Hey,

I don't know about you, but in amongst the chaos of this year, I've found tiny pieces of solace in reading and continuing to try and improve my craft. I like nothing more than a craft nerd-out. That's why I've spent the last few weeks pulling all my learnings into a craft course for you.

In turning The Anatomy of Prose into a course, I learned a big lesson. I found that in order to go deeper than the book, to really dig into the weeds of craft development, I had to get super focused with the course topic. So instead of covering the whole book, I'm breaking it down into highly focused and specific course subjects. Over time, I'll cover everything in the book and more. For now though, I've started with the senses.

Why? Because sensory writing is at the heart of creating bigger emotions, more depth, and better characterization. 

The course is over 3.5 hours of video, audio and written material.

• You'll discover the pillars of all good sensory writing and how to implement them in your own work.
• The psychology behind sensory descriptions, how to use psychology to your advantage and the impact it has on the reader.
• You'll receive a detailed breakdown of how to create rich descriptions for each individual sense.
• Discover the mistakes many authors make when using the senses and how to fix them
• And MUCH more.

One of the purposes of description is to make unrelatable, difficult or complex concepts and emotions both relatable and understandable. One easy way to do that is to turn those intangible concepts into something relatable—something readers know, understand and can feel.

What do I mean by intangible concepts? I mean things like: time, love, hope, kindness, loss, ideas, information.

"...and there will be a moment, brief as a yawn, where she won't know where she is,"

"She lies there, perfectly still, tries to hold time like a breath in her chest;"

Both of these quotes are similar and using similar techniques. Schwab is comparing the concept of time—something very intangible and untouchable to bodily functions. In the first quote she compares a "moment" to a yawn. We all know what a yawn feels like, the brevity of it, the roundness in our mouths and how it arrives suddenly and then just as quickly the relief of the yawn is gone. Her description makes it so relatable and clear to me and I'm sure you can relate.

Similarly, in the second quote, she's comparing "time" to breathing or the act of trying to hold a breath in your lungs. We all know how hard it is to do that: the burning, the pressure, the inevitability of having to release it.

I love her imagery, and I think it's a fantastic and very visual technique. She really does make me feel time.

TLDR: If you want to polish up your descriptions, try creating similes and metaphors that make the intangible tangible.