Writing from the Senses: 59 Exercises to Ignite Creativity and Revitalize Your Writing

Break through writer's block using your five senses!
The sensory details that infuse our everyday experience—the smell of a favorite dish cooking, the texture of a well-worn coat, hearing a song that reminds you of a person or a time in your life—can be used to add richness and spark to what we write. Whether you are a professional writer (or want to be one) or someone who enjoys just writing for your own personal fulfillment, Writing from the Senses will show you how to tap into an endless source of engaging material, using your senses as prompts. The exercises will stimulate you to develop stories, imagery, and details that will allow readers to see, taste, hear, smell, and feel that they're in the scene.

Writing from the Senses
•Provides 60 prompts and creative writing exercises organized by sense;
•Presents engaging narratives, personal essays, and instruction to entertain and inform readers and illustrate the effectiveness of each exercise;
•Helps writers recognize the sensory prompts that surround them daily and use them to trigger their individual stories; and
•Shows how freewrites from the prompts in this book can result in publishable pieces.

LAURA DEUTSCH is a writer, editor, and teacher based in Mill Valley, California. She has taught classes and has given workshops in many venues over the years, including the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University, Book Passage bookstore, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, and in Arezzo, Italy. Her personal essays, feature stories, and travel pieces have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, and her personal essays have been anthologized
in several collections.