Writing with the Five Senses:

Sight, Smell, Sound, Touch, and Taste

Writing is thinking made visible. If you do not think it, you cannot write it.  Great writers are great thinkers as well as voracious readers. They are detectives, paying close attention to details. They are lawyers, collecting information and shaping it into a solid, defensible argument. Their hands are as steady and specific as heart surgeons. And like a documentary photographer, they capture what is true—and make you believe the imaginary is real.

   “Show me, don’t tell me.”

Every High School English Teacher

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

Anton Chekhov

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it’s raining, but the feel of being rained upon.”

E.L. Doctorow