Writing Characters With Enhanced Senses

Writing Characters with Enhanced Senses

Characters with extraordinary senses come up a lot. Maybe your character is of supernatural or alien origin, or maybe they were just born with a genetic quirk. Maybe they have a sensory disorder that only makes their hearing seem extraordinary. There are lots of reasons why a character might have extraordinary senses and a lot of different ways those senses might be put to use, but here are some of the drawbacks you might consider when writing a character who has a super sniffer, excellent eyesight, or high-quality hearing!

Sight: If your character has super sight, chances are that they can see farther and more clearly than anybody else, which is pretty cool except that the human eye can still only really focus on one thing at a time…so your character might want to be careful not to get distracted when they’re, say, crossing the street. If they’re watching a burglary occur a thousand yards away, they might not notice the car that just whipped around the corner behind them. Other super-drawbacks might include heightened sensitivity to light, color, or movement - and you have to remember that nobody can see three-hundred-sixty degrees at all times, so your character is probably going to have a blind spot (unless they’re an owl). Also, they may frequently look like they’re staring off into space when they’re really just watching something very intently.

Hearing: Have you ever been standing in a crowd of people who are all talking at the same time? Now imagine if you had super hearing! It can be hard to pick out individual pieces of information or even follow a single conversation when you can hear everyone in a six-block radius…and it’s not just conversations. You can also hear every car, every pet moving around, every jingle of a key, the air moving through the vents, and so on and so forth. This is another one of those abilities that may make it look like your character is just really easily distracted - it’s not that they don’t want to pay attention to their friends, it’s just that they’re playing “name that tune” with a radio four blocks to the southeast!

Smell: Think about your shower routine, whatever it might be. How many scented products do you layer on your skin? Soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deoderant, maybe perfume or cologne, shaving cream or aftershave - the list goes on and on. If you had a super nose, you might be able to smell every single layer a person was wearing, and that kind of assault on the nose could be eye-wateringly overwhelming. Consider your reaction to someone wearing strong perfume! There are a lot of other types of smells in the world too, from cut grass and shoe polish to rotting garbage…and a lot of bodily functions have smells too: passing gas, excrement, or urine, menstruation, or sweating, for example. Your character might even be able to smell disease. This type of character might have to wear a mask or a scarf over their face to dull their super-sense, which might give them an odd appearance, but just imagine how much weirder it would look to be standing on a street corner sniffing at the air when all anyone else can smell is car fumes.

Taste: What’s the strongest flavor you’ve ever tasted? Maybe it was something fishy, or spicy, or sour. Everyone’s answer is bound to be different, but imagine if every single thing you ever ate or drank tasted that strong. Eventually you might get kind of tired of it and start preparing food that is more bland, right? Alternately, imagine if nothing ever just tasted like itself to you: you’re eating a french fry, but instead of tasting “french fry” you’re tasting potato, salt, oil, the metal of the fryer, the latex in the gloves used to scoop them into the paper tray, the paper tray itself…that would be pretty overwhelming! The major drawback to super taste is that your character might have trouble eating out or eating in front of other people. When you taste a lemon, your face puckers up…just think of how much more sour it would taste with a super tongue!

Touch: Did you know that every day you suffer a million tiny hurts and your brain just ignores them so that you can keep on functioning normally? If you had an enhanced nervous system, that might not be the case. Think about the number of tiny things we ignore every day: actions like walking, scratching, accidentally biting your tongue, or blinking could hurt pretty bad if you were super sensitive to touch! People with super touch might have a hard time getting comfortable all the time, and they might have to deal with not liking the feeling of clothes, being annoyed with air moving over their skin, or being extra-sensitive to physical contact. If a hug felt to me like someone was trying to break my ribs, I’d avoid them too!

So what are some things to keep in mind when writing about characters with extraordinary senses, other than drawbacks? Here are some things to consider:

Set limits. Your character shouldn’t be able to see past the curve of the earth - that’s just silly! Likewise, if they can hear something happening through the entire planet, you may want to rethink. Consider things like range and clarity when you’re setting limits on super senses: how far away can they see things and how clearly can they see them, for example. When it comes to touch, this is a little more tricky, and you might want to think more about the direct effects of pressure on the character: how much pressure does it take before it hurts?

Enhanced senses require enhanced brainpower. I don’t mean that they raise your character’s IQ level, but consider how much effort it takes to sort through and process sensory information. If your character’s brain can’t handle it, they might be in a constant state of sensory overload.

Speaking of sensory overload, that might happen to your character sometimes anyway! Everyone faces extreme situations in their lives where their brains just can’t keep up with the workload, and the threshold for that point is probably lower for people with super senses. If you’ve got a character with super hearing and four people are trying to talk to them at once, they might experience sensory overload and have to go recover for a while, so do your research into sensory overload and what to do to help them.

Finally, their super sense is going to impact how they experience and relate to other people. Maybe your character doesn’t remember a person’s name or face but they’ll never forget her voice. Maybe they just can’t even be in the house with Great-Aunt Helen because she always wears the same musty old perfume and it gives your character a headache. Maybe your character appears to be constantly zoning out when really they’re just looking closely at peoples’ jewelry. How your character perceives others, and how others view your character, is going to be impacted by their ability - count on it.

If you’re writing about a character with super senses, I hope that this has been helpful and maybe even inspiring to you, and I’d love to hear your thoughts too! Thanks for reading, and good luck!

-Kyo

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characters senses enhanced senses

Emotions: Writing Grief

Anonymous asked: Hi, I was wondering if you folks had any resources that describe different grieving processes people go through? I think most everyone has heard of the ‘stages’ process (anger, denial, bargaining etc.), but it’d be awesome to have something that goes into greater detail about it, or offers some sort of alternative. :)

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mourning tips grief

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ainesseyspiegel

2 months ago

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2 months ago

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black and white picture prompt

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1 month ago

"She wrote the damn book! He didn't have to die!"

Oh honey.

You don’t understand how this works, do you?

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writers

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ainesseyspiegel

2 months ago

Oh, there you are. Were you calling me? Sorry, I was looking for my-

Hey! You found it! I was wondering where that notebook ran off too! I was afraid I’d have to start all over again. It would have been annoying rewriting six pages worth of plot. You know how I am. I end up going in an entirely different direction with one, still like the other, and then I can’t decide which direction to keep. You ever wonder why stories can’t just have dozens of different endings, and different paths to take based on the choice you make? Well, you’re right, there were those old choose your own ending books, but that wasn’t exactly what I meant. They were fun though!

Why are you frowning? Huh? Oh. You read that passage, huh? I…didn’t think you were going to flip through it. I didn’t think you cared that much. Please don’t look at me that way. I don’t mean to be, well, mean. You just never ask about any of my writing. And, well, I tend to write what I know. Granted, it’s all twisted and deformed, so people don’t usually draw the connections…wait. So how did you?

What are you smiling for? He does that, my character. He grins just like that, slightly raised brow and everything. Are you…are you doing that on purpose? What did you just say? That was his speech! My character said that in his moment of vulnerability! It was my favorite scene. But…that wasn’t in those four pages.

Hey, what are you hiding behind your back? Those pages, what are they? Don’t try and hide them. Hey, I see writing! Did you write that? Let me see…it’s a story! With my characters…and some different ones. Hm? You want to know how it can all fit together? Your stuff and mine? I get it. You want to co-write something.

Take a seat, I’ll make some tea. What was that? You don’t know what you’re doing? You don’t think you’re any good? You don’t think it should ever see the light of day? Ha! Nonsense. Go on, make yourself comfortable. There’s a lot you’ve got to learn. The first thing is, there isn’t any story that isn’t worth writing down.

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4 weeks ago

myths & urban legends masterpost

I really love hearing about ghost stories, folklore and the like, and i’m sure there people out there who can relate, so I decided to throw together a masterpost. this collection is the result of a half hour worth of googling around. I apologize if there are any broken links - if you catch one, please fix it. additionally, if you know any good links that aren’t listed here, feel free to add them!

browse carefully - some of these are pretty creepy. lots of violence and swearing scattered around, etc.

Wikipedia:

List of ghosts

List of common misconceptions

List of backmasked messages

Category:Folklore by region

Category:Folklore by nationality

Category:Fairy tales by country

Category:Urban Legends

Category:Cryptids

Category:Reportedly haunted locations

Category:Curses

Category:Folklore

Category:Films based on urban legends

Snopes: (warning: some popups! snopes is sometimes an unreliable source, so i suggest taking its articles with a grain of salt, but theyre still a pretty good read.)

Main page

Horrors

Old Wives’ Tales

Disney

Lost Legends

History

Science

Misc.:

136 creepy wikipedia articles (not all urban legends, but still a really excellent masterpost!)

American Folklore (haven’t delved too deep into this website but it has a lot of content - check the links across the top in the red bar)

Creepypasta Index - Highest Rated (again, haven’t read all of these but there are some classics on here I recognize)

All-Lies (has some irritating ads, but there’s a lot of stuff on here. take note of the sweet ’90s flames on the bottom of the page)

DisneyLies - (sister site to the previous link. i’m not sure why there are so many creepy myths surrounding disney, but these are pretty good. also has some pretty rad flames)

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ghosts ghost stories

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4 weeks ago

ʜᴏᴡ ᴛᴏ: ғᴏʀᴍᴀʟʟʏ ᴀᴅᴅʀᴇss ʀᴏʏᴀʟᴛʏ/ᴀʀɪsᴛᴏᴄʀᴀᴄʏ ɪɴ ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴ

This is more for my own reference, but if anyone else finds this useful, you’re free to like/reblog it and what-not. Most of the information was either taken from various Wikipedia pages or WikiHow.

First, let’s look at the social hierarchy:

Emperor/Empress

King/Queen

Grand Duke/Grand Duchess

Grand Prince/Grand Princess

Archduke/Archduchess

Duke/Duchess

Prince/Princess

Marquis/Marchioness

Count (Earl)/Countess

Viscount/Viscountess

Baron/Baroness

Knight/Dame

Sir/Lady

When meeting royalty for the first time, always acknowledge them with a bow from the neck (not the waist) if you are a man, and a small curtsey if you are a woman. (This gesture is no longer applicable in today’s world, but if you’re writing for an earlier time period, then it’s important your character bow or curtsey).

Below is directly applicable to citizens of the U.K and Commonwealth:

Only shake the queen’s hand if she offers it to you first. If you are wearing gloves, do not remove them.

Do not begin a conversation with the queen. Instead, wait until she starts speaking to you.

When addressing royalty, finish your first reply with their formal address. For example, if a prince asks you, “How are you enjoying the United Kingdom?” you would respond “It’s wonderful, Your Royal Highness.” Each title carries a different formal address:

Emperors and Empresses are addressed as “Your Imperial Majesty” and introduced as “His/Her Imperial Majesty”.

Queens and kings are addressed as “Your Majesty.” Introduce them as “Her Majesty the Queen” (not ”Queen of England”, as she is the “Queen of the United Kingdom”, “Queen of Canada” and a long array of additional titles).

Princes and princesses are referred to “Your Royal Highness.” Introduce them as “His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.” Any child or male line grandchild of a monarch is considered a prince or princess. The spouse of a prince is also a princess, although she is not always “Princess” Her First Name. The spouse of a princess is not always a prince. Great-grandchildren in the male line of the monarch are not considered princes or princesses. Use the courtesy titles lord or lady for these personages, addressing them as, for example, “Lady Jane” and introducing them as “Lady Jane Windsor” (unless they have a different title of their own).

Dukes and Duchesses are called “Your Grace” or “Duke/Duchess.” Introduce the duke to someone else as “His Grace the Duke of Norfolk,” the duchess as “Her Grace the Duchess of Norfolk”.

Baronets and knights, if male, are addressed as “Sir Bryan” (if his name is Bryan Thwaites) and his wife is “Lady Thwaites”. You would introduce him using his full name, “Sir Bryan Thwaites,” and his wife as “Lady Thwaites.”

Dames (the equivalent of knighthood for women - there is no female equivalent of baronetcy) are “Dame Gertrude” in conversation, and you would introduce her as “Dame Gertrude Mellon.”

Other forms of nobility (including Marquess/Marchioness, Earl/Countess, Viscount/Viscountess, Baron/Baroness) are generally addressed as, “Lord or Lady Trowbridge” (for the Earl of Trowbridge), and introduced with their appropriate title, such as “Viscount Sweet” or “Baroness Rivendell” .

Use “Sir” or “Ma’am” thereafter. If the noble uses a casual style of conversation, drop the “Sir” or “Ma’am.” Don’t make them have to ask.

This information strictly deals with meeting British peers and royalty.Other parts of the world have different systems of aristocracy, and while the British royal family’s official website notes that when meeting a member of the royal family, “There are no obligatory codes of behaviour - simply courtesy,” this is not the case for all aristocracies. Failure to observe specific codes of behaviour in some countries may result in harsh punishment.

So—— it’s always best to research the monarchy in which you are writing for. I used the U.K’s peerage system because it’s the most widely known, but don’t take it as applicable for every monarchy. Titles and protocols can differ greatly between cultures.

If any of this information is incorrect, please feel free to correct it.

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🐇.royalty

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ainesseyspiegel

2 months ago

Spectāte Dīligenter

A simple look can say a lot about a person. It can tell you trials and pains, sufferings and acceptances, and whether or not victory has won over defeat. The eyes have often been called the windows to the soul, and if one pair is empty you know the time for discovery is closed. Whether brown, blue, green, or grey, the shade and shape of a person's gaze can reveal so much. A culture, a secret, a way of life. So much can be gleamed from a simple glance.

But you have to look in order to see it.

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stories personal writing

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4 weeks ago