This past weekend I went to a writer's group and had a wonderful workshop on the eleven senses. Marilyn Kelly--a historical romance writer gave this workshop and I thought it was something we should all keep in mind.
Generally we only think of our five senses: sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell, but according to Marilyn we actually have eleven! On top of the ones already listed we have: Time, Temperature, Pain, balance, motion, and Direction.
And in order to have a sensual (meaning senses, not sexual) scenes we should try to incorporate most if not all of these senses if we can.
In order to put an example to what I mean: I have an excercise I'd like you to do with me. We're going to take an object. Say a feather. Now write down a few things about that object: Write down a sensory description, what emotions they evoke and what body language you think when you see it. Then when you're done with that, I want you to write a sentence or two about it using those things you just wrote down.
For example (this is what I did at the workshop.):
Embarrassment burned her cheeks and she froze, afraid to move even an inch, as he glided the soft, wispy feather down the delicate skin of her forearm as she teetered on her tiptoes still frozen in the spot she'd had as she reached for her favorite book on the high shelf in front of her. Her breath hitched and her stomach fluttered as she caught the minty scent of his breath when he murmured in her ear.
Obviously, this isn't the best, since it was thought of on the fly, but it should give you a jumping off point. So, go ahead, try it out. I'd love to see your sentences in the comments.
