SENSORY DETAILS & EMOTIONAL MEMORY
(Of his wife on her deathbed). “I found myself, without being able to help
it, in a study of my beloved wife’s face, systematically noting the colors.” –
Edouard Manet
Remember those five senses?
Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell & Taste
Memory resides
in specific sensory details, sometimes referred to as emotional memory: what the
nerves and skin remember as well as how it appeared. In what particular way was
Mama beautiful? What did that angry neighborhood
bull dog sound like? If we can capture and name the particular smell of the wax
polish in that long-ago house, then other memories seem to follow.
For example, “Russell
Baker says he remembers very well the day of his father’s death. Although he was only five at the time, Baker
could tap into vivid details that have stayed with him. “I can still hear
people talking that day. I know what the
air smelled like. I know what people’s
faces looked like. How they were
dressed. What they were eating.
“If you find
yourself having trouble getting into a story you want to tell, it is always a
good idea to get up very close and start using your senses. You may have a good idea of the whole story
in your mind, but your vision of the whole may, in fact, be a hindrance to
finding the way in. Describing some of
the details, using your ears and eyes, calling up a smell that belongs to a
story, or reaching an imaginary hand back through time to touch a piece of
furniture, or the texture of a dress, or someone’s skin – these acts of memory
will serve you well. They can and should
be exercised over and over, not only to get you going, but also to push your
story deeper, pull your reader closer, and lift the heart of the story out of
obscurity into a sensory world that you and your readers can inhabit together.”
–Writing the Memoir by Judith
Barrington, pages 116 and 117.
Exercises --
Change the
following so that the reader can capture the essence. Use the senses.
The strawberries
were overly ripe.
The horn blared
loudly.
The afternoon
was warm.
Mother and Dad loved
each other. (You can use touch, taste,
sight.)
The reader
should to some degree get to know the characters through the sensory details that
you provide.
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