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This is, without a doubt, the most difficult sense to incorporate into one’s writing. After all, what does one taste when one isn’t eating?  

Reminders are one way to manage to insert the sense of taste into a scene. Remember my great-grandmother’s apple pie? The smell of baking apples with cinnamon triggers that taste sense in my mouth.  

Aroma and taste are closely connected. When one has a cold and cant’ smell anything, food also tends toward the tasteless or the peculiar. 

We also taste in other ways. Fear brings a flavor to our mouths, a dry, tinny sensation. Your character wakes up from a blow on the head and has a foul taste in one’s mouth. I’ve heard this described in numerous ways. Think of something nasty that goes as far in description as you like and you have it. 

Your character is traveling on a bicycle, motorcycle, or horse. The road is dusty. He tastes—what is in the area? Alkali? Copper? Or maybe she’s lying in the grass nibbling on a blade of it. Yes, this is technically eating, but it’s not a meal or snack. 

Think about licking one’s lips, or the character licking her lips in nervousness. What does she taste? Minty lip gloss from the trendy natural makeup shop, or the cheap waxy tasting stuff from the drugstore. Either way says a lot about her taste—as in fashion sense—or budget or current circumstances. 

Then, of course, when lips meet other lips, we have taste. This can go either way. If you want your characters to kiss later in the scene, don’t let them eat garlic or onions for dinner. They may taste good to the eater, but not to the kisser. Make it something delightful like chocolate cake or strawberries or baklava. 

This post is shorter, as taste is probably used less than any of the senses. If characters are tasting all the time, they’ll come across like they’re stuck on the oral faze of development when a child puts everything in its mouth. Taste is the ultimate spice, the most expensive, and must be used the least. I don’t like rules, so I won’t say one taste per scene, but one per chapter is probably a good goal to set. 

Thank you all for letting me visit here. I have received some notes that this has been helpful. If you have further questions, you can always reach me at: 

http://www.lauriealiceeakes.com 

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 15:09 and is filed under Laurie Eakes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.