TOUCH:

Touch is a tactile sense and is seldom used alone as a means of description, but it serves chiefly as an added detail to make the entire picture more vivid.

The sensations of touch include heat and cold, wetness and dryness, roughness and smoothness, sharpness and dullness, hardness and softness, and stickiness.  Under each of these headings we can find an infinite number of descriptive terms.

The most used descriptions of touch are those of heat and cold. 

EXAMPLES: 

THE OCTOPUS: (Frank Norris)

HOT:

It was high noon, and the rays of the sun, ... hung poised directly overhead in an intolerable white glory ...  The adobe walls and sparse brick sidewalks radiated the heat in an oily, quivering shimmer..

For the other extreme, we have an excerpt from Robert Louis Stevenson's A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT:

COLD:

The snow fell over Paris with rigorous, relentless persistence....  The air was raw and ... the flakes were large, damp, and adhesive....

A BLOSSOM FELL:

HOT:

He wiped his steaming face and the thrill of the hunt left him.  Casting his gaze upward into the blinding glare of the fierce sun, he quickly looked away and squeezed his eyes tightly shut against the brilliance that continued to dance in the darkness behind his lids.

SONG OF INNOCENCE:

COLD

Snow began to fall again, whispering down into the leaves, blanketing the shrubs and ground in pristine whiteness.

EXERCISE:

Write a scene in 300 words or less using all five senses.

REMEMBER THE FIVE SENSES IN YOUR DESCRIPTIONS:

Use strong verbs, specific picture words, descriptive adjectives.  Use the precise word which will give the exact word picture you wish to create.  Use as few words as possible to say what you want to say--and write the best novel you're capable of writing.  Always remember, the words you do use reflect on you as a writer. Success in description, as in anything else, requires much work and constant careful practice.

Words to remember:

Intaglio — incised carving, a sunken design.

Faux pas  — offense against social convention, a false step.

((HINT: Reasons why publishers reject manuscripts.  Incorrect format, justified margins, no headers, no page numbers, unacceptable printing, weird fonts, fancy paper, cardboard characters, stilted dialogue, incorrect factual information in historical novels, are just a few of those reasons. Give your manuscript every effort.  Learn what is expected.

FORMAT:

Most publishers agree, a manuscript must have headers consisting of:

NAME OF NOVEL           CH. #             NAME OF AUTHOR           

PAGE NUMBER

THIS IS MY STORY         / 1 /                     IMA

WRITER                      1            

The header should be at the top of each page, as should the page number.

Use Courier or Times New Roman font.  Double space and have margins at least one inch top, bottom and both sides.  Twenty five sentences for each page, except the first page of each chapter which should have only twelve or fourteen sentences.  Drop down far enough to accommodate only that number of sentences at the beginning of each new chapter.  DO NOT JUSTIFY TEXT.. . Remember the manuscript is the first thing an agent or publisher sees. If the format is off, or the margins are unacceptable or the font is wrong, or the print job below par, chances are, your treasured submission won't get a reading at all.

Each of us MUST learn the basics of writing for publication.

Poor spelling and/or typos signify a lazy or careless writer.  Never submit a sloppy manuscript, thinking the agent or publisher will 'fix' it for you.  IT WON'T HAPPEN.  Excellent spelling, a command of good grammar, sentence structure, and a clean manuscript are essentials.

The above will probably get you a reading of the first few pages of your work.  Once a reading is under way, the death blow can come from stilted dialogue, cardboard (flat) characters, the mixing of tenses, too many superlatives, excessive adverbs, weak verbs, passive sentences, and incorrect basic English.

STILTED DIAGLOGUE:

"I am going, and you can *not* stop me.  I have *not* considered your *wishes*, as I do *not* *wish* to." The lack of contractions and the repetitive words in the sentence above (one from an actual submission) result in much more than just stilted dialogue.

TRY THIS:

"I'm going, and you can't stop me.  I've not considered your wishes because I don't care what you want." The use of contractions will help to make dialogue seem more natural, as will a varied use of words.

However, stilted dialogue is not just the result of lack of contractions, and/or lack of varied word usage, but it is also the result of language which sounds affected and not the type thing a person

would normally say.  

"Mary, I love your awesome lavender eyes and your bee-stung lips."

"Oh, John, and I love your curly, unruly dark hair that keeps falling into your eyes."

"Mary, may I kiss you?"

"John, yes you may."

(Okay, a bit exaggerated, but the point, I hope, is made.)

CARDBOARD FLAT CHARACTERS:

Characters who never show what they feel, hear, or see--who never seem to have any emotion except that which the author tells the reader: "She saw..."  "He felt ..."   "She heard..." are one-dimensional characters.  We must have some introspection in order for our characters to come alive.  The reader must know what the characters think. The reader must also know how what they see, feel, and hear affect them emotionally. 

INTERESTING FACT: Until 1834, it was forbidden for any soldier or military unit of the U.S. Army to carry the American flag into battle.

In 1834 the privilege was awarded to American artillery units only.  The marine corps could not carry the flag until 1876–the calvary in 1887. Before these dates only regimental colors were taken to war.

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