The Observational Writer in 3 Steps
STEP ONE: Write with Your Senses.
If you can see, hear, feel, taste, or smell it, write it down. Okay, so let’s say you can’t taste anything. Still, do you notice the texture? How does it feel on the tongue?
I do observational writing using my senses when I travel. I am more alert to everything around me. For instance, on my Birthday, we traveled to the Pacific Northwest. I’d never been there before, and while it bore similarities to other places, it was unlike any place I’d been to before.
Here are a couple of examples from 2 different trips:
The first was a town we passed on the way to Astoria, Oregon.
The town smelled like BBQ, dirty socks, and wet cardboard boxes.
The sun through the window warmed me while cold slipped against the back of my neck like a shadow.
The second is from a recent trip to Las Vegas, NV.
Desperation and years of stale cigarette smoke and old perfume lingering in the room of jazz standards sung alongside country songs, the singer…
