Advising students to use the five senses to improve creative writing is an old strategy. But how can we more explicitly teach students to produce something like this:
From a distance the tree appeared like an old, stooped man, stumbling through the woods to scare the children. Up closer, it was something much different and kinder (looks like). It’s weathered, rough surface was covered with lichen and what looked like the barnacles that clung to underside of a ship (feels like). From deep inside came a low, deep creaking whenever the wind blew (sounds like).
Sentence starters are one effective strategy. Below are a range that can get students on their way to providing 2-3 sensory descriptions of any object or place which might feature in their story (download these starters as a handout here: Sensory description sentence starters):
Time (past):
It reminded you of…
The smell of…reminded you of…
It looked as if it had once been…
It seemed as if it has once been used for…
The…of the…were clearly the result of…
Once it had been…
At one time, [it] had…
In the past, [it] had clearly…
Someone once had…which now…
Time (now):
Now, it was like…
Now, in the present, it no longer…
For the moment, it…
Whereas once it would have…now…
Appearance:
From a distance [it] appeared…but close up you could see…
As you approached [it]….it no longer seemed…, but was…
What appeared as….from a distance, was actually…
The first thing you noticed about…
Its most distinctive feature was…because…
On the (end, tip, bottom, etc…) of…was a…which…
At the very centre of…was…
In the light of…it seemed…
Texture:
The surface of…was…
Covering part of…was…
On the surface of…was…
The outside of the…was…
Its exterior could only be described as…
Marking parts of it were…which…
Peppered over it were…
Smell:
Even from far away it gave off a powerful smell of…
Approaching it, you immediately smelt…
A strong smell of…arose from…
[It] exuded a fragrance of…
[It exuded a slight fragrance of…
[It] gave off a powerful smell of…
[It] had no smell but that of…
Faintly, it smelled of…
Sound:
It made the faintest…
From deep within, came…
Around it seemed to be the sound of…
When you moved…it made a sound of…
The (creaking, rustling, whirring etc…) of…told you that…
It made no other sound but…
As you…it (rustled, creaked, groaned etc…) and…
Feel (emotion):
Looking at it, you couldn’t help but feel…
Approaching it, you immediately felt…
You were left with the overall feeling that…
What struck you most about…was…
Immediately, you were overcome by the sense that…
Gradually, you were overcome by the sense that…
One way we can get students to practise using these starters is to give them ‘still life writing’ activities. In this process, we give the whole class or individual students pictures of places and objects which they need to describe in 3-5 sentences. We can give students pictures of old shoes, houses, trees, bikes, playgrounds etc…which we can source simply by doing a Google image source for ‘interesting old…’.
Good afternoon. Many thanks 🙂 Excellent article.