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starr-fall-knight-rise · 5 years

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Humans are Space Orcs, “A Little Light.”

Guys, I am releasing a new alien species! I am super excited about this, and I will explain at the end because there is an awesome story behind this. I hope you like it, it was a strange style to write in, and I ended up confusing myself on more than one occasion.

The genesis of these guys is actually super cool, or I thought so.

The world around him was white, a white blinding haze that seared his eyes and burrowed into his brain so profoundly it made his ears ring, not a quiet ringing, but a loud almost ear splitting ringing that burrowed into his head and drilled through the small bones in his middle ear. Aside from the ringing there was only silence accept for his own ragged breathing gasping that, made the space around him humid despite his visor’s inability to fog.

He stumbled over his own feet, for it had to be his feet since the ground about his was completely flat, A dessert of salt stretching for miles in all directions, pure white against the roaring power of the blue-white star, a star so bright even the sky had been bleached white. He tried to open his eyes, tried to find where he was going but was immediately blinded. He tried to scramble for the visor on his helmet but found there to be none there, snapped off.

He stumbled again, this time falling to his knees on the vast white nothingness.

He could feel the crunch through his gloves and boots, rattling up through his knees, but it was as if he stared down at his own body white against paper, in a ceaseless void filled with not but light. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried for the comm again.

“Harben- harbinger, this is…. This is Commander Vir… I, my ship…. Was malfunctioned. I Have fallen and…. I can’t eyes… help, send please….. Think I may have been…. Damaged.” More light, blinding him driving into his skull like screws being driven in with a power tool. He lifted his hands to his ears as the light grew stronger bringing the ringing to a crescendo.

He fell backwards barely feeling his body hit the ground, knowing that something had happened only for the slight vibration through his body, like the slamming of a door seen only in the ripples on a glass of water. Light bombarded him from above the ringing grew louder. His hands fell to his sides as he fell, mercifully into blackness.

***

There was a disturbance, they had sensed it some time ago, a distant disturbance in the distant sky. They did not see it, but felt it. Waves of sight, particles of distortion washing over them. They do not sense the light that beats down from above, only the infrared radiation of their distant star which sustains them. Besides that, the landscape is flat blackess warmed occasionally in spots of unfathomable color by the heat of their star. They can sense it like they sense particles of radio light given off by their brethren. Light is their survival, light is their spawn and their life. They sense everything, and with their light comes a great euphoria. They love light.

They float now, great billowing sails propelling them in silent, slow-motion arcs over the landscape. Below them their great flexible appendages wave and quiver, two long in the front, and a hundred shorter trailing in the back. They float, though it seems as if they swim, cutting through the light the way a sting-ray cuts through the water. They are silent, ethereal, and somewhat strange. They do not move quickly for they see no need simply floating through the white, surrounded by light and the rolling waves of radio chatter from their companions.

With the radio waves gone.

They are silent, though their world is not.

It startles them, when it appears on the horizon, a spot of light under the glorious rays of their star. It does not belong there, for, even though the ground is bright, this thing is brighter. They approach on trailing ribbons of their own limbs gracefully floating, floating, floating. They make it eventually, towards the bright spot.

It sheds light and heat, though it is covered by darkness.

The shape is not something they have seen before, it is alien and unknowable. Behind it, it leaves traces of it’s path, back in the direction of the disturbance. It does not fit on this landscape, it does not belong here. It tracks pieces of itself behind it.

It is living.

That much they know for sure.

They know it is not from here.

With their sense of light they look on. The creature loses light in great swaths, it is bright, not as bright as their star, but very bright, though it’s brightness is fading.

It is a sin to let anything that is bright die.

***

He awoke when he felt himself moving, felt the rattling in his feet as they jostled and crunched over salt scraping and covering the sound of the ringing in his ears. He was seeing double, the world around him was still so bright. It thunders down on him in great rays of pain. He tried to move, but he found that he couldn’t. His head spun and rotated, or at least it seemed that way. He tried to open his eyes, but the light hurt. It cut into his soul until he could no longer feel but for the pain. His eyes closed, but the searing light still cut through burning him replacing the whiteness with the cherry red of his own blood.

A shadow fell over him. He could sense it with the passing of pain and opened his eyes. He could not comprehend what he was seeing, a towering shadow, a monolith slowly swaying back and forth, back and forth bringing the sun into view, and then cutting it off a moment later. Ribbons, or tedrals wave about him, there are thousands of them. He can’t make them into shapes, can't determine what they are or what they mean.

Has he died?

***

What is it?

They aren’t entirely sure.

What does it want?

Probably to live, but then again it was perishing, so maybe it didn’t.

Maybe they should leave it back out in the void, in the whiteness, on the planes of salt.

That would be foolhardy though not to learn about something new. They knew everything there was to know here. Then again this thing was a thing they did not know, so it was only right that they should know. If they knew everything else.

Did they actually know everything?

It seemed so. They knew of the salt, and atmosphere. They knew of the chemical structures, and the atomic particles. They knew of the particles that acted as waves, they knew of their beloved light, and it’s tendency to behave similarly. They knew of gravity and quantum law and that they were on a sphere that simply orbited a large sphere of fire. They knew their light would be gone some day, and they knew when that day would be.

They were not worried.

They new a great many things, and this was a thing to know.

It was clear they needed to know more.

***

It Is a trick to learn about something that cannot be known, a trick to determine that which has no base of reference. The do not know this thing, this thing that lays before them warm and flickering with its pulsing light. It is a good light, warm and steeped in life. However, it is symmetrical two limbs for either side and a trunk in the middle, that is a start.

It does not float, that much is clear, behind it it left tracks in the salt, the shapes are oval in nature or somewhere between an oval and another shape, it matches the bottom of two of the appendages at the base. So it moves, somehow, on two appendages without floating. Touching it, for their tendrils are very sensitive to touch, they feel at its shell, or it has to be a shell because the shell does not give off its light. The light is from the inside, from behind a clear layer.

The shell has a structure, it is very uniform, nothing that comes from nature. They can make things like this, though they do not bother to do so, for what does that have to do with light? So this creature wears a fake shell, that seems reasonable. Looking through the clear layer, at it’s true shape, the creature is very….

Squishy?

Yes that appears to be the correct term, though they cannot be sure. Perhaps it is not squishy and they are just misleading themselves based on appearances. But if it is not a shell for their squishiness, than what is the shell for? They can see it’s temperature, the warmth of the light can tell them that, and it seems as if it would be comfortable. The surrounding are only a little cooler than its body.

So if that is not the case, then what is it.

They look closer, for that is their desire, and the light helps them to see. They must use other types of light, they must use these lights to see inside, and inside they find the shell does other things too. The shell holds gas, a gas that surrounds the creature on the inside, for the creature on the inside is smaller than the shell on the outside.

They can test this gas, and that is where they find it.

It is a very strange mixture of gases, mostly nitrogen, but some oxygen and carbon. That may be a problem, for their planet is very high in oxygen.

Another group returns, the group that continued onwards to find the disturbance. They did not get close as they sensed a great heat from the thing that had fallen from the sky.

Fire.

Fire was not good when your planet had much oxygen, and you floated with hydrogen on your insides.

It seemed as if the two things were connected.

Perhaps the thing came from the fire, or from the thing previous to the time when it was on fire?

But that was assuming time was linear.

The thing’s light is fading, that is a bad sign.

It may be required for them to remove the shell.

They need to figure out how to do it though, the creature has appendages on the top that it does not use for walking, and at the end of those appendages, it has tendrils like theirs only shorter and more rigid. It is small, so they can assume the thing uses those to do its tasks.

They are right, they find the answer, for if you twist at some parts and pull, the thing comes off.

***

He woke up to the sound of frantic beeping.

That was not a good sign, that was his atmospheric indicator determining that he had a suit breach. Despite the ringing in his ears, he knew enough to know that. He didn’t know where the light was still too bright and his body was still in pain. But then, he felt it…. Something cold against the skin of his hands.

He knew nothing should be cold since the inside of his gloves were very warm.

He tried to open his eyes, finding that, strange, there was shade, and though it was bright, he could finally see. Thinking was harder though considering the pain his was still in, the throbbing of his head the the diplopia that mirrored every image over itself.

He felt sick.

The suit continued to beep.

He heard the sound next, and knew what was coming. The soft scraping and snick just beside his neck.

Air rushed over his face, the beeping grew louder.

And then the world coalesced around him. To his sides it was bright, to bright to look, but above him it was less so, he could stare upwards now, and he wasn’t immediately dead, though his helmet was gone.

Something had taken off his helmet.

Why had it taken him this long to realize it?

He turned his head trying to find the source of his imminent death, and stops

This time, it does not take him long to register surprise.

***

They were right, and wrong, the creature was squishy, though no completely, and now it was moving responding to their touch.

It hadn’t died yet, so that was good, though it did not get up and move like it was supposed to.

They reachout touching at it, at it’s strange appendages at the end of it’s upper limbs, at the soft fibers atop it’s head, and the strange rubbery surface about the top which gave off a great amount of light.

It is silent as far as they can tell though it had many strange openings in its body that flexed and moved. It’s light is still fading. They use their light again to look and found something very strange, a symmetrical pattern of scaffolding that held up the squishy parts of the creature. This scaffold is generally open except for the one about the head which is closed. There is lots of heat there, and their light could see inwards, a building pressure.

That did ot seem normal for it is not symmetrical like it should be.

They could fix that.

They know how. Though, the creature has gone limp under their appendages, they still work. It is their duty to save all sources of light. It didn’t take them long to release the pressure, and once that is done the light grows back up pulsing more evenly. Their radio chatter is one of incandescent excitement. Merrily, they float about in circles basking in the light from outside pleased that this little glimmer of light is still here.

***

He woke up without a ringing in his ears this time, and the light from outside wasn’t so horrible on his eyes, though he still attempted to shade his vision. It was a struggle though, trying to remember where his limbs were and what they were doing. He was still having trouble comprehending his place in space and where all his appendages were.

Something caressed the side of his face.

He tilted his head down flinching back and the strange blue-tipped thendral pulled back away from him. At first he thought it was some sort of snake, and nearly panicked, but that didn’t seem right, so he followed the body of the tendral bak and upwards.

Still groggy, that didn’t stop his mouth from falling open in stunned amazement.

Stunned amazement as the alien creature floated over him.

***

The creature notices them now, they cannot tell how since it does not respond to their light, it is completely silent. They reach out with their tendrils feeling the creature, the fibers on its head, the soft outer covering. It pulls away from them at first hunkering bac against the ground, but as they continue, it seems to grow curious responding to their touch with touch of its own.

Its five protrusion appendages reach out trailing gently down their skin.

They tremble with delight.

It continues to reach towards them with it’s strange appendage, and one of their number reaches out wrapping a tendril around the appendage searching and feeling at the structure underneath. The creature is gentle and does not pull away. THey like this creature, it makes light and though they cannot fathom or understand it, there is something about the way it touches them.

It seems curious, just like them.

Just like the did before, it wraps its own protrusions around their tendrils. It is warm giving off heat with it’s light. This close, it’s heat is like the face of the sun cold spots giving it distinct character as it plays with them, though something is wrong. It’s light isn’t working again…. Had they done something wrong.”

***

He was growing very dizzy, and the muscles in his face would not stop twitching. He gently unwinded a tentacle from his wrist careful not to spook the creature that floated over him. It was curious like you would expect an octopus to be, and it did remind him of one like some weird sort of elephant squid. It was large, maybe six feet in length from the bottom of it’s two long tentacles to the top of it’s ‘head’.

On either side of its body, there were two large flaps, which it slowly used to maneuver flopping back and forth as it floated. IT floated primarily with the help of some sort of sack on the back of its body, not dissimilar to the Vrul. It had four eyes in a diamond pattern towards the top of its head, though as far as he could tell it did not hear seeing as it had not reacted to his voice.

Did he sense a sudden agitation in their numbers as they move in again beginning to prod at him with their tendrils once more.

One brushes itself down his face again, feeling at his head where, he had received somewhat of a knock during the crash. The dizziness was getting worse, as was the facial twitch.

He knew these signs, and desperately reached for the components of his suit, lying neatly beside him. The creatures pulled away floating about him in a wide circle.

He pulled a glove on and snapped it into place.

He turned to reach for the other finding one of the creatures had wrapped a tentacle around his other glove and was slowly reaching out towards him.

He took the offering gently and snapped the glove on.

He turned for his helmet, but had been beaten to it. With delicate movements slowed as if they moved through water, two of the creatures maneuvered the helmet over his head lowering it down and twisting it until it snapped in place.

Oxygen levels high, toxicity imminent, lowering oxygen output.

He took a deep breath. A tendril patted the outside of his helmet like an old granny pats the cheek of her grandchild.

He couldn't help but smile stroking his hand along the length of the tendril like he was petting a dog.

***

The light has returned, they are pleased, though they worry as another disturbance breaks the atmosphere. It is bright, bright like a second star, but it is fire, and fire is dangerous, they pull back watching as the fire descends from the sky. They do not move though, the creature does not move, but they cannot be sure it sees the disturbance at all. Things died down, and then a group of small lights appear over the wasteland.

They move without floating leaving trails of light behind them.

They pull back as the things pull closer slowly moving towards them. It is as if they are communicating with each other though there can be no possible way for them to do so seeing as they do not make noise and the light they commit is a steady pulse. They emit light like the first and slowly approach in a group.

The creature is not alone.

There are more of them, and they descend from the sky to walk on the ground.

As they observe, the first creature reaches out to them like it had done before. They are hesitant, but they follow suit wrapping tendrils around the proffered appendage. It returns their touch with touch of it’s own, and the group of its friends follow.

Another holds out an appendage like the first, and though they are cautious, they give it over, and the creature is just as gentle and curious.

They like to think that the creatures are thanking them for helping one of their own, and sadly they have to watch the creature go, wobbling back across the salt to return to the sky from where it came.

They were not likely to understand the silent creature.

But they did appreciate its curiosity.

The little light that had come to visit them, before returning to the sky.

Like a star

So I found this in my things the other day, and it is an alien design for the first space orcs book idea I had that I ended up scrapping. They were designed specifically to be as different form humans as possible, unable to stand us in any way.

I completely forgot about them, but then if you look at the bottom of the page you can see what I named them, “The Kril” and then I realized that they are the inspiration for my character Krill, who like them, can float, is plant based, and can see in infrared .

Guys these crazy dudes are the inspiration for Krill!

I thought they deserved to be resurrected.

Now I just need a good name for them, Comment if you have any ideas :)

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #HUMANS ARE WEIRD #humans are insane #humans are spaceoddities #earth is a deathworld #Earth is space Ausralia

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helloemptyset · 5 years

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description and part of story under cut

31 Day Horror House : Days 24 + 25 : a young child monster (or several) + a nanny or on-site schoolteacher

Again, starting from the lobby, you choose a destination on the map, this time a stairway. The map doesn't say if the staircase goes up or down, but you guess it doesn't matter, as long as you can figure out whether it correlates to the other scraps of map you have.

The halls seem less 'stressed' this go around, or maybe you didn't have to walk as long, since the staircase seems to have been under your nose the entire time. It went up, and as you walk up a flight, a bell rings loud enough to shake your teeth. It rings again as you reach the top, then again as you make it into the main hallway, causing you to fall to the now tiled floor.

From your vantage point of the floor, the tiles seem have a sweeter, happier feeling than the tiled hall of the first floor, the white speckled with orange and green in the same speckled shape as fish flakes. The walls have wallpaper now: What you read as the twilight zone of the oceanic zone scale, filled with fish you semi-recognize and some completely alien. Standing was proving to be difficult, the bell having knocked your sense of balance out of sorts, and you manage to drag yourself a little further across the smooth tile with your hands.

You don't make it far before you hear strange slappy sounds in front of you, but you aren't able to turn your head enough to see it. Taking a moment to stop, you pick yourself up onto your knees, quickly falling flat on your butt as you stare right ahead. Two doors, both open and streaming happy yellow light, are in the hallway in front of you, and in the very middle of the hall is a small, child-like... thing.

It looks like someone stuck a remora fish and a stingray together into something soft and baby-shaped. It wobbles on its little feet, head swaying gently on its rolled neck, and flaps its little arm-fins in the air for a moment before softly humming, the noise sounding as if pushed from its chest.

Before you can say something, it walks off into one of the open doors, and another sticks its face out of the other door. You wave, and it waves back, releasing a wet gurgle from its flat, wrinkly face.

There's something disheartening about running into children in a place like this, and as you're thinking about it, someone else much, much bigger walks into view.

"Oh, you found someone..." The voice, emerging more as a hum you think you can translate, sounds surprised in a calm, proud way, and as you look up, you see someone that seemed to just be an adult of whatever species of remora-ray-baby you've run into. Taller, wearing clothes, and with an unnerving design of a face on the underside of her... chin?

"Good afternoon, visitor. Welcome to our class." She says as she approaches, reaching out a flipper-arm to you. You grab it as gently as you can, surprised at how rough her skin feels as she pulls you up. "I see you're a little height-sick."

The two children wander around your feet as you wobble, holding onto the teacher until you feel you can stand properly. She pats your arm with her other flipper, and one of the babies slaps your leg to copy her, making the other go and slap that baby. They end up rolling on the ground, slapping at each other's bellies until the teacher walks between them.

"Now, children, back to class." She shuffles them into a classroom, and beckons you to follow. The room is bright and covered in ocean-based educational materials of all sorts, from posters to toys to little rugs showing the bottom of an ocean floor. There are only two desks, but the floor is soft and clean enough that you sit down beside the two babies.

As you look around, you notice something disturbing. While three of the walls are normal, with bright, happy posters and a large, very used whiteboard, the one at the very back of the room looked like some sort of sea creature's skin. It twitched on occassion, and you watch it squirm and move as if trapped. You couldn't be sure what sort of sea animal it belonged to, but you assumed a whale, as it took up the entire wall of the average sized classroom. It looked pocked with large markings.

"We don't have a lot here, but it is nice isn't it?" The teacher says, walking around the classroom. Her fin slides along a wall. "My school - Small as it is... It's the world to me. I just feel I can't teach much besides my knowledge of the ocean."

The babies make hissing sounds, turning in their stools to watch the teacher.

"My children are so young, so this is fine as a beginning... but they'll grow, and they'll need more to learn." She laughs sadly, something like a growl, "I just wish I had more resources."

You think for a moment, pulling out the map. The library is a little ways from there... But you show her, startled when she pulls the map out of your hands.

"Where in the world did you get this? This is amazing." She takes it to her desk, laying it flat atop her mass of stapled papers. "I've never explored in fear my children would get hurt in the wandering... But this would change everything."

You offer to copy it for her, and she shakes her head, rolling it up with the help of her desk.

"I have a copy machine! I'll give it right back. Just watch the children for me." And without letting you agree or anything, she walks off, leaving you with the babies.

They take to slapping you reassuringly like their teacher... mother? Did, though hard enough to sting. You sorta just lay there and let them, wiggling to provide a moving target.

After many slaps, they give up, laying on the ground next to you. There's something serene about the feeling of laying on the classroom ground, the heavy sound of a distant, slow heartbeat filling the air.

You don't realize you'd fallen asleep until a paper falls on your face, unable to sit up because the babies had moved to lay on your torso, splayed out and gurgling.

"Good job getting them to rest, visitor. I've copied the map for our use." She kneels, petting her children. "Thank you for widening our horizons. I don't think I could ever thank you enough for this."

The babies chirp and gurgle as she pushes them off, rolling along the soft ground, and she helps you up yet again.

She starts class up again once the children are awake enough to pay attention, and as she teaches, you smile and give her a wave as you leave. You check your map, seeing she's added where her classroom is, and make your way back to the stairs.

You feel more... you, than you have in ages.

[ image 1: two small creatures that look like vaguely humanoid mixtures of sea rays and some sort of odd sucker-fish. their faces are flat, with a bright pink color around their wrinkled 'mouths', which just look like raisined-up skin. their legs are fat and end in tiny feet, and they have a short fat tail behind them. their arms are flat and line the side of their bodies like the fins of a ray, and they have three gills on either side. the skin around their 'neck' is squished up, forming a soft roll. they're a dark grey-blue with blue polka dots on their back, and blue linings on the tips of their toes and tail. their belly is grey, the coloration stretching to circle their mouth. one stands up, fins held out, and one sits on the ground, head slightly turned to the viewer.

image 2: an adult version of the vaguely humanoid mix of sea ray and sucker-fish. her sucker-face looks straight up, no longer flat but protruding a little ways from her head. her underbelly markings have formed the vaguest of humanoid faces, two wide circles for eyes and a large, slightly upturned oval, forming something that looks at least a bit like smiling. she is wearing a collared, open tunic that is shorter in the front than the back, a seam in the front for velcroing closed. it is different shades of aqua-green, with little light brown stars on the fabric inside the border. she's also wearing a small string of pearls. her pants are deep grey, and come down at different lengths. she says, 'My school - small as it is...' in a very, very light green square speech bubble. ]

#31 day horror house #original #body horror #very long story again...#long post #trypophobia #not sure how to tag these guys

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sandranelsonuk · 5 years

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581 Sensory Words to Take Your Writing from Bland to Brilliant

It’s almost too easy.

By using sensory words to evoke sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell; smart and attractive writers just like you are able to make their words burst to life in their readers’ minds.

In this post, you’ll learn:

The science behind sensory details (e.g. why sensory words are so persuasive);

The definition of sensory words (plus examples);

How answering five simple questions will help you write descriptive words that pack your content with sensory language;

500+ sensory words you can incorporate into your own writing (right now).

Let’s dive in.

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The Colossal Power of Sensory Details

Remember the final scene in Field of Dreams when Ray Kinsella has a catch with his dad?

You can smell the grass on the field.

You can hear the sound of the baseball hitting their gloves.

And you can feel Ray’s years of guilt melting away as he closes his eyes, smiles, and tosses the ball back to his dad.

(Be honest. You’re crying right now, aren’t you?)

Field of Dreams made you feel like you were in Ray’s shoes, on his field, playing catch with dad.

The scene creates such a vivid experience for many viewers that whenever they think of playing catch, this scene will come up alongside their own childhood memories.

Here’s why:

When you paint a strong scene in your audience’s mind, you make it easier for them to pull it back up from their memory. You’ve essentially bookmarked it for them so they can easily find it when something — a sight, a smell, a sound — reminds them of it.

That’s the power of content that incorporates sensory details.

And this power isn’t limited to cinema classics capable of making grown men cry. For centuries, literary giants have been packing their prose with powerful words that evoke the senses:

“Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war; That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men, groaning for burial” — William Shakespeare (circa 1599)

In addition to The Bard, authors like Maya Angelou, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles Dickens excel at sensory language. So do literally every famous poet you learned about in school.

And that begs the obvious question…

Why are Sensory Details so Effective?

Short answer:

Our brains handle sensory words differently than ordinary words.

In a 2011 study published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, experts found that our brains process “tangible” (i.e. sensory) words faster than other words.

And in a study published for Brain and Language in 2012, psychologists found that a certain part of our brain is “activated” when we read sensory words.

In other words:

So, we know why sensory details are powerful. And we know writers have been tapping into their power for a long, long time.

Now let’s define them and go over a few examples:

What are Sensory Words?

Sensory words are descriptive words — using imagery, they describe how we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the world around us.

Let’s break each one down:

#1. Sight Sensory Words

Words related to vision describe the appearance of something (its color, size, shape, and so on).

Examples of visual words:

Her golden hair looked disheveled thanks to the gust of wind.

He was a towering presence.

I ordered a large orange juice, but the waiter brought me a teeny-tiny glass the size of a thimble.

→ Click here to unfold the full list of Sight Sensory Words.

Angular Azure Billowy Black Bleary Bloated Blonde Blue Blurred Blushing Branching Bright Brilliant Broad Brown Brunette Bulbous Bulky Camouflaged Chubby Circular Colorful Colorless Colossal Contoured Cosmic Craggy Crimson Crinkled Crooked Crowded Crystalline Curved Dark Dazzling Deep Dim Dingy Disheveled Distinct Drab Dreary Dull Dusty Elegant Enchanting Engaging Enormous Faded Fancy Fat Filthy Flashy Flat Flickering Foggy Forked Freckled Fuzzy Gargantuan Gaudy Gigantic Ginormous Glamorous Gleaming Glimpse Glistening Glitter Glittering Globular Gloomy Glossy Glowing Gold Graceful Gray Green Grotesque Hazy Hollow Homely Huge Illuminated Immense Indistinct Ivory Knotty Lacy Lanky Large Lavender Lean Lithe Little Lofty Long Low Malnourished Maroon Massive Miniature Misshapen Misty Motionless Mottled Mountainous Muddy Murky Narrow Obtuse Olive Opaque Orange Oval Pale Peered Petite Pink Portly Pristine Prodigious Purple Quaint Radiant Rectangular Red Reddish Rippling Rotund Round Ruby Ruddy Rusty Sabotaged Shadowy Shallow Shapeless Sheer Shimmering Shiny Short Silver Skinny Small Smudged Soaring Sparkling Sparkly Spherical Spotless Spotted Square Steep Stormy Straight Strange Striped Sunny Swooping Tall Tapering Tarnished Teeny-tiny Tiny Towering Translucent Transparent Triangular Turquoise Twinkling Twisted Ugly Unsightly Unusual Vibrant Vivid Weird White Wide Wiry Wispy Wizened Wrinkled Wrinkly Yellow

#2. Sound Sensory Words

Words related to hearing often describe the sound they make (known as onomatopoeia), but this isn’t always the case.

Examples of hearing words:

He had a big, booming voice.

The sound of screeching tires was soon followed by the deafening sound of a car horn.

As I peeked under the bed, the cackling laughter coming from the closet made the hairs on my arms stand up.

→ Click here to unfold the full list of Sound Sensory Words.

Babble Bang Barking Bawled Bawling Bellow Blare Blaring Bleat Boom Booming Bray Buzz Buzzing Cackle Cackling Chatter Chattering Cheer Chiming Chirping Chuckle Clamor Clang Clanging Clap Clapping Clicking Clink Clinking Cooing Coughing Crackle Crackling Crashing Creak Croaking Crow Crunch Crunching Crunchy Cry Crying Deafening Distorted Dripping Ear-piercing Earsplitting Exploding Faint Fizzing Gagging Gasping Giggle Giggling Grate Grating Growl Grumble Grunt Grunting Guffaw Gurgle Gurgling Hanging Hiss Hissing Honking Howl Hubbub Hum Humming Hush Jabber Jangle Jangling Laughing Moaning Monotonous Mooing Muffled Mumble Mumbling Murmur Mutter Muttering Noisy Peeping Piercing Ping Pinging Plopping Pop Purring Quacking Quiet Rant Rapping Rasping Raucous Rave Ringing Roar Roaring Rumble Rumbling Rustle Rustling Scratching Scream Screaming Screech Screeching Serene Shout Shouting Shrieking Shrill Sigh Silent Sing Singing Sizzling Slam Slamming Snap Snappy Snoring Snort Splashing Squawking Squeaky Stammer Stomp Storm Stuttering Tearing Thudding Thump Thumping Thunder Thundering Ticking Tingling Tinkling Twitter Twittering Wail Warbling Wheezing Whimper Whimpering Whine Whining Whir Whisper Whispering Whistle Whooping Yell Yelp

#3. Touch Sensory Words

Touch words describe the texture of how something feels. They can also describe emotional feelings.

Examples of touch words:

Two minutes into the interview, I knew his abrasive personality would be an issue if we hired him.

With a forced smile, I put on the itchy Christmas sweater my grandmother bought me.

The Hot Pocket was scalding on the outside, but ice-cold in the middle.

→ Click here to unfold the full list of Touch Sensory Words.

Abrasive Balmy Biting Boiling Breezy Bristly Bubbly Bubby Bumpy Burning Bushy Chilled Chilly Clammy Coarse Cold Cool Cottony Crawly Creepy Cuddly Cushioned Damp Dank Dirty Downy Drenched Dry Elastic Feathery Feverish Fine Fleshy Fluff Fluffy Foamy Fragile Freezing Furry Glassy Gluey Gooey Grainy Greasy Gritty Gushy Hairy Heavy Hot Humid Ice-Cold Icy Itchy Knobbed Leathery Light Lightweight Limp Lukewarm Lumpy Matted Metallic Moist Mushy Numbing Oily Plastic Pointed Powdery Pulpy Rocky Rough Rubbery Sandy Scalding Scorching Scratchy Scummy Serrated Shaggy Sharp Shivering Shivery Silky Slimy Slippery Sloppy Smooth Smothering Soapy Soft Sopping Soupy Splintery Spongy Springy Sputter Squashy Squeal Squishy Steamy Steely Sticky Stifled Stifling Stinging Stony Stubby Tangled Tapered Tender Tepid Thick Thin Thorny Tickling Tough Unsanitary Velvety Warm Waxy Wet Woolly

#4. Taste Sensory Words

Taste words are interesting. Though they can describe food, they’re often used in comparisons and metaphors.

Examples of taste words:

It’s a bittersweet situation.

Her zesty personality caught Karl’s eye.

The scrumptious jalapeno poppers comforted Karl after his bitter rejection.

→ Click here to unfold the full list of Taste Sensory Words.

Acidic Appetizing Bitter Bittersweet Bland Buttery Charred Contaminated Creamy Crispy Delectable Delicious Doughy Earthy Fermented Flavorful Flavorless Floury Garlicky Gingery Gritty Hearty Juicy Luscious Medicinal Mellow Melted Nauseating Nutritious Nutty Palatable Peppery Pickled Piquant Raw Refreshing Rich Ripe Runt Savory Scrumptious Stale Sugary Syrupy Tangy Tart Tasteless Unripe Vinegary Yummy Zesty

#5. Smell Sensory Words

Words related to smell describe — yes, you guessed it — how things smell. Often underutilized, sensory words connected with smell can be very effective.

Examples of smell words:

The pungent smell was unmistakable: someone in this elevator was wearing Axe Body Spray.

No matter the expiration date, it was clear from its rancid stench the milk had gone bad.

The flowery aroma was a welcome change after the elevator and milk incidents.

→ Click here to unfold the full list of Smell Sensory Words.

Ambrosial Antiseptic Aroma Aromatic Briny Citrusy Decayed Decomposed Doggy Fetid Floral Flowery Foul-smelling Fragrant Gamy Gaseous Horrid Inodorous Malodorous Mephitic Musky Musty Odiferous Odor Odorless Old Perfumed Piney Polluted Pungent Putrid Rancid Rank Redolent Reeking Scent Scented Sickly Skunky Smell Smoky Stagnant Stench Stinky Sweaty Tempting

Note on Taste and Smell:

Because they’re closely related, some sensory words can be used for both taste and smell. Examples: fruity, minty, and tantalizing.

→ Click here to unfold the full list of Taste and Smell Sensory Words.

Acrid Burnt Fishy Fresh Fruity Lemony Minty Moldy Mouth-watering Rotten Salty Sour Spicy Spoiled Sweet Tantalizing

Sensory Details: Examples in the Wild

Imagine the following headline came across your Twitter feed:

How to Avoid Using Boring Stock Photo Images in Your Content

Would you click it?

Better question…

Could you read the headline without falling asleep?

The answers are probably “no” and “heck no.”

Now imagine you saw this headline:

Much better, right?

The simple addition of the sensory word “cringeworthy” changes the tone of the entire headline. Instead of yawning, you’re thinking of an awkward or embarrassing moment you really don’t want to relive.

Let’s look at a few more modern-day examples of sharp people using sensory language to spruce up their content:

Using Sensory Words in Author Bios

I’ll pick on me for this one.

Here’s the author bio I used for one of my first-ever guest posts:

Kevin Duncan is the owner of Be A Better Blogger, where he helps people become the best bloggers they can be.

Now look at the author bio my friend Henneke wrote for Writer’s Block: 27 Techniques to Overcome It Forever:

Henneke Duistermaat is an irreverent copywriter and business writing coach. She’s on a mission to stamp out gobbledygook and to make boring business blogs sparkle.

My bio is devoid of sensory words (or any interesting words at all, if we’re being honest).

Henneke’s is chock full of them.

Her bio is interesting.

Mine is boring.

The lesson? Add at least one sensory word to your author bio.

Using Sensory Words in Social Media Profiles

Some people opt for brevity when writing their social media profiles, and that’s fine.

But if you want your Twitter profile (or Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media profile) to stand out from the crowd, sprinkle in a sensory word or two.

Like so:

Mel Wicks is a veteran copywriter who knows a thing or two about the effectiveness of descriptive words, so she uses them to spice up her Twitter profile.

Here’s an example from my badly-neglected Instagram account:

“Enchanting” and “adorably-jubilant” are wonderful sensory words — so wonderful, it’s a shame they’re wasted on a profile no one sees.

Look at your own profiles and see if there’s a place to add a sensory word or two. They’ll help your profile jump off the screen.

Heck, see if you can use enchanting and adorably-jubilant.

They deserve to be seen.

Using Sensory Words in Introductions

The opening lines of your content are so important.

If you’re a student, your opening sets the tone for your teacher (who we both know is dying to use his red pen).

If you’re an author, your opening can be the difference between someone buying your book or putting it back on the shelf in favor of one of those Twilight books (probably).

And if you’re a blogger, writer, content marketer, or business; your opening can hook the reader (increasing dwell time, which is great in Google’s eyes) or send them scurrying for the “back” button.

It’s why we put such an emphasis on introductions here at Smart Blogger.

Sometimes our openings hook you with a question.

Sometimes we strike a note of empathy or (like this post) focus on searcher intent.

And sometimes we give you a heaping helping of sensory words:

Imagine you’re sitting in a lounge chair on the beach, staring out over the glittering sea, the ocean breeze ruffling your hair, listening to the slow, steady rhythm of the waves.

In the above opening for How to Become a Freelance Writer and Get Paid $200 – $1K per Post, Jon Morrow uses sensory language to set a scene for the reader.

And it’s highly, highly effective.

Using Sensory Words in Email Subject Lines

Like you, your readers are flooded with emails.

And with open rates in a steady decline, people are trying anything and everything to make their email subject lines stand out:

Emojis;

Capitalized words;

All lowercase letters;

Two exclamation points;

Clickbait that would make even BuzzFeed go, “that’s too far, man.”

You name it, people are trying it.

Want a simpler, far-more-effective way to help your emails stand out from the crowd?

Add a sensory word.

Brian Dean loves to include words like “boom” in his subjects:

The folks at AppSumo and Sumo (formerly SumoMe) regularly feature descriptive words in their subjects and headlines.

Here’s one example:

And sensory language appears in most everything Henneke writes, including her subject lines.

In this one she also uses an emoji related to her sensory word. Very clever:

Now that we’ve covered several examples, let’s dig a bit deeper…

Let’s discuss some practical steps you can take that will make adding sensory language to your writing a breeze:

How Descriptive Words Can Pack Your Writing With Sensory Language

If you’ve taken a good English or writing class, you’ve probably been told a time or two to “show, don’t tell.”

This means you should create an engaging experience for your audience; not just tell them what you want them to know.

You accomplish this by using descriptive language that conveys sensations and lets readers experience your words (rather than simply read them).

And how do you do that, exactly?

Ask yourself these five questions when you’re writing:

#1. What Do You See?

It isn’t enough to tell your readers there was a scary house in your neighborhood when you were a child. Describe the house to them in vivid detail.

What shade of gray was it?

Were the doors boarded up?

Precisely how many ghostly figures did you see staring at you from the upstairs bedroom windows, and how many are standing behind you right now?

Paint a mental picture for your readers.

#2. What Do You Hear?

We listen to uptempo songs to push us through cardio workouts. Many of us listen to rainfall when we’re trying to sleep. Some of us listen to Justin Bieber when we want to punish our neighbors.

Want to transplant readers into your literary world?

Talk about the drip, drip, drip of the faucet.

Mention the squeaking floors beneath your feet.

Describe the awful music coming from your next-door-neighbor’s house.

#3. How Does it Feel?

Touch sensory words can convey both tactile and emotional sensations.

Can you describe to the reader how something feels when touched? Is it smooth or rough? Round or flat? Is it covered in goo or is it goo-less?

Paint a picture for your reader so they can touch what you’re touching.

The same goes for emotions. Help the reader feel what you (or your character) are feeling. Draw them in.

#4. What Does it Taste Like?

Does the beach air taste salty? Is the roaring fire so intense you can taste the smoke? Is the smell of your roommate’s tuna fish sandwich so strong you can taste it from across the room?

Tell your audience.

Be descriptive.

Make them taste the fishiness.

#5. How Does it Smell?

It wasn’t a basement you walked into — it was a musty, moldy basement.

And you didn’t simply enjoy your Mom’s homemade lasagna. You inhaled the aromatic scents of sauce, cheese, and basil.

Evoking the sense of smell is possibly the most effective way to pull readers out of their world and into yours.

So when you sit down to write, ask yourself if it’s possible to describe how something smells. And if you can? Do it.

The Massive Sensory Words List: 581 (and Counting) Descriptive Words to Supercharge Your Writing

Once you’ve asked and answered the five questions above, your writing will be packed with sensory details.

In time, you’ll build up your own massive list of sensory words you can reference and sprinkle throughout your work.

But in the meantime, here’s my list.

Bookmark them.

Print them.

Use them often:

SIGHT

SOUND

Angular Babble Azure Bang Billowy Barking Black Bawled Bleary Bawling Bloated Bellow Blonde Blare Blue Blaring Blurred Bleat Blushing Boom Branching Booming Bright Bray Brilliant Buzz Broad Buzzing Brown Cackle Brunette Cackling Bulbous Chatter Bulky Chattering Camouflaged Cheer Chubby Chiming Circular Chirping Colorful Chuckle Colorless Clamor Colossal Clang Contoured Clanging Cosmic Clap Craggy Clapping Crimson Clicking Crinkled Clink Crooked Clinking Crowded Cooing Crystalline Coughing Curved Crackle Dark Crackling Dazzling Crashing Deep Creak Dim Croaking Dingy Crow Disheveled Crunch Distinct Crunching Drab Crunchy Dreary Cry Dull Crying Dusty Deafening Elegant Distorted Enchanting Dripping Engaging Ear-piercing Enormous Earsplitting Faded Exploding Fancy Faint Fat Fizzing Filthy Gagging Flashy Gasping Flat Giggle Flickering Giggling Foggy Grate Forked Grating Freckled Growl Fuzzy Grumble Gargantuan Grunt Gaudy Grunting Gigantic Guffaw Ginormous Gurgle Glamorous Gurgling Gleaming Hanging Glimpse Hiss Glistening Hissing Glitter Honking Glittering Howl Globular Hubbub Gloomy Hum Glossy Humming Glowing Hush Gold Jabber Graceful Jangle Gray Jangling Green Laughing Grotesque Moaning Hazy Monotonous Hollow Mooing Homely Muffled Huge Mumble Illuminated Mumbling Immense Murmur Indistinct Mutter Ivory Muttering Knotty Noisy Lacy Peeping Lanky Piercing Large Ping Lavender Pinging Lean Plopping Lithe Pop Little Purring Lofty Quacking Long Quiet Low Rant Malnourished Rapping Maroon Rasping Massive Raucous Miniature Rave Misshapen Ringing Misty Roar Motionless Roaring Mottled Rumble Mountainous Rumbling Muddy Rustle Murky Rustling Narrow Scratching Obtuse Scream Olive Screaming Opaque Screech Orange Screeching Oval Serene Pale Shout Peered Shouting Petite Shrieking Pink Shrill Portly Sigh Pristine Silent Prodigious Sing Purple Singing Quaint Sizzling Radiant Slam Rectangular Slamming Red Snap Reddish Snappy Rippling Snoring Rotund Snort Round Splashing Ruby Squawking Ruddy Squeaky Rusty Stammer Sabotaged Stomp Shadowy Storm Shallow Stuttering Shapeless Tearing Sheer Thudding Shimmering Thump Shiny Thumping Short Thunder Silver Thundering Skinny Ticking Small Tingling Smudged Tinkling Soaring Twitter Sparkling Twittering Sparkly Wail Spherical Warbling Spotless Wheezing Spotted Whimper Square Whimpering Steep Whine Stormy Whining Straight Whir Strange Whisper Striped Whispering Sunny Whistle Swooping Whooping Tall Yell Tapering Yelp Tarnished Teeny-tiny Tiny Towering Translucent Transparent Triangular Turquoise Twinkling Twisted Ugly Unsightly Unusual Vibrant Vivid Weird White Wide Wiry Wispy Wizened Wrinkled Wrinkly Yellow

TOUCH

TASTE

Abrasive Acidic Balmy Appetizing Biting Bitter Boiling Bittersweet Breezy Bland Bristly Buttery Bubbly Charred Bubby Contaminated Bumpy Creamy Burning Crispy Bushy Delectable Chilled Delicious Chilly Doughy Clammy Earthy Coarse Fermented Cold Flavorful Cool Flavorless Cottony Floury Crawly Garlicky Creepy Gingery Cuddly Gritty Cushioned Hearty Damp Juicy Dank Luscious Dirty Medicinal Downy Mellow Drenched Melted Dry Nauseating Elastic Nutritious Feathery Nutty Feverish Palatable Fine Peppery Fleshy Pickled Fluff Piquant Fluffy Raw Foamy Refreshing Fragile Rich Freezing Ripe Furry Runt Glassy Savory Gluey Scrumptious Gooey Stale Grainy Sugary Greasy Syrupy Gritty Tangy Gushy Tart Hairy Tasteless Heavy Unripe Hot Vinegary Humid Yummy Ice-Cold Zesty Icy Itchy Knobbed Leathery Light Lightweight Limp Lukewarm Lumpy Matted Metallic Moist Mushy Numbing Oily Plastic Pointed Powdery Pulpy Rocky Rough Rubbery Sandy Scalding Scorching Scratchy Scummy Serrated Shaggy Sharp Shivering Shivery Silky Slimy Slippery Sloppy Smooth Smothering Soapy Soft Sopping Soupy Splintery Spongy Springy Sputter Squashy Squeal Squishy Steamy Steely Sticky Stifled Stifling Stinging Stony Stubby Tangled Tapered Tender Tepid Thick Thin Thorny Tickling Tough Unsanitary Velvety Warm Waxy Wet Woolly

SMELL

TASTE & SMELL

Ambrosial Acrid Antiseptic Burnt Aroma Fishy Aromatic Fresh Briny Fruity Citrusy Lemony Decayed Minty Decomposed Moldy Doggy Mouth-watering Fetid Rotten Floral Salty Flowery Sour Foul-smelling Spicy Fragrant Spoiled Gamy Sweet Gaseous Tantalizing Horrid Inodorous Malodorous Mephitic Musky Musty Odiferous Odor Odorless Old Perfumed Piney Polluted Pungent Putrid Rancid Rank Redolent Reeking Scent Scented Sickly Skunky Smell Smoky Stagnant Stench Stinky Sweaty Tempting

Are You Ready to Unleash the Power of Sensory Words?

It’s time to say goodbye.

Goodbye to lifeless words that sit on the page.

Goodbye to indifferent readers ready to move on to something, anything, else.

You now know why sensory details are so effective. You know how to sprinkle descriptive words throughout your content. And you now have a massive, ever-growing list of sensory words to bookmark and come back to again and again.

Variations of the following quote have been attributed to everyone from Carl W. Buehner to Maya Angelou, but regardless of who said it, and how they said it, it’s true:

“People may forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.”

It’s time to make your readers feel.

Are you ready?

Then let’s do this thing.

About the Author: When he’s not busy telling waitresses, baristas, and anyone else who crosses his path that Jon Morrow once said he was in the top 1% of bloggers, Kevin J. Duncan is the Blog Editor and Social Media Manager for Smart Blogger.

The post 581 Sensory Words to Take Your Writing from Bland to Brilliant appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from Julia Garza Social Media Tips https://smartblogger.com/sensory-words/

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moffixxey · 5 years