Happy First Day of Spring, Creatives! 

The sun is shining. But it’s 46 degrees outside. That’s more than sweater weather for me. 

I wish I was more outdoorsy but I’m not. I’m a true-blue creature of air-conditioned comfort. I do enjoy my screened lanai. Three-walls and a screen in between work for me. I can be close enough to nature without being right in the middle of insects, panthers, snakes, bees, and I have a covering from any sporadic rain. 

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy nature. I take pictures of trees and water all the time. And I absolutely love the beach. I even have one of those beach tents, that props up and gives instant shade from the heat. That’s how I enjoy it. 

I think I’d like the outside even more if I had someone to enjoy it with, but most days I stay inside, peeking out at nature for a moment, or tapping a toe in the pool, but always feeling blessed to slide back into the confines of a manufactured cooling system. 

At 46 degrees, I need a heater. In a few hours, the Florida temperature will be suitable for working on the lanai. Late winter and early spring are ideal times for indoor writers to enjoy the outdoors more so I’m excited. Recently, I’ve been taking my manuscript with me onto the lanai. I’m clarifying settings and adding details to many of my opening scenes. 

As a writer, I know it’s important to tell readers where the characters are, physically or mentally, in the story you’re writing. During a first draft, I tend to jump into a scene and hit all the high points, but during my edits, I take time to refine the details that place the reader in the moment with the characters. 

Being outside helps me digest all the sensory stuff. It’s as if being closer to nature heightens my senses to:

what I see, is it green grass or red mulch, a lizard scatting across the screen or a bird perched on a limb. 

what I smell, is it fresh mowed grass or a wet dog or flowers blooming. 

what I feel, is it warm and sticky from after a rain, or is there a consistent cool breeze. 

what I hear, are the bird competing with their songs, or is a car cruising down the street;

and what I taste. This one is hard to observe from my view on the lanai. In storytelling, it is best not to work too hard to make a sensory detail fit when it is irrelevant. For example, “Jenny’s mock mint julep tasted like watered down sprite” means little in a story about a girl on its own, unless you want to convey that Jenny is nit-picky about her drinks. But if the reader already knows that Jenny is a julep connoisseur and she is in the middle of solving a mystery that took place at the Derby, the reader may perceive the watered-down bourbon as a clue that SHOULD materialize later in story. 

Many of the literary greats did sensory details well, bringing us, their readers, into their novel ecospheres. I am reminded of how I felt reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë the first time. Even as a youth, I’ll never forget the foreboding darkness and sorrow. Do you remember the strange, dark moors which mimicked the strange, dark entanglements between Heathcliff, the Earnshaws, and the Lintons? The same with Belovedby Toni Morrison, and the violent trappings of Sweet Home in Kentucky that follow Sethe to a similar slavery at 124 in Ohio.

Here’s an opening scene from Beloved:

“Rainwater held onto pine needles for dear life and Beloved could not take her eyes off Sethe. Stooping to shape the damper, or snapping sticks for kindlin,  Sethe was licked, tasted, eaten by Beloved’s eyes. Like a familiar, she hovered, never leaving the room Sethe was in unless required and told to. She rose early in the dark to be there before she left for work. In lamplight, and over the flames of the cooking stove, their two shadows clashed and crossed on the ceiling light black swords.” 

My, oh my, that makes you feel something, right? 

Sensory details within our settings should make us feel something, almost like another character in our story. A carefully crafted sentence brings the setting to life in a way that should be relevant. As creative writers, we need to give the details the attention they deserve to evoke the mood and emotion necessary to keep our readers turning the page. This is true for other types of creatives too. I enjoy photography and design work, and both hinge on detail. 

So now that it is spring, what new developments should we expect to see, taste, touch, hear, and smell from you? 

Set your mind on good things for your creative work. Really. 

Leah