Sutcliff brings the quest for the Holy Grail to life with fresh descriptions of gold and red and black. As I read, I wanted to join the knights on their adventures! 

new-fired gold

russet-brown

badger-streaked

crimson-striped

honey-comb golden houses

a cross as red as fresh-spilled blood on fresh-fallen snow

the proud fierce white of swan's wing or lightning flash

the blackness had a bloom on it like the bloom on a thundercloud

eyes as softly and deeply blue as nightshade flowers

the bulging black bellies of the storm clouds 

a mouth as silken red as harvest poppies

blazed red as though he were a tongue of flame

Try taking a piece of writing you're working on. Have you used colors in your descriptions? Can you make them more vivid by using an unusual color word, or by creating a simile? What does the color really look like? Not just gold, but new-fired gold or honey-comb golden houses. 

If your piece of writing doesn't include colors, try adding a flash here and there with your own inventive description. 

What about the green field in the photo above? It could be another boring landscape, or it could come to life as the blurred-green grass stretched through the haze. 

Be original with color! Have fun! 

Smells and Similes

Maybe it's the smell of wet leaves in the air, but I always think November has great smells.

Smells, scents, odors, aromas--whatever you want to call them--are one of the hardest things to describe when we write. Sometimes it's easier if we use a simile: a comparison using the words "like" or "as."

Try to describe what the following things smell like using a simile. Go wild with your imaginations!

I'll get us started.

• Dirty socks: Her dirty socks smelled like five-day-old fish.
• Salsa: Mom's homemade salsa smelled like the best vegetable garden on Earth.

Now you try some:

• Burning rubber
• Clean sheets
• Peanut butter
• The inside of our car
• The inside of my desk
• An eraser
• My dog's ears
• A tree trunk
• A rusty fence
• Already-been-chewed bubble gum

Have lots of fun with smells and similes!