Do you ever really experience ...

[CharleyH]

Three days and counting (for those who know - EXCITED!!!!! ) and this last week has been spent tasting, touching, hearing, smelling, seeing, sensing every little detail about where I am. Why? Because it's about to change. I look in the sky and wonder if the same time next week I will look and see the same stars and feel the same things. I smell the brisk Canadian air and wonder if that same sharp bite will touch my nose where I am going or if the air is different. I have been wondering a lot of things lately, and quite frankly they aren't much different than the things we should be writing in our stories to make the fictive world and the sex all the more exciting:

TOUCH - TASTE - SOUND - SMELL - SIGHT

These may not be the things that bring a narrative together, but they sure as hell bring a hot fucking scene to life.

Thoughts?

 

[Alessia Brio]

 

[Stella_Omega]

many's the story I've had to take clippers to, to get rid of too much sensory input.

Where are you going, what are you doing?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

TOUCH - TASTE - SOUND - SMELL - SIGHT

Too many stories rely only on sight (if that) to get images across. It's their loss, and their readers'. The world is too rich to be reduced to one dimension.

(Those in the know are EXCITED TOO! )

 

[cloudy]

I think that while sensory descriptions can be overdone (and I'll admit, sometimes I tend to be sort of minimalist where that's concerned), it's still important to set a mood for a story. I tend to pick one sense (hearing, smell, whatever) and emphasize that one.

(excited for you, squirrel queen)

 

[past_perfect]

An experience would be incomplete for me, if I didn't take it in with all my senses - so it would be incomplete for me, when recounting it without all its facets. Mood and details stick in my mind, the rest is connecting the dots - could be my waning memory though.

 

[CharleyH]

Too many stories rely only on sight (if that) to get images across. It's their loss, and their readers'. The world is too rich to be reduced to one dimension.

(Those in the know are EXCITED TOO! )

Exactly, and we are at least, 3 dimensions if not more?.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Exactly, and we are at least, 3 dimensions if not more?.

At least 10!

 

[CharleyH]

At least 10!

You wanna split that in Quantum terms?

Back to the discussion - when one has sex, does one not give all senses? Why should an erotic or porn story deserve any less?

 

[shereads]

I was just listening to something about the relationship of memory and the senses. Smell is the sense that's most likely to evoke a remembered emotion if not the memory itself. As an example, they said people who were in NYC on 9/11 respond with sadness to the smell of smoke, even if they aren't conscious of making the association.

Smell seems to be the most neglected sense in fiction. Maybe because it's the most difficult to describe without a common reference. You could write paragraphs detailing the visual differences between two men, but smells are just as distinctive and too elusive to describe. The fragrance of soap on skin still warm from the shower, and the slightly acrid smell of a wool sweater damp from the rain, are familiar references. But sweat and body musk are just as distinctive and almost impossible to convey in words alone. Blindfolded, you could identify a lover by smell, versus a stranger who uses the same shampoo, wears the same baby powder, and has on a cotton shirt washed in the same detergent. But how would you describe the clues?

 

[CharleyH]

I was just listening to something about the relationship of memory and the senses. Smell is the sense that's most likely to evoke a remembered emotion if not the memory itself. As an example, they said people who were in NYC on 9/11 respond with sadness to the smell of smoke, even if they aren't conscious of making the association.

Smell seems to be the most neglected sense in fiction. Maybe because it's the most difficult to describe without a common reference. You could write paragraphs detailing the visual differences between two men, but smells are just as distinctive and too elusive to describe. The fragrance of soap on skin still warm from the shower, and the slightly acrid smell of a wool sweater damp from the rain, are familiar references. But sweat and body musk are just as distinctive and almost impossible to convey in words alone. Blindfolded, you could identify a lover by smell, versus a stranger who uses the same shampoo, wears the same baby powder, and has on a cotton shirt washed in the same detergent. But how would you describe the clues?

Quite frankly? You've already done an amazing job of description in my eyes, and you have barely made a paragraph describing - almost three men.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Too many stories rely only on sight (if that) to get images across. It's their loss, and their readers'. The world is too rich to be reduced to one dimension.

(Those in the know are EXCITED TOO! )

I don't remember what sex smells or tastes like, or I would go into those senses.

As it is I have to fill in some of the gaps for sight and touch as well.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

Would that we were dogs, capable of describing eloquently why bitch A smells so much better than bitch B

 

[CharleyH]

Would that we were dogs, capable of describing eloquently why bitch A smells so much better than bitch B

ROFLOL - I JUST love you LOL. Although I do think its because bitch B smells like fish and bitch A probably had some black russians.

 

[CharleyH]

what? Pussies? Damn - no one likes to write.

 

[ungenderless]

Yes I admit; I am very guilty of neglecting the sence of smell in my stories. But I'm learning...thanks for reminding me!

 

[rgraham666]

what? Pussies? Damn - no one likes to write.

I like to write. I just don't have much to say about it at the moment.

 

[Stella_Omega]

what? Pussies? Damn - no one likes to write.

I was cooking- and eating- a LOT of food. And now, I'm digesting it. I don't know about pussies- it's all about my stomach right now!

I like to mix up the senses in my stories- in one, the boy is wearing a hood, and all of his impressions are sound and smell primarily, touch comes a little later... His mistress, however, is gobbling him with her eyes.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

 

[Explaura]

hehehe.

I was just working on a story where i was describing the smell of a hippy apartment during a rainstorm. A rich and complex mix of smells.

 

[mismused]

delete

 

[FallingToFly]

Three days and counting (for those who know - EXCITED!!!!! ) and this last week has been spent tasting, touching, hearing, smelling, seeing, sensing every little detail about where I am. Why? Because it's about to change. I look in the sky and wonder if the same time next week I will look and see the same stars and feel the same things. I smell the brisk Canadian air and wonder if that same sharp bite will touch my nose where I am going or if the air is different. I have been wondering a lot of things lately, and quite frankly they aren't much different than the things we should be writing in our stories to make the fictive world and the sex all the more exciting:

TOUCH - TASTE - SOUND - SMELL - SIGHT

These may not be the things that bring a narrative together, but they sure as hell bring a hot fucking scene to life.

Thoughts?

Thought:

When I do that it's called "PURPLE PROSE."

But maybe there are differnt rules for different people.

 

[matriarch]

Three days and counting (for those who know - EXCITED!!!!! ) and this last week has been spent tasting, touching, hearing, smelling, seeing, sensing every little detail about where I am. Why? Because it's about to change. I look in the sky and wonder if the same time next week I will look and see the same stars and feel the same things. I smell the brisk Canadian air and wonder if that same sharp bite will touch my nose where I am going or if the air is different. I have been wondering a lot of things lately, and quite frankly they aren't much different than the things we should be writing in our stories to make the fictive world and the sex all the more exciting:

TOUCH - TASTE - SOUND - SMELL - SIGHT

These may not be the things that bring a narrative together, but they sure as hell bring a hot fucking scene to life.

Thoughts?

I'm with you on this one.

The last 12 months for me have been a time of contrasts - weather, food, social interchange, currency, cultural nuances, language, voices, accents, environment, food, plant life - I have loved every minute of it, but despite the change in my personal circumstances, I hope and believe I've remained the same essential person, but the experiences have added to the 'knowledge' stored inside me.

It has been, and still is, a time of great excitement, but curiously, one of calmness and 'being'.

Remember that old saying? 'Change is as good as a rest'? It's soooo true.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I try to infuse the senses in what I write, not just for sensuality but because I want let the reader know what the characters are experiencing as well.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Thought:

When I do that it's called "PURPLE PROSE."

But maybe there are differnt rules for different people.

And when I write it, it's PURPLE PROSE as well, and I edit most of it back out again.
When I wrote the blindfold scene, i didn't try to describe the sounds and smells, but I let them inform his experience. He couldn't watch people walk towards him, their voices came suddenly. He has good hearing, and could focus aurally on where they were- in front, to the sides. One woman was wearing too much perfume and it bothered him, and when her husband came up, he could smell her perfume on the man. That sort of thing. But those things were treated as simple sensory input- not as objects in themselves

or something like that....