More Insight into 5 Senses

Pretty jagged rocks

Yes, it's another blog post shamelessly talking about my book, 5 Senses.


I've had a few people ask me what my book is about and I always have a hard time explaining it because what aspect do I explain?

Do I tell them too much...not enough...am I too vague...should I mention this...?

All those things float in my head but I actually had a great conversation with a local artist about my inspirations for 5 Senses so I'll start there.

I incorporated a lot of nature in this book because it seemed fitting to highlight different aspects of your senses through nature.



Well, let me start with a bit of background info about the book.

For those of you that don't know, the story is told from Jaime's perspective about his friendship with a blind girl named, Iris.

With Iris' influence, he learns to see the world through his other senses just as she does.

The whole concept of this book actually was to reacquaint myself with my senses that I've taken for granted on more than one occasion.  When I wrote this story, I actually remembered my freshmen year in high school contemplating our senses and how we use them.  My favorite English teacher and her student teacher had encouraged us to write stories of our own and one of the exercises had to do with our senses and what would happen if we had to choose one sense to live without.

I remember at the time I chose touch for that assignment and I started to think about how much of our other senses we use constantly but unconsciously.

Nothing like a nice cool dip on a hot sunny day

In college, I thought about that same exercise, choosing a sense I would have forgone and at that time, sight was the one that I would give up over the others.

When I think about that question now, I think I would give up my hearing abilities in favor of all my other senses.  I can deal with silence and still get by pretty well but all those other senses, I feel would be more important at this time in my life - especially if I want to travel.

Ask me again in 5-10 years and I may have a different answer for you.

Yup...Definitely would give up my hearing over all else

Nowadays, I realize that I need to get more attuned to my senses because it's so easy to get caught up with life and forget to just kick back, relax, and enjoy the scenery.

I love this tree!  It watches over this lovely, shallow swimming hole

I feel it's harder for children of this generation to really sit back and just be wherever they are without the constant stimulation, especially in a very urban setting. Many kids didn't know a time before internet and instant gratification.




I'm going to sound old but 'back when I was a kid...' we used to go outside and play and do weird and probably dangerous things that would have taken me and other crazy kids out of the gene pool completely but we're still here today.




If we lived through those events - which, miraculously, we did - we sure learned from the experience.

I'm sure our parents (and older generations) would say that our vise was TV and a corded telephone.  I'll give them that.

However, we didn't have the internet readily at our fingertips.

I'd say in the US, my generation was the last one to really know what it was like before the boom of the internet and cellphones.  When I was in high school, people hardly had cellphones and internet was slowly making its way into households.  Today, I can't think of a house - unless they are senior citizen - that doesn't have internet.  Same goes for cell phones.  I can't think of more than 5 people off the top of my head that doesn't have a cellphone.

Myself included.
(Dramatic GASP!)

I'm sure, if you're reading this, you're probably shocked and thinking, 'Why doesn't this crazy _expletive_  have a freakin' cellphone?!

To tell you the truth, it's probably a good thing that I don't have a cellphone because I'm a slave to my laptop and I'd probably never interact with anyone unless it was through my phone.  I have a very addictive personality so its easy for me to get hooked on simple things (i.e. Triple Town, PVZ, Flight Control - you get the picture)

Getting off topic.... I want and need to 'unplug' myself from my vice (my laptop) every now and then and it would force me to remember that I used to have fun through other means (hiking, swimming, getting lost, etc.)

NOM NOM NOM!!!  Chocolate Fountain = Chocolate Coma = HAPPY

I wrote this book to remind myself to get away from it all and remember there is a world outside of my technology.

You'll notice that there are no cell phones or computers mentioned in the book.

Yes, it's very much a fictional fantasy world emulating a time before instant gratification, answers to questions (I'm pointing fingers at you, Siri!) and having a phone on your person - essentially a mini computer - at all times.

It's my idealized world that's overly simple and unrealistic.

Yeah, I get that....and it sounds ridiculous now that I'm explaining it.

Oh, well.  It is what it is.

Bonus

Things that influenced me and this book:

Her 'name is Toph, because it sounds like tough!'

Toph Beifong from Avatar the Last Airbender

Granted, Iris' personality is completely different from Toph's but  they both don't need give a shit that they are blind and actually use it to their advantage.

Oh, and if you haven't watched this show yet...WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING IN LAST 10 YEARS?!

At LEAST watch the 2nd season.  You don't need the 1st and you'll figure it out.  Just... watch Avatar the Last Airbender!

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Let me preface my selection by saying this movie is MESSED UP! ...On all kinds of levels.

But beautifully filmed.  The cast is amazing (then again, I think almost anything that Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffman touch is amazing, but that's just me) and the story very compelling.  I definitely had a morbid curiosity as to what he was going to do and will he complete his task but very interesting story none the less.

What really inspired me was how much detail and imagery they used to depict the sense of smell or scent.

If you think about it, scent and taste would be the hardest to really capture on screen but they did it so masterfully that I was blown away.

This is also not a movie for kids or YA (it's Rated R) so watch or allow your kids to watch at your own discretion.

Writing a Story/Book Part II and Over 100 Posts!

I'm back...a bit late with the next part to my post on how to write a book or story.  Oh, and this will be my 101st post!  YAY!

Okay, remember in the last post, that somewhat irrelevant web I embedded?

Yup!  That's the one!

Well, in the previous post, the To DO's was your main story idea.  In this case, my spaghetti monster is in the middle, right?

That dude!

Heck, our spaghetti monster looks exactly like our web so if you look at its legs.  It's just like the main concepts of the story.

If you look at the top web, The Appointments, Shopping, Others...etc.  Those are main plot points that we wrote about last week.  They could be a chapter or two but in general for me, they are a chapter.

Let's review:   Story Idea

1. Main character is a boy/girl
2. they go to the store and buy groceries
3. walking through hot items session of the store, the spaghetti bubbles
4. inspects closer and see the noodles waggle and trying to communicate
5. shocked and curious, they buy the spaghetti and takes it home
6. spaghetti comes home and is left in the hot sun where it proceeds to melt and spread all over counter
7. takes over counter -- > then home  -- > then houses on block
8. main character feel responsible and looks for solution
9. walking by a shop, there is a sign for food eating contest
10. after contest, main character talks to contestants and convinces them that that was only the first round of the contest.  Next round is in a suburban neighborhood.  They'll know when they see it
11. then stops by a homeless shelter and does the same thing
12. Rallies all the eaters and they go to town on Spaghetti Monster
13. They chow down and the city is saved and well fed
14. Ending: All is right in the world again except for a stray meatball! (* Sequal idea )

So, you can guesstimate that this story will have 14 chapters or parts to it.  When I look at that list, I would think about combing the first few major points in the story, so 1-6 look promising for the first chapter or the first two chapters.  I feel that grouping those main points help guide me as far as starting and setting up a chapter.  Sometimes I combine the ideas to make a chapters.  The different colors indicate how I would group the ideas as chapters.  Now, our 14 chapter book just condensed into a 5 chapter story.

Granted, you may decide you want to change something as you write and that's fine!  When I write, I know ideas morph or new ideas get implanted (by the spaghetti monster) randomly but that's all part of the process.

Now you have the main outline of your story ready to go!

Well...sort of.  We're missing a few elements that help make a story:     SETTING!

Okay, not quite the setting I or the readers had in mind but NOW YOU KNOW!

Now, you have to consider a few other elements in order to make this chapter complete.  Who is your audience, what genre are you writing, what age bracket, tone, language, etc.  I don't spend a whole lot of time vacillating on all these things but it's in the back of my mind as I'm writing and changes as I go along.

...Nope, but getting warmer!

Some people actually do this part first but for me, it depends.  It depends because I have all these ideas for a story - maybe a few pages into writing what this story is about - when an idea comes to mind that changes the whole theme, tone and genre and your story just morphs or deviates from the original concept.  The key thing to making sure your story isn't all over the place is to reevaluate your Story Ideas List you made preiously.

All those elements help you determine your setting.  If I'm writing for YA and it's set in a suburb, I'd make sure my characters are in their teens, talk and act appropriately for the age and genre as well as think about where they are living and going.  Like here:

Like here!  A mall.  A bit stereotypical but still some place you'll find teens.  Am I wrong..?

There are a lot of things to consider but you'll innately know what type of setting once you figure out your audience so just go with the flow.  If worse comes to worse, get have a friend or someone close - a family member or someone who you know will be brutally honest - that will read your writing and they'll tell you straight up, "I don't think a mermaid belongs in your urban spaghetti monster story."  Not only that, when you have an editor, they'll tell you what needs to be tossed out.

I hope this installment helps!

Feel free to ask questions if you have any and Good Luck!