n this video, I explore the power of perception and discuss how to use people’s differing perceptions to raise the bar on your storytelling.
Using an example from a trip to California’s famed wine country, I highlight how descriptors can be vivid and personal—showing readers just as much about the characters in your stories as what those characters think about the situations they encounter.
Hello, Jane Cleland here. You talk about the power of perception and how two people can look at the same thing, experience the same thing, and have very different perceptions about it. How do I describe that so that those differences in perceptions are clear? I think the answer is to describe it from that point of view. What does that person perceive? Describe that, and then go to your sensory elements to make it visceral. And the five senses really help you understand and narrow the focus so that the perception becomes clear.
One example I give in a webinar is that a friend of mine who lives in wine country, California, took me out to the back of her house and said, “Look at those golden hills.” And I’m looking, and I see brown, dead, withered stuff. So we’re looking at the same thing. To her, it’s gold and gorgeous. To me, it’s dead or dying. It’s brown. It’s ugly. Neither one of us is right or wrong. We could objectively describe what it is that is somewhere on the gold-brown spectrum of the color wheel. But that isn’t the point. The point is to describe what someone sees, feels, tastes, smells, or hears.
I know you can do it. I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you use perception to color the descriptions you write? Put it in the comment section. And if this video had value for you, I’d love it if you like it, share it, subscribe to the channel—that opens up features that let us make these videos even more valuable for you. Thank you.
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