Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
Sparks erupted from eye sockets as you set my bones ablaze. A pile of ribs and spine and femurs to fuel your bonfire. A sachet of herbs laid within my mouth sent a sweet scent rising into the darkening evening alongside the building flames. A call to crawl forth from among the bones of the earth.
When you found me at the flea market, you had on one of those ridiculous shoulder-mounted cameras. You probably uploaded your little cheap-market excursions online. Showing off your savviness. Your cleverness.
From my package, you read aloud, “Comes with knives.” Then you flipped me over, looking for the disclosed knives. “Hey, this one’s missing pieces,” you continued to the proprietor. “Can I get a discount?”
In the guise of your front door, I awaited your return home.
For weeks, I’d lurked there. You’d turned my limb shaped like your doorknob, not noticing the slight give to the bronze. You’d hung your Christmas wreath on the red door of my tongue, missing my fetid breath.
You’d missed my eye watching you from within the peephole.
Scorch marks and the shattered shells of holy water grenades littered the floor around us where you’d finally fallen. You lay cradled in my arms, your pulse…questionable. You’d lost your crusade.
I’d won. But I wished I hadn’t. Not yet.
Dusk comes earlier and earlier these days. Used to, the kids could play outside until almost 1 PM, but now they start trooping indoors at around 12:30. Another sixteen hours until daylight returns.
The cemetery hasn’t had a volunteer headstone cleaner in a long time, so I’m surprised to see you.
An obsessive amateur ghost hunter seeks a ghost caught on security footage in the company basement. But the ghost in question wants more fun than a mere budget hunt.
During the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite era, I thoroughly enjoyed the Lost in Blue games, wherein you play as one or two characters shipwrecked and marooned on a deserted island. You search the island for food and resources to make tools and improved weapons, all of which help your explore farther outward from your home base in your efforts to escape the island. Recently, I had an itch to get back into the resources management and survival aspect of Lost in Blue, so I went looking for something similar.
The closest I found was Windbound, an adventure RPG available on the Nintendo Switch, which to my eye looked like Lost in Blue but with sailing. So like The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, a sailing mechanic I found very fun for exploring. Windbound promised the ability to upgrade your ship, hang glide, and explore islands. There were negative reviews, but what games doesn't have those? I jumped in anyway.
That... that was a mistake. Let me explain why.
When I made a conscious choice early in my writing career to include all five senses in each short story or scene, no matter what, readers began telling me, “I really felt like I was there.” The shared experience of senses invites your readers into your narrative, drawing on memory to paint a vivid picture they can see, hear, touch, smell, and taste.
Readers know the swish of long grass against their shins, smoke tinging a morning red, a mouthwatering cake baking in an oven, the coppery flavor of a bitten tongue, the painful zing of an electric shock. Constant sensory input, telling them what’s going on. Nothing builds a fully three-dimensional story for your readers like filtering all five senses through your point-of-view character’s physical experiences.
However, utilizing the senses in your prose requires some finesse and some thinking outside the box. All five senses should appear in each of your scenes, but some are harder to incorporate than others. Here, I’ve outlined both the order of frequency that each sense typically appears in prose, as well as suggestions for digging deep into representing each included sense.
Little Blue Marble has accepted my short story "I Hope This Email Does Not Find You" for publication!
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