Skin as a sensory powerhouse when writing

THE LINK BETWEEN BRAIN AND SKIN WHEN WRITING

We experience life in a sensory way all the time. We listen and speak, taste and smell, and feel with our skin. When you write, you want to incorporate all of this. You want your reader to literally climb into your skin and feel it the way you do.

IT HELPS TO SHOW, NOT TELL, WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE

What does it mean? Let’s look at happiness. You can write: “I was driving in my car, looking at the mountains and I realised I was feeling extremely happy.”

That is “telling” your reader what is happening. Look at the following sentence by poet Sylvia Plath – she is “showing”: “I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery – air, mountains, trees, people. I thought ‘This is what it is to be happy.”

CREATING FRESH AND ORIGINAL DETAILS

We “see” ourselves (in mirrors and our minds’ eye) and through the eyes of others. Society perceives us on appearance. According to Mari Lee, founder of DevCom Strategic Communication Consultants, 7% of our communication is what we say. 38% is our tone (a sense), and 55% is from body language.

When you write, focus on creating fresh and original sensory details.

OUR SKIN IS WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE

Our human skin provides protection and receives sensory stimuli from the external environment.

The palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are etched by distinct alternating ridges and grooves. Every small area of surface has ridge details not matched anywhere in the same individual or in any other individual, not even in an identical twin. This infallible signature makes dermatoglyphics the best-known physical characteristic for personal identification.

Your skin makes you, and your story, truly unique.

OUR SENSE OF IDENTITY IS FORMED BY THE SKIN WE ARE BORN IN

Claire Scott writes in her article “Voice/Body/Skin: (Dis)locating Belonging in Antjie Krog’s  Country of My Skull, A Change of Tongue, and Begging to Be Black”  as follows about renowned South African author Antjie Krog: “By writing at the messy, contested border between literature and journalism, Krog is able to explore the intangible and affective aspects of identity and belonging. I conclude by suggesting that, as Krog moves from a preoccupation with “the voice” and “the body” to the concept of “skin”, she can draw on the notion of the “in-between” to address her most pressing concerns surrounding questions of white identity and national belonging.”

USE YOUR SKIN TO STRETCH AND COAT YOUR STORY

Skin is the most sensory part of your body – use it to stretch and coat your story! It reacts to heat, cold, fear. You touch objects or know when not to. Somebody reaches out and touches you. Dogs jump up against your bare legs. You scrape your knee when you have a fall from your bicycle. Skin secretes smells and odours. Skin can be rough, soft, calloused.

Countless nerve endings in your skin enables you to interact with your environment. This has survival as well as social structures.

Skin had strength and pliability but is also vulnerable to outside influences such as the sun, or harsh actions against you.

YOU WANT TO EXPLORE THE “WHY” WHEN WRITING YOUR BIOGRAPHY

 You want to explore the why in all if this. Get it? Use your body as the starting point to narrate.  Feeling fearful of exposing yourself too much is natural: “When I start writing, I inevitably feel myself swallowed by fear… In these uncertain and risky moments of vulnerability, I search for inspiration from the brave innovators and disrupters whose courage feels contagious,” writes Brené Brown in Braving the Wilderness.

As an author coach, I will assist you in finding your unique way to show, not tell your story.