On Saturday 1st June 2019, H G Wells Short Story Competition held a writing workshop entitled “Writing with the Senses”, run by Karen Ince.
It was a highly experiential event, exploring the use of three senses – smell, hearing and touch – and the ways they can be used to enrich descriptions in text.
First, the participants were treated to three different soundtracks, and given an opportunity to note down ways of describing each sound. Then they were given time to write a short piece inspired by the sounds they had heard.
This was followed by an exploration of smell. The brave writers were provided with envelopes containing a variety of different (smelly) substances, and again had an opportunity to experiment with ways of describing the different smells, as well as writing something inspired by one or more of the individual smells they had experienced.
Finally, their courage was tested again as they were invited to place their hands inside envelopes containing unknown materials in order to experience texture without seeing what the item was. Once more this gave rise to both descriptive and imaginative texts.
At the end of the morning, the comments received included, “inspirational,” “very thought-provoking,” “I found myself writing in a more emotional way than usual,” “I’ve got a lot of great ideas to go away and work on,” and was summed up by one participant as “this is, quite simply, what I call fun!”
Writing for the Senses was a workshop in association with the 2019 HG Wells Short Story Competition. You can enter the 2019 competition until Monday 8th July at https://hgwellscompetition.com/enter-the-competition/