Some writing advice

There’s plenty of great writing advice out there, so I thought I’d share some of the best tricks I’ve heard.  This one comes courtesy of David Farland.  Anyone who was fortunate enough to have met him knows he was a remarkable author, fantastic mentor and all around decent human being.

We’ve all heard someone say “appeal to multiple senses”.  That’s good advice, but the K.A.V. cycle goes a bit deeper.  This technique breaks down sensory details into three main camps.  Kenetic, Audio, and Visual.  It’s important to note here that Kenetic details can involve anything a character feels either physically or emotionally.  After all, we all know powerful emotions can feel as real as physical sensations.

Anyhow, these are the main senses you want to appeal to as an author, and you’ll want to give each one proper attention by adding powerful details.  To see how you’re doing, review your manuscript and place a “K” “A” or “V” next to each sensory detail in a particular chapter, then add up the total instances where each type was used.  Make there’s an even spread of each to ensure you’re not ignoring one of your senses.

It’s also a good idea to use these senses in order, since it’s a very natural way for our brains to process details.  For example, imagine you’re walking through the woods.  You feel nervous (kinetic), hear growing behind you (audio), then turn to see an angry bear (visual).  Naturally, you can fudge the order if it makes sense for the narrative, but it’s certainly something to consider.

Of course, there’s other senses as well to mention in between your K.A.V. cycles.  Taste and Smell are good to remember, especially smells since they can be so very evocative.   Most people also possess some sense of the passage of time.  Don’t forget to mention lighting either.  While this falls under visual details, we all know how much good or bad lighting can change our impression of a location so it’s worth a special mention.  In fact, there are plenty more senses to pay attention to other than the main five we learn about in grade school.

The take away is to focus on K.A.V. cycles, while taking time to toss in appeals to other senses as well.  Paying attention to our own world and how we experience it is always useful when portraying the world through another character’s eyes.

Hope this helps,

Happy Writing!