Mar 14, 2014

Sensory Overload by Sue MacKay

As I sit here wondering what to blog about I can hear the bellbirds, thrushes, finches, tuis and sparrows chirping away in the trees. Occasionally a weka or quail adds it's call to the cacophony.



Hearing. It is one of the five senses we as authors are extolled to use in our stories. It is my most sensitive one. It is what I first use on waking, listening for the wind or rain, for vehicles on the road that give me an idea of the time - there goes the builder, the stock truck - and for the birds. Many of my memories of places I've visited are encased in sound. Like the crows on the roof in Vancouver, the horns on the streets in Hanoi, waves crashing on the beach of the West Coast. In romance we listen for the quickening breath, the softened voice, the innuendo.

My second strongest sense is smell. Although having just set off the smoke alarms for burning the toast I wish my nose had acted a little quicker. My chooks have my nose twitching in a bad way but I love the smell of freshly dug carrots or the scent of flowers in a vase on the table. I drive the family crazy with comments like "something stinks in here" and then going on a forage, often coming up empty handed. I blame my mother. I swear she could smell a hidden bag of lollies from a hundred metres. Then there was the night she came home and immediately said, "Good, did someone make fudge?' I "found" it in the laundry cupboard where I'd hidden it from my brother. Perfume. Can't go without it. And heroes always get a whiff of apples, or citrus or some exotic scent.

Taste is great. All those wonderful flavours of so many different foods. Yum. I love cooking and especially love eating, and yet this isn't how I remember places or events as much as by sound and smell. Isn't it fun to have characters falling further in love over a delicious feast?


The eyes. I could not go without seeing the sky, the sun or even the rain. Sight is also the way to read people, their body language, the clothes they wear, their facial expressions. It's the same for our heroes and heroines. People often fall for someone at that first glance. Something about a face, an expression, the eyes. Then there are those who see that sexy body and then they feel it.

The fifth sense - touch. Soft, hard. Smooth, rippled. I'm talking muscles of course.


Imagine walking along the beach without being able to smell the salt, hear the waves, feel the sand in your toes, taste the freshest air, and see the hunky males strutting their stuff. Nah, I can't.

 
Which senses are you aware of the most?

9 comments:

  1. Sue, what a feast! I think we don't appreciate our senses enough. I love those moments of utter relaxation, especially after hard physical work, where you find yourself hearing the sounds you often don't take time to notice, and feel the sun on your skin or the soft ripple of a breeze. Just recently I had to rest my eyes for a while (a few days) and was suddenly aware of how much of my life is based around sight. My work, my pleasure (reading, of course) and the joy of looking out to green trees and blue sky, or for that matter pounding rain. I wouldn't like to be without any of them.

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  2. Annie, I think you're right. We do take these senses for granted. Our life revolves around them really. I can't imagine how that was for you not to be able to use your eyes as you're used to. Hope all is well now.

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  3. Sue

    I too agree that we often take them for granted but I would never like to be without my sight I see a lot by looking areound you get a feel for lots of things then add in the other senses and you feel a lot

    Have Fun
    Helen

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    1. Helen, while I'd hate to have to chose which sense was the most important I think sight is probably up there. At least if you see something you can imagine the scent or feel or sound.

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  4. I used to have a heightened sense of smell like your mum, Sue. It once saved us from coming home to a burnt out shell of a house because as we left the house for a day out I was positive that I could smell burning. No one else could and it took a serious amount of searching before we found a smouldering electric cable behind a powerpoint! The family never doubted my sense of smell again, but it has deteriorated in recent years.

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    1. Wow, Claire, that was close. Most people would've given up if the source of that smell wasn't found in a short time. Glad you found it in time.

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  5. Lovely post, Sue. I also love the sense of smell and think it is really powerful when included in a story.

    Wow, Claire, that's an incredible sense of smell story!

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  6. Sue, I think walking on the beach with all of your senses attuned to the environment is one of life's greatest pleasures. :-)

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  7. Hey, Sue - great description of how a beach walk really does get all your senses humming! I think sense of smell is a powerful memory trigger - slightly over-cooked toast with a hit of wodd smoke on a frosty morning always reminds me of my granddad doing his toast on a long fork in an open door of the kitchen range.

    Gosh, Claire, thank goodness for your super sensitive nose!

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