a hands-on approach to immersive descriptions with anne marie

Colorado Gold Writers ConferenceOctober 15-17, 2021

10/16/21

1

COMMON SENSEa hands-on approach to immersive descriptions

withAnne Marie

2021 Colorado Gold Writers Conference1

#SQUADGOALS

v What is descriptive writing?

v Why is it important?

v What type of tools do we need?

2


10/16/21

2

#TOOLBOX🛠

v Description

\ di-ˈskrip-shən \ n: 1a. the act of describing; specifically : discourse

intended to give a mental image of something experienced

v Narrative

\ ˈner-ə-tiv \ n: 1b. a way of presenting or understanding a situation

or series of events that reflects and promotes a particular point of

view or set of values

3

v Setting

\ ˈse-tiŋ \ n: 3b. the time and place of the action of a literary, dramatic, or cinematic work

Ex: Hogwarts, The Night Circus, Downtown Abbey

v Character

\ ˈker-ik-tər \ n: 2a. one of the persons of a drama or novel

Ex: Lisbeth Salander, Heathcliff, Hermione Granger

#TOOLBOX 🧰

4


10/16/21

3

v Atmosphere

\ˈat-mə-ˌsfir\ n: 5a. the overall aesthetic effect of a work of art 5b. an intriguing or singular tone, effect, or appeal

Ex: Brenna Yovanoff, Stephen King, Emily Brontë

v Tone

\ˈtōn\ n: 3. a quality, feeling, or attitude expressed by the words that someone uses in speaking or writing

Ex: Helen Fielding, Ang Lee, Beyoncé

#TOOLBOX⛏

5

#TOOLBOX🧲v Metaphors\ ˈme-tə-ˌfȯr also -fər \ n: 1. a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money); broadly : figurative language

• “Baby you’re a firework” Firework by Katy Perry• “I got that sunshine in my pocket / Got that good soul in my feet” Can’t Stop the

Feeling by Justin Timberlake

v Similes\ ˈsi-mə-(ˌ)lē \ n: a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by likeor as

• “… her cheekbones as sharp as the pain of lost love.” Heart of the Moors pg 1 | Holly Black | Disney Press, 2019

• “We push and pull like a magnet do” Shape of You by Ed Sheeran

6


10/16/21

4

#TOOLBOX🗜v Synesthesia

\ ˌsi-nəs-ˈthē-zh(ē-)ə \ n: 1. a concomitant sensation; especially : a subjective

sensation or image of a sense (as of color) other than the one (as of sound)

being stimulated

• “What is Blue” by Mary O’Neill

7

#SCIENCE⚗v Other senses

• Space• Vestibular• Proprioception/Kinanesthesia (called the sixth sense)

• Time• Mostly in the cerebellum• Motor areas and basal ganglia may also be involved

• “Sixth” Sense• Extrasensory perception (ESP)• Intuition

8


10/16/21

5

#SCIENCE🔬v Perception

• All senses provide data which is processed by the brain• Humans do not sense the same due to this process

v Genres + Senses + Perception• Thrillers & Horror = sound (dialogue); pacing; building tension through

action/shared perceptions• Psychological thrillers = misperception• Mystery = sound (dialogue); effective mood• RomComs & Historical = visual cues• Fantasy/SciFi = all 5 (worldbuilding)• Literary = all 5 + description as metaphor• Verse = synesthesia

9

#SCIENCE💉v Differences between sexes

• Woman tend to have more acute senses than men (Brain Sex, 1992)• Women have a better sense of smell than men (PLOS One, 2014)• Women (35%) vs men (15%) supertasters (Physiol Behav, 1994)• More men are color blind than woman (NIH)

• Women carry the red/green color blindness gene on the X chromosome

• Men are 5x as likely to lose their hearing (John Hopkins study, 2008)• Men hear at lower frequencies than women (Medscape Womens Health, 1997 Oct)• Men pick up on sudden and rapidly changing movements faster, have a better

sense of direction*, and better spatial coordination (Biol Sex Differ, 2012)• Men have precise control of large muscle groups (Current Biology, 2016)

10


10/16/21

6

#SCIENCE🧬v Differences between age groups

• All senses dull as we age (PLOS One, 2018)• Teens hear at a higher frequency than adults (Scientific American, 2013)• Women of child-bearing age have a better sense of taste than teens or

menopausal women (Front Psychol, 2014)• Teens have a stronger link between reinforcement learning and episodic

memory (Neuron, 2016)• Teens have a better sense of direction than adults* (Sea Hero Quest, 2018)

11

#SCIENCE👩🔬v Hearing

• Hearing and touch are the only senses that are mechanosensations• Vibrations on hairs in inner ear are converted into nerve impulses

that the brain receives• Humans hear sounds between 20–20,000Hz (we feel lower Hz as

vibrations)• Lifestyle choices affect hearing (smoking, cardiovascular risk factors,

noise exposure)• 37% of children with minimal hearing loss fail at least one grade• Inner ear controls hearing and balance

12


10/16/21

7

#SOUND1Within seconds, I heard an interior door open, followed by the sound of

slow footsteps across stone, followed by the squeals of metal locks and

hinges protesting their use. Overhead, a seagull let out a shrill cry. I looked

up to see it gliding in my direction. Just before passing over my head, the

bird squawked as if a handful of feathers had been yanked from its skin. Its

body twisted violently, and it flew off in the opposite direction.

~ A Fierce and Subtle Poison, pg 57 | Samantha Mabry | Algonquin Young Readers, 2016

13

#SOUND2I go there every night as, gradually, the moon goes through

its cycle. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. Sometimes he comes

home and there’s no violence. On those nights, the silence

of the street is swollen. It’s scared and slippery as I wait for

something to happen.

~ I Am the Messenger, pg 43-44 | Markus Zusak| Alfred A. Knopf, 2002

14


10/16/21

8

#SCIENCE🧠v Sight

• Light is processed by the optic nerve and translated into neural impulses that are translated by the brain

• Retinas perceive everything as upside down until the brain processes things right side up.

• A person with one eye would see in 2D• Human eyes are made of over 2 million working parts• Your eyes can distinguish >10 million colors• Your iris has >250 unique characteristics while your fingerprint has

only 40

15

#SIGHT1👁The fires march in a perfect row down the aisle between the huts,

and I am struck by how perfectly parallel everything is. The more I

look, the more I see it. The structure and placement of the huts,

the way the hammocks are hung, even the cloth tied to the

poles—they’re all placed with meticulous care, maintaining

aesthetic balance as much as possible.~ Origin, pg 112 | Jessica Khoury | Razorbill, 2012

16


10/16/21

9

#SIGHT2👁The Fish Hut has wood-paneled walls like my grandparents’ den,

but there’s this kinda dark, greasy film on them. Grandma would

never let her walls look like that. A TV in the ceiling corner

always plays a news station, and Mr. Barry always yells at it.

Today he’s at the counter talking about, “Can’t believe a damn

thing come outta that fool’s mouth!”~ On the Come Up, pg 250 | Angie Thomas | Balzer + Bray, 2019

17

#SCIENCE👨🔬v Smell

• The brain receives signals after molecules in the air bind to sites on olfactory receptors

• Smell is intricately linked to taste and the amygdala & hippocampus (memory)

• Odors can accelerate puberty, attract mates, and alter menstrual cycles

• >90,000 genetic variations of olfactory receptors• Smell is the oldest sense in evolution• We can smell fear and disgust

18


10/16/21

10

#SMELL1👃I rush toward the center of Lagos, doing my best to ignore the

smell of sewage leaking from the slum streets. When I enter the

pastel-colored buildings of the merchant quarter, the odor shifts to

sweet bread and cinnamon, making my stomach growl. I brace

myself for the barter as the central exchange hums with the sounds

of endless trading.~ Children of Blood and Bone, pg 53 | Tomi Adeyemi | Henry Holt and Company, 2018

19

Cool fall air carries impossible smells:

deep-red blood and the smoke of just-

blown-out candles from my nightmare.~ Labyrinth Lost, pgs 18–19 | Zoraida Córdova | Sourcebooks, Inc., 2016

#SMELL2👃

20


10/16/21

11

#SCIENCE🥽v Taste

• Begins in the taste buds where chemicals are picked up and sent to your olfactory bulb and then to the brain

• Interacts with other factors, incl: smell, texture, and temperature• Five basic tastes: saltiness, sourness, sweetness, bitterness, and umami

(officially recognized in 2002)• By age 20, half your taste receptors are gone• Episodic memory is triggered when you eat sweet meals• Some taste preferences are genetic

21

#TASTE1👅She looks down at the mushrooms: their bright red caps spotted

with white. “Much of what we eat is bitter or has little taste. But

there is something in the sensation of it. It is like eating power.”

She stabs a bit onto her fork and pops it into her mouth. “And it

does not hurt that our cooks drown everything in butter.”

~ One Dark Throne, pg 89 | Kendare Blake | HarperTeen, 2017

22


10/16/21

12

#TASTE2👅Thinking wax, I anticipated tasting wax. I bit into the hard cube expecting it to

crumble between my teeth. …. . The sensations in my mouth had me enraptured.

Instead of crumbling, the dessert melted, coating my tongue with a cascade of

flavor. Sweet, bitter, nutty, and fruity tastes followed one another. Just when I

thought I could say it was one, I would taste them all again.

~ Poison Study, pg 102 | Maria V. Snyder | MIRA Books, 2005

23

#SCIENCE🌡v Touch

• A stimulus triggers activity in a sensory neuron, which then passes to the part of the brain that’s assigned to the proper body location

• First sense to develop in humans at about 8 weeks • Touch stimulates the brain to produce endorphins like stress-

reducing cortisol• We have more receptors for pain than any other sensation (warning

system), but also have pressure and temperature• Thermoreceptors stop working <41°F/5°C and >113°F/45°C• Smaller hands/fingers have a finer sense of touch

24


10/16/21

13

#TOUCH1🤝Encompassed by the blackness, I remembered white-hot flames stabbing at my

face. Though my hands had been tied to a post that dug sharply into my back, I

had recoiled from the onslaught. The fire had pulled away just before blistering

my skin, but my eyebrows and eyelashes had long since been singed off.

“Put the flames out!” a man’s rough voice had ordered. I blew at the blaze

through cracked lips. Dried by fire and fear, the moisture in my mouth had gone

and my teeth radiated heat as if they had been baked in an oven.

~ Poison Study, pg 1 | Maria V. Snyder| MIRA Books, 2005

25

#TOUCH2🤝Ice runs through me, knife slashes of cold up and down my body. His

fingertips leave searing trails of frost against my skin, and I no longer

know whether or not I’m dying by fire or by freeze. Inky darkness trails

up my arms and legs in whorls of black, and I can taste the sickly-sweet

bitterness of opium—or blood—on my tongue. It has never hurt like

this before, both inside and out. I shouldn’t want it. I shouldn’t crave it.

~ Shadowsong, pg 306 | S. Jae-Jones | Wednesday Books, 2017

26


10/16/21

14

#COMBOMOVE📖A rainy afternoon on the eastern slope of Montjuïc, looking at the sea through a forest of incomprehensible mausoleums, a forest of crosses and gravestones carved with skulls and faces of

children with no lips or eyes, a place that stank of death; and the silhouettes of about twenty adults that

I could remember only as black suits that were dripping with rain, and my father’s hand holding mine

too tightly, as if by doing so he could stop his weeping, while a priest’s empty words fell into that

marble tomb into which three faceless gravediggers pushed a gray coffin. The downpour slithered like

melted wax over the coffin, and I thought I heard my mother’s voice calling me from within, begging me to free her from that prison of stone and darkness, but all I could do was tremble and ask my father

in a voiceless whisper not to hold my hand so tight, tell him he was hurting me, and that smell of fresh earth, earth of ash and rain, was devouring everything, a smell of death and emptiness.

~ The Shadow of the Wind, pg 301 | Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves |

Penguin Books, 2004

27

#QUOTE👓“The goal of the artist is not to solve a

question irrefutably, but to force people to

love life in all its countless, inexhaustible manifestations.”

~ Leo Tolstoy

28


10/16/21

15

#QUOTE👓

“We write to taste life twice, in

the moment and in retrospect.”

~ Anaïs Nin

29

#OUTROSv Anecdotal evidence

v Which tool was most helpful?

v Which sense did you find most powerful?

v Will you use this in your writing?

30


10/16/21

16

#LEVELUP

v What is descriptive writing?

31

🖤 THANK YOU! 🖤

Anne Marie was born in Denver. She attended the University

of Colorado for a BA in English Literature, where she fell in

love with folklore and myths from around the world. She

adores languages, great white sharks, and the impossible. Her

work usually includes two of the three. She edited for a small

press for 2.5 years and read slush for a local agent.

32

a hands-on approach to immersive descriptions with anne marie

Documents