This week’s prompt comes from Cherish Collins, a 1st year writer in the UMass Boston MFA program. Cherish writes:
Writing uses the five senses to describe scenes, actions, etc. So much information can be relayed to a reader based on what a character sees, touches, tastes, hears, or smells. But could you still achieve the richness of details and description if you decided to consciously not use one or more sense descriptors? Which senses do you write the most and how might the writer or reader’s experience change if you shift attention to others?
Here’s The Prompt: Write a story in the first person (the narrator says “I”) about attending a party being held at a place that they are visiting for the first time.
Describe the scene and what’s happening from your narrator’s point of view without relying on all five senses.
Don’t explicitly say which sense(s) your narrator is not utilizing. See where the shift in attention takes you and the story.
(You could also apply this prompt to revising an existing story.)
Write on the DOT 