SEN S O R Y E S P E R IE N C E

IN IM A G I N A T IV E W R I TI NG
B Y: MS. GRA C E P INO TE
PREPARED
START UP
Wouldn’t be nice if a piece of work
will make you fell as if you are
involve in the text you are reading
and that you are a part of it?
And effective creative work gives a
clear mental picture to the reader. It
makes the reader imagine and feel
what is being read. This spices up
tye reading experience.
BOOST YOURSELF:
Sensory Details and Its Usage
From two pictures shown below, what is more appealing to you? WHY?
From statements below, choose the which is more appealing to you. Explain why.

A. Her hair is pretty and long.

B. Her shiny jet black hair reaches her waist.

A.Her perfume smells like chocolate but sweeter.

B.Her perfume smells good.
SENSORY IMAGERY IN CREATIVE WRITING: TYPES, EXAMPLES, AND WRITING TIPS

Sensory imagery is a literary device

writers employ to engage a reader’s
mind on multiple levels. Sensory
imagery explores the five human senses:
sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF SENSORY IMAGERY IN WRITING?

Most writing contains some level of imagery. One

reason fiction writers deal in significant concrete detail
is to permit the reader the pleasure of arriving at their
own judgments and conclusions through perceptual
clues. However, writers don’t have to always resort to
describing the way things look to create mental images.
Describing how something tastes, smells,
sounds, or feels—not just how it looks—makes
a passage or scene come alive. Using a
combination of imagery and sensory imagery
arms the reader with as much information as
possible and helps them create a more vivid
mental picture of what is happening.
 6 DIFFERENT TYPES OF SENSORY IMAGERY
A passage of writing can contain imagery that appeals to multiple senses. It is useful to break down sensory imagery by
sense

1. Visual imagery engages the sense of sight. This is

what you can see, and includes visual descriptions.
Physical attributes including color, size, shape,
lightness and darkness, shadows, and shade are all
part of visual imagery
2. Gustatory imagery engages the sense of taste.
This is what you can taste, and includes flavors. This
can include the five basic tastes—sweet, salty, bitter,
sour, and umami—as well as the textures and
sensations tied to the act of eating.
3. Tactile imagery engages the sense of touch. This
is what you can feel, and includes textures and the
many sensations a human being experiences
when touching something. Differences in
temperature is also a part of tactile imagery.
4. Auditory imagery engages the sense of hearing. This is the
way things sound. Literary devices such as onomatopoeia and
alliteration can help create sounds in writing.
5. Olfactory imagery engages the sense of smell. Scent is one of
the most direct triggers of memory and emotion, but can be difficult
to write about. Since taste and smell are so closely linked, you’ll
sometimes find the same words (such as “sweet”) used to describe
both. Simile is common in olfactory imagery, because it allows
writers to compare a particular scent to common smells like dirt,
grass, manure, or roses.
6. Kinesthetic imagery (a.k.a kinesthesia)
engages the feeling of movement. This can be
similar to tactile imagery but deals more with
full-body sensations, such as those experienced
during exercise. Rushing water, flapping wings,
and pounding hearts are all examples of
kinesthetic imagery.
 SAMPLE TEXTS WITH SENSORY DETAIL:

To kill a Mocking Bird, Harper lee

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

Pg.10, Creative Writing by: Arnold Jarn Ford G. Buhisan