Friday 5 September 2014

Once more with a sense of feeling.

I love breaking rules. If I'm not bending the number of people to nominate on a blog challenge I'm writing for an extra few minutes of the daily prompts issued  by my writerly buddy Leah. Today I thought I'd just take the prompt and change it.

Out of the bag today we got:

Write a scene from the point of view of a rescue dog.

But no matter what I do this little brain of mine is coming up with this and nothing else, sorry Leah....At least the juices are flowing.


Sniff...Sweet, milky, cocoa...Chocolate!

Sniff...Metallic, urgh and that antiseptic smell like that horrid place where they give you shots...jewelry probably.

Sniff...Fresh, slightly floral...freshly washed clothes.

If I have to do this for much longer I'm going to have no sense of smell left. 

Sniff...oil. "Woof" That's right, this suitcase. Pretty sure I picked the right one again, for what the 500th time, Thor thought as he bounced in front of his handler indicating he had identified the case with the plastic c-4 inside.

"Good boy Thor." Grace praised, "Right again. One more field assessment and we'll be ready to join the Avengers." 

Thor laid down on the floor at the sound of the ridiculous name for the dog squad at airport security and put his paws over his eyes.

Grace giggled ruffling his ears, "I know, I know. And I'm not called Thor. Would it make it better if I changed my name to Loki?"

Thor jumped up and leaped at Grace, who being crouched down fell backwards with the force of his leap. He loved her smell, it was so subtle not over powering like some of the smells they tested them on here. Urgh the perfume was the worst. Her smell was small but colourful, it was soap and grass and treats and maple syrup all rolled into one. Except in the mornings when there was a little hint of mint too.

By the end of tomorrow they would be all that stood between the humans and the strange ones blowing them up in the sky....one more practice

view original here

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I have actually managed to get away a couple of times this summer with my beautiful family and the break gave me time to think. In particular about my writing. The thing people say to me a lot is that my writing is very visual. This is all well and good but I realised, with my toes curled into the cool and slightly damp grass that there are four other senses and why, especially when advised to as writers, am I not utilising them to my full potential. 

The way I figure is I need to start focusing on my other senses and make this come across in my writing. So while Leah is posting prompts I will try to focus on each of the senses in turn to work that muscle and see what happens. Today I tried smell but as it is my weakest sense in terms of writing I may try this one a second time. By all means join me on this challenge and see where your strengths and weaknesses are too.

6 comments:

  1. Loved this. I laughed out loud at the Avenger reference. And I like your idea of using the senses. Maybe I'll incorporate that into our prompts. I'm sure we could all use the exercise.

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    1. Remind me to be careful giving you ideas in the future ;-)

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  2. Such a great idea--smell is probably the last one I think of incorporating too, but it's likewise one of the most powerful. When I smell certain things they always bring immediate memories back. Love this.

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    1. I'm quite laxed with touch too.....Keep on working!!

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  3. I want a highly-trained police dog as a pet. I like Thor. Maybe he's available?

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Penny for your thoughts

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