Meg Chittenden Waves
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Sensory Details

Sensory details are very important. You have five senses--maybe six. Use all of them in writing your novel. Don't use only your eyes; use your ears, your nose, your sense of touch and taste. Make your scenes come alive with sights and sounds and smells wherever possible, not constantly--briefly, but succinctly. From Shadow of a Doubt, an underground cave:

Fantastically shaped stalagmites thrust upward through the water and from shelflike formations in the limestone walls. It was an awe-inspiring display, mysterious and slightly scary. The air smelled overused as though it had been inhaled and exhaled by too many people. Water dripped constantly. Jamie shivered in her shorts and cotton shirt as she looked up at stalactite "daggers" aimed straight at her head.

Count how many senses were used in that paragraph. I was trying for a certain atmosphere. A couple of paragraphs later, Jamie is going to discover a body.

The above paragraph went through several rewrites before this final version. If I were to revise it one more time, I might replace "scary" with "ominous," because it has more of an echo. (I don't usually read my books after they're published, because if I do, I always want to rewrite one more time!)