Please add your answers in the comments. 

#WIPChat #SensorySuggestions topic is more of an examination of how we write, and can we more fully engage a readers' senses beyond looking at word on a flat surface? We want our readers immersed in our WIP world, not looking in on it through a window. Part 1 is about describing movement. Part 2 is a detailed look at how we share the 5 senses with our readers.

PART 1::::

Question 1 : Even the simplest act detailed in words can add action to your WIP. Do you write movements into your wip beyond "he walks" and "she talks"? How active is action?

 A:1 Very, very active. I write a lot of action into my scribbles but then again, I think I put too much detail into the stories. I like being able to paint a moving picture of a fight or dance.

Question 2 : Describe how detailed do you get when describing movement? And share how you block a scene, ie. plot/plan out the movements or actions in a sequence?

A 2 : VERY! I write a lot of very detailed fights and battles, plus dancing, diving, even cake decorating. Sometimes I do the action (baking), or walking around to choreograph them, or watching videos, or even playing video games to imagine how the movements would flow.

Question 3 : Is the environment behind the characters frozen and static? Does the world shift around the characters or is it moving with them? Would you describe a thousand fluttering wings or blowing leaves or ripples in the mirror pond or a drop of condensation siding down a glass?

 A3 : I admit I am totally guilty of making the background too detailed. In one scene, the snowflakes went from falling on the windscreen to one drifting in to land on the MC's hand, they were a metaphor for not being able to shut out the world after receiving bad news.

Question 4 : As a reader : How do you like reading descriptions of the gliding steps of a dance or the fury of flesh in conflict, or do you feel less is more?

 A4: I love immersion reading; I want to be there, to see, touch, taste, or smell what they do, to feel the wind, sun, or rain. I love stories with a moment of micro-fine detail then drift back to those 'living' it. Many times I've read a story and wished for more details

Question 5: Warm up for next week - The five senses interpret our world to us, but it can be frustrating to share what our MCs and SCs experience. Do you try to interpret the 5 senses for your readers to experience? Do you have a favorite or a combination you favor?

 A5: Absolutely. I try to write what I like to read. Taste is my favorite, but I also enjoy it when the senses combine to create an experience. The taste, smell, and texture(touch) of foods is my favorite sensory description, but I write a lot of bakers.

Question 6: Is there one of the five senses that you struggle to describe or never use? Do you just keep it short or do struggle through finding the right words to give the details?

#wipchat A6: Hearing! I default back to music sounds because of my background in singing/playing. For me sound is more of a touch sensory experience, as in feeling the vibration of it, or the emotional experience. I love music and sound, but I can't translate it into words well.

Bonus: What do you think the most overused action word or action descriptions are, and why?

#WIPChat bonus – SHRUG/ SHRUGGED Honestly, sometimes it seems like some MCs/SCs are doing this to the point they must look like they have a twitch.

"She BLINKED furiously/rapidly/hastily... her lashes moved like the flutter of a hummingbird's wings..." Recently read, the writer didn't know the poor MC had a condition called Tardive Dyskinesia and they have medicine for it.

#WIPChat #SensorySuggestions 1

PART 2::::::::::

#WIPChat #SensorySuggestions 2

Welcome to our discussion on the topic of the 5 senses : Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, and Touch; and how we use them in writing. Each sense question will ask for an example, either from a WIP or one on the fly to express your writing style.

Question 1 : Which of the five senses is your favorite to write and which is your least favorite, and why?

 A1 I write a lot of bakers and chefs. Taste is my favorite, but I also enjoy it when the senses combine to create an experience. Writing food as in taste, smell, and texture combinations is my favorite sensory description.

Question 2 : Sight – How detailed to you get when describing what a character sees or how a scene looks? Share an example.

 A2 I tend to be very visual almost poetic when describing certain scenes, I want my descriptions to enhance my scene. How things look is very important for my Oracles and Bakers but I am also very minimally visual for other characters, some just don't notice things.

Question 3 : Sound - How detailed to you get when describing what a character hears? Is it subtle, obvious, or ignored? Share an example.

 A3 I do have many who sing or play instruments so sound is important but I also have a character that gets kidnapped and taken to a realm where the shifting of sand and her voice is the only sound she hears other than her tormentor's voice for months.

Question 4 : Smell - How detailed to you get when describing what a character smells or the scents of an environment? Or does your world have vague background scents with the environments? Share an example.

 A4 Beyond my Bakers and Chefs with very detailed descriptions of smells (and taste too), I also write characters with enhanced senses of smell so they notice smells the humans don't.
My Aetherian Prince tells his human friend that his wife isn't sick, she's pregnant and they have to tell him to quit sniffing people.

Question 5 : Taste - How detailed to you get when describing what a character tastes? Do you describe the taste of something in combination with the texture and scent? Share an example.

A5-1 I get very creative with descriptions of flavors good and bad. I will even bake some of my ideas to make sure the flavors work and I have done some horrible ones which turned into comedic interactions.

 A5-2
Milady held out a mug. "I made you a pumpkin coffee, but I don't understand why you like the flavor."

The coffee smelled amazing after weeks without it. Too late he realized she said pumpkin coffee, the flavor hit his tongue and he gagged. "No... not pumpkin, pumpkin spice... you know, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, like for pie." 

Her response reminded him of just how far in the past he was.  

"What's pie?"

Question 6 : Touch - How detailed to you get when describing what a character feels touching them or touches? DO you describe things like texture and temperature? Share an example.

 A6 This is the one I struggle with, I write cold versus warm and smooth/ soft versus rough. I think I write the visual description of textures well but how they feel... I feel I just can't make the translation from the feeling to the page in words.

Question 7 : Have you ever written, or would you ever write a Character with a Sensory Disability? Blind, Deaf, Mute, Anapic (inability to feel touch), Ageusic (unable to taste) or Anosmic (unable to smell).

 A7 I have two MCs who have gone blind or partially blind. I also have a deaf and mute side character and have plans for a future Anapic character, it is a very dangerous condition. I think it is an interesting to explore these challenges, and study how people and their families overcome them.

MORE INFORMATION 

Ageusia is the loss of taste functions of the tongue, particularly the inability to detect sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and umami (meaning "pleasant/savory taste"). It is sometimes confused with anosmia – a loss of the sense of smell.

Anaphia: The inability to feel touch. From the Greek prefix an, not + Greek haphe, touch = inability to (feel) touch. A person with anaphia is said to be anaptic.

Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), also known as congenital analgesia, is one or more rare conditions in which a person cannot feel (and has never felt) physical pain. The conditions described here are separate from the HSAN group of disorders, which have more specific signs and cause.

Hypoesthesia is a common side effect of various medical conditions which manifests as a reduced sense of touch or sensation, or a partial loss of sensitivity to sensory stimuli. ... The inability to convey information from the body to the central nervous system will cause a total lack of feeling in the associated regions.