Novel Kicks Writing Room: The Sensory Snapshot

Hello and welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room.

Today’s exercise is called The Sensory Snapshot.

This exercise will hopefully help you create vivid, immersive descriptions without complex plotting.

First, choose your moment – 

Pick a simple, everyday moment you remember well. Keep it as small and ordinary as you can. It doesn’t have to be interesting, just write whatever comes to mind. For example,

• Sitting in a café
• Walking into your bedroom
• Standing at a bus stop
• Eating your favourite snack
• Waiting in a doctor’s office
• Playing with a pet

Now, before writing anything else, think about the following questions (you don’t have to answer all of them, just what you remember) –

• What did you see? (colours, what was happening)
• What sounds did you hear?
• What did it smell like?
• How did things feel? (hot, cold, soft, scratchy)
• Was there anything you tasted?

Finally, write your moment –

Write 300-500 words describing your moment. That’s roughly 1-2 pages.

Here are some guidelines if you don’t know how to begin:

• Describe what happened using your five senses
• Don’t worry about dialogue or what characters were thinking
• Don’t worry about being “literary” or fancy
• Write naturally, like you’re describing it to a friend (you could always dictate rather than write)
• If you get stuck, just keep writing—rough is fine!

You could always start using the following lines – 

• “The coffee shop was warm and…”
• “When I opened the door, I smelled…”
• “The fabric of the couch felt…”

As always, I hope you have fun.

by

Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.