Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you on this Valentine’s Day. My post today is the first of a new series on using the five senses in writing.

As authors, it’s easy to overlook one or another (at least for me). But incorporating each of these elements—sight, feel, sound, taste, touch—makes a stronger story and helps to get into deep point of view. Today, I’ll begin with sight.

Sight is probably the easiest and most frequently used in writing. Done correctly, it can not only give the reader a vivid description of the setting, but it can also be used for foreshadowing. Consider the following from the book Music of The Deep by Elizabeth Hall:

From here, she had just enough height to look down on the main street of town, two blocks long, filled with various businesses of the tourist trade, or at least filled when the economy was good…