Five Senses

The beginning of human knowledge is through the senses…”

--Flannery O’Connor

Using the five senses in your writing not only gives a description of the setting you have laid out before your reader but helps engage and immerse them into your world. As writers, we have often been taught this. And we have also been taught that senses come in a dominant order. Something like: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, and Touch.

But is that true for everyone?

According to research done by the Max Planck Institute, cultural factors need to be considered for which sense is more important to someone. For example, a culture that placed a higher value on a musical heritage would be able to communicate better in describing sounds. Or a group of hunters in Australia can better describe smell.

How can this knowledge help us writers?

A data dump of description using all five senses is never really a good idea but a scattering of bits and pieces of description throughout helps to keep the pace of the writing. But we can extend that.

Consider the cultural background of your POV character. Like above, if your character is musically inclined, a sense of sound would be a dominant sense over sight. If you have a character who is a Chef, taste is dominant. Blind, touch. Secret Service agent, sight.

When wanting to include all five senses in your writing think of who your characters are and their background and use their dominant sense. Make the use of the five senses work for your character and not just for your writing.