Your focal character(s) provide the filter through which a reader experiences your story. As individuals, we experience the world through what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch and how we feel or react to the sensory input we deal with constantly.

When you provide sensory input to your character—and thus to the reader—that character becomes more alive on the page. Your reader identifies with the character, which is essential to holding the reader in the story.

It takes only a sentence or two to anchor the character and the reader in the story by using sound, smell, touch, taste. Vision is equally important, since we actually take in about 80% of our environment through what we see, but this sense is usually the most overworked by a writer.

Include a few sensory details throughout, and your reader will lock in to what you’re saying.

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