Sensory Writing

How do we bring in readers into the experiences of a travel writer? Through sharing of the feelings and emotions of the writer. With some brevity and recount of thought processes, it's easy to bring in the reader into our world. Then again, thoughts and feelings are highly subjective. What's impactful to you might not be as significant to another...senses, however, are more agreeable across the board.

I was stuck writing the chapter on “Cape No. 7” for my Taiwan travel journal and had a writers' block. I started to doubt the value of narrating the places I've seen while trying to recollect the venues the movie had filmed at. If readers had seen the movie, they could have some recollections. But for those who didn't, how could I engage their senses? 

I then remembered Mo Yan and his literary style. His advice is to appeal to all the senses of the human, not just what we see. A wind can be described with the hollow-sounding echoes that tickled our ears, or the fragrance of the lavender it ferried over. 

I could probably use a similar sensory approach to this chapter by weaving in the soundtracks and descriptive lyrics along with it. And history of a place gives it its life...I should add that in too.

I should do more research and homework before writing this chapter. If I want to write about it as a fan, I might as well do all I can to introduce all the movie has to offer.