This week: Our Senses Matter Edited by: Kit of House Lannister  
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The scent of vanilla, or freshly cut grass... what memories do they bring back for you? The songs of our youth, the food Granny used to cook, the texture of a favourite toy... our senses often intermingle with events that can make us smile, or laugh, or cry, years after.
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter, then, is about why our senses matter, in life and in our writing.
Kit of House Lannister |
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I’m moving next week. This newsletter is written as I sit surrounded by boxes and bags, filled with items to keep, items to donate to charity, and items that, sadly, are unlikely to find a new home. It’s amazing how much you accumulate over the years. Going through my stuff has brought back a memory or two, mostly happy, some a little sad.
There’s my old bunny plushie, for example. It was given to me the day I was born. It’s been with me for most of my life, but there was a time when it lived at my gran’s, and ever since it’s had a faint scent that reminds me of her. Every time I pick it up I give it a sniff. My gran passed away a few years ago, so the scent-memory is a mixture of happy times spent together, and the knowledge that we will not create further memories together. The bunny’s coming with me to my new home, of course.
I found a shirt that still smells of my other grandmother’s washing powder. I’ve gone through old pictures. Music CDs. Cook books. It made me think of how much our memories tend to intermingle with our senses. Certain songs, certain smells, textures, tastes bring back certain events – like I’ll always associate the song Paradise by the Dashboard Light with my high school dances, because it’d always be the final song of the night, and we’d dance and sing along and laugh and be! Those were happy times.
The scent of vanilla brings me back to the bakery section of a small local shop near where I grew up. I can still recall the route there from my old home, and the way that the street it sat on looked, with its many independent shops. That was before the big stores took over. I’m in a different country now, and I haven’t been back to that old neighbourhood in decades. My family tells me that much has changed.
I’m not a hoarder, but I like keeping some reminders of people and places that matter(ed) to me. I have a small collection of books, and stories, and poems written by Writing.Com authors, all signed, all memories of my not-insignificant amount of years spent on this site. I first joined in 2004, and people have come and gone – as have I, admittedly – but those physical works, and words, remain, and I’ll bring them with me to my next place, too.
I am certain that you have similar experiences – that intermingling of sense and memory – and though the content will differ, the sensation is universally understood. That makes it an important tool for us writers. The advice that tends to be given to new authors is that we must show, not tell, and these experiences can be a part of this.
We can come to understand a character and their past through the songs and sounds that they like or dislike, love or do their best to avoid. The scents that attract and repel them, the old photographs that they keep with them, the flavours that remind them of their favourite dishes of their youth – or the food a strict parent made them eat against their will – and the texture of their favourite toy, or blanket, or jumper that they snuggle up with for comfort.
I have to let go of a lot. I can’t avoid it. There are some 200 books going to a local bookstore. It’s not been easy, but there are some books that I’ll read once and am unlikely to pick up again, whilst there are others that are like old friends who I’ll turn to over and over again.
Perhaps, one day, I’ll write something that other people will want to keep with them. Perhaps you’ll write something that I’ll carry with me. It’s a nice thought, isn’t it, to be a part of other people’s lives through our words, our creations?
For now, I’ll keep packing, and sorting, and when next we meet I hope to be settled in my next spot to create memories from.
Kit of House Lannister
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Action/Adventure: October 12, 2022 Issue [#11607]
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