I’ve posted about the five senses which are so important to consider when writing – well, I think it is. I still have a slight problem with the very good advice – ‘show don’t tell‘ – I still sink into the telling mode rather than the showing mode. However, since I know I’m not good on this, I always go through my stories afterwards while editing, and, without going overboard, see if I can enhance what I’ve written by cutting out some of the telling and subtly inserting more showing.
When I was waffling on about the five senses, touch, smell, sight, sound, taste, I added another which is rather imposingly called thermoception – temperature!
In the article I read which first introduced me to this idea, there were other senses which we could use as writers –
- equillibrioception – the sense of balance; our characters could have balance impacting literally eg a wobbly bridge, or mentally by some emotional crisis – or the two adjacent to each other
- nociception is the sense of physical pain or discomfort – this can be actual or emotional (and sometimes emotional pain can be physical too!)
- proprioception – the ability to know where our limbs a, even if we are in the dark or can’t see them… I shall have to think how this could be incorporated into my writing – but it’s something I should consider!
Apparently nine senses have been identified – all of the above, plus an ‘itch/pressure’ sensation and also ‘animal senses’ – such as echo-location and ultra high frequency hearing.
Here is a link to a very helpful article about writers using senses:
http://thewritersaurus.com/2015/07/10/writing-with-the-9-senses/
A link to my books:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Lois+elsden
Lois Elsden 
I read an article recently about how some people ( in the USA ) had lost nearly all their equillibrioception sense because a medicine they had taken had destroyed the sensors in their ears with the result that they had a constant feeling that they were falling and so they did. What a dreadful thing to suffer from. They called themselves “The wobblers”. One woman was ‘cured’ by training the brain to use different inputs.That’s a whole new story!
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Good grief, how ghastly!
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I suffer from basophobia which is the fear of tripping and falling. Several years ago I had a bad fall and broke my leg in four places at work and almost died. My leg healed but the real damage was in my lower back which pinched a nerve and gave me drop foot and poor sensory perception in both feet. I rely very much on visual aids to keep my balance but recently lost most of my vision in my right eye due to a broken blood vessel but still manage. As bad as things get never say that it surely can’t get worse because it can.
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Oh dear… how awful… So sorry xx
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