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06 July 2024

Posted by Robyn O'Mahony

Senses

On Saturday 6 July, we invited the Junior and Young Writers to join us on a deep dive of the senses through creative writing.

The groups got started with word searches based on the day’s theme, prompting them to consider the different language we can use when talking about senses. The community then took part in an immersive experience of their own senses – seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting – to inspire the way they write. 

Sue, the day’s facilitator, asked the groups to taste sultanas, cucumber, salt and red onion. Once they had tasted these things, she asked them to consider the way they felt to touch, the sound they made as they were consumed, and their smell. What do these things look like? Not just at first glance but following a considered inspection of their form. Then came considerations of room sprays, hand creams, books and a 1kg weight. What does the spray look like as it leaves the bottle? How can you define the sound of a book’s pages being flipped through?

Working together, both groups put the words that came to mind on sheets of paper marked with the five senses and were prompted to think beyond their initial reactions to come up with creative responses. The group also referred to certain seasons and celebrations, such as Christmas, when they smelt particular scents or tasted certain foods. This was an exercise in pushing our vocabularies, and we discussed why authors use the senses in their writing: to paint a picture for a reader and bring the story to life.

A Junior Writer likened the moving pages of a book to the flapping wings of a butterfly, while a Young Writer found the room spray to be a floral lullaby. Other words that came up during the sessions were ancient, reflective, waxy, like pebbles in the sea. It was fantastic to see the community bring out such evocative words, as well as weave in similes to describe the senses.

At the end of both sessions, we invited the groups to write a scene based on the senses. For the Juniors, the prompt was a character eating a food for the first time in many years. For the Young Writers, it was entering a kitchen. We shared 15 minutes of quiet time to free-write, and then shared our creative outputs. We talked, too, about how we can learn from each other through listening, and agreed that this community is a true source of inspiration.

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