Spark Your Creativity with the 5 Senses: Taste
Petite tasse de cafe et un croissant / coffee and a croissant
This is #5 in a series of articles on Creativity and Inspiration for Writers. Tips shared here are inspired by my e-book, Overcome Writer’s Block, and will soon also be part of a course at We Write Books community.
How can we be a better writers, or get re-inspired in our writing?
Let’s tap into our five senses. I’ve already written about sight, sound, smell and touch. Today is taste!
I left taste for last because for some reason for me it feels the most intimate and vulnerable experience to share. How about you?
When I eat or imagine my favorite meal — roasted chicken and steamed red chard — my ability to use words seems to fade. Food is so sensual and drops me into my lowers chakras.
Taste is also so connected to emotions I find it hard to speak about food without bringing in the emotions. When I eat I feel content, grateful, satisfied, and relaxed.
Wikipedia tells us there are 5 kinds of taste:
The sensation of taste can be categorized into basic tastes: sweetness, bitterness, sourness, saltiness and umami. The recognition and awareness of Umami is a relatively recent development in Western cuisine.
Reading further, I learn that taste is indeed complicated, a combination of smell, texture sensation, and temperature sensing. No wonder it’s challenging to write about.
Well, the point of this series of articles is to encourage you to awaken your senses and bring back your newfound awareness to your writing.
Favorite foods:
- oranges
- coffee with unsweetened almond milk
- 70% dark chocolate
- kale
- blue corn chips
What are your favorite foods? How do you write about food in your stories?
