Who hasn’t stroked the soft fur of a purring cat or gently touched the cheek of a sleeping baby? Your characters need to experience the sense of touch as well. When they do, your readers will, too, and this will greatly improve your writing.
Speaking of babies, did you know that the sense of touch is believed to be the first sense to develop in the womb? Pretty cool, huh?
Pamela’s Prompt: Stop and Touch
For this exercise, I took a walk around my block. (The weather has finally cooled off here in South Texas, so I didn’t have to feel sticky sweat dripping into my eyes!)
Here are some things I touched along my walk:
- The rough bark of a tree.
- A dry, crinkly leaf.
- The fur on my neighbor’s dog. He happily ran to greet me from his yard! Then, I felt his cold, wet nose as he nudged my arm.
- The sun’s warmth on my cheek.
- A pebble that got caught in my sandal.
- A prickly pear cactus.
- A padded envelope, containing a purchase from Etsy (my happy mail!), that I retrieved from my front porch.
Once you have a good list, take one of the things you touched and write a sentence or two, using as much sensory detail as possible.
For example, instead of:
“I touched a prickly pear cactus.”
I might write:
“I yanked my hand back from the cactus and noticed a pinprick of blood on my index finger where one of the spines had punctured my skin like a hypodermic needle.”
Touch is such an important part of our lives as humans that there is a whole field of psychology devoted to it. Many books have been written, lectures given, and seminars presented about how physical touch can calm us when we are anxious, make us feel more loved, increase our sense of well-being, or even give us a boost of confidence.
That’s pretty heady stuff, but I know that human touch is something that I know I personally crave. I’m one of those people who has had a really hard time during the COVID-19 pandemic, because I’m a hugger and I’m also someone who was raised to shake hands when greeting someone for the first time.
Here’s a thought: What if one of your characters could no longer feel anything or felt everything in the exact opposite of the rest of the world? What conflict might that create in your plot? How might that change the interactions he or she has with other characters?
Happy writing!