Placing Your Reader Into Your Story

One of the best things about reading a novel — at least in my opinion — is escaping from my world, my life. When I read I want to stop being me sitting in my home and become someone else somewhere else doing exciting things, having fascinating experiences, falling in love, experiencing things for the first time, etc. But how do you make a reader feel that? Experience that?

The best way is to write in “deep point of view”. When a writer writes in deep point of view they need to become the character. They not only write everything the character is saying, but also what they’re feeling, thinking, and experiencing (using as many of the five senses as possible).

I’ve written about method writing before (here and here), but it’s such an essential way to write I think it bears talking about again.

In those other blog posts, I focus on the emotions of the character and their backstory (and therefore how they view the world). Today I want to focus more on the five senses.

So many authors merely describe what characters see — usually the setting or the expression or body language of the person they’re speaking with. This is absolutely important, but you shouldn’t stop there.

When a character enters a new location what do they hear? What are the sounds all around them? Is there the noise of a…