Breathing Life into your Writing… One Sense at a
Time
“SHOW, NOT TELL”
 What in the world does this mean when a teacher
asks you to do this in your writing?
Example:
Mrs. Batchelor is celebrating.
SENSORY DETAILS:
 Descriptive words relating to taste, touch, smell, sight,
hear
 See if you can spot sensory details in the following
passage…
From The Hunger Games
“I reach Glimmer just as the cannon fires. The tracker
jackers have vanished. This girl, so breathtakingly
beautiful in her golden dress the night of the
interviews, is unrecognizable. Her features eradicated,
her limbs three times their normal size. The stinger
lumps have begun to explode, spewing putrid green
liquid around her. I have to break several of what used
to be her fingers with a stone to free the bow. The
sheath of arrows is pinned under her back. I try to roll
over her body by pulling on one arm, but the flesh
disintegrates in my hands and I fall back on the
ground” (Collins, 2008, p. 192).
Today’s Writing Accomplishment:
 We’re going to work on creating a story
using the 5 senses.
STEP 1: Bag O’Senses
 Directions: Please open the bag and remove the contents,
placing them in the center of your table.
 Inside your bag are various items representing the five
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
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
senses:
postcards of art/locations and pictures = sight
fabric cloth squares of varying tactile experiences = touch
lotions/hand sanitizers = smell
hard candies = taste
Music = hear
 Greece, New Orleans, Mexico, Maui, The Congo, swing, jazz,
classical
FOCUS
 Notice how you gravitate toward a few items and
experience them with one or many senses.
 Let this trigger a creative story in your mind.
 What is physically happening in your story? Use
concrete details.
 Refer to your five senses.
 Write for 11 minutes and 23 seconds.
STEP 2: Barney’s Motto – “Sharing
is caring!”
 Share your writing at your table.
 Group members, your job is to 1) listen and then 2)
ask questions about this story.
 Help the writer develop more background ideas to
expand the story.
5 Sense-Check Red = Sight
 Blue = Hearing
 Orange = Smell
 Green = Touch
 Purple = Taste
 Directions: Read through your writing, underlining the
specific details with the color that corresponds to the
appropriate sense.
 Example: A detail about chocolate chip cookies baking in the
oven would be underlined in orange because it appeals to the
sense of smell, while a detail about the melted chocolate chips
in someone’s mouth would be underlined in purple.
 When you are finished, you may notice that your paper is
heavily slanted toward the color that corresponds to sight.
Spend about 5-10 minutes now expanding on the other
sensory details in your writing. Make details in the margins
of your writing that you’d like to add.
YOU JUST REVISED YOUR
WRITING!