CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

Taste of Life and See That It Is Good

Blog Prompt November 2, 2018





“Did you know that butterflies taste with their feet? Do you think taste is an under-utilized sense in writing? Reflect on how taste can be better utilized in your writing to enhance a scene.”





Definitely I should learn to utilize the sense of taste more effectively. Five senses, after all, means five, not two (visual and auditory), not three (plus tactility), not four (add olfactory, another sense that troubles me in reality as well as does taste).


:

Five means:


sight


sound


scent


touch (or skin-perception)


taste.

As I worked through the October NaNo Prep, I had occasion to write a Contest Round including all five senses in the setting piece. I did fine with the visual and auditory. I managed, with some effort, the tactility and the olfactory. Then I counted back, and whoa, no taste. Taste?!! Who uses that? Well, writers do, apparently. Decent writers, anyway. (smile) When I had finished, I had the character scenting one type of flower, seeing a different type of flower, and tasting something entirely different. (what was it?)





So as I return to my NaNo writing this early AM, I am going to ponder how to write in a sense of gustatory accomplishment. Wait-- the accomplishment will be mine, if I successfully achieve teaching my characters to TASTE.





““We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”--Anais Nin