Jacob's Playbook - The overuse of the visual sense in writing

We are taught in school that there are five senses: Visual, Smell, Touch, Taste and Audio. Later in life, we are then taught there is this magical "sixth sense" which we all recognize as "the gutfeeling" - through all these senses, we as humans perceive the world and navigate accordingly.

Without these senses, writing would be a dull affair. Writers use these senses for one simple purpose: To bring the reader into the world, and make them feel as they were the ones experiencing what was happening, and not whatever point-of-view character we are currently following.

But for some reason, one of our senses is used a lot more than the others. If you have read the title, you can probably guess it. It's the visual sense. The prospect of observing the world through your eyes.

I've often wondered why this is. In the end, I believe it boils down to the fact that it is by far the easiest one to describe on paper. We are used to describe visual queues, but once we get to other senses, it gets more tricky, especially with smell and taste, where our only source of description is to compare it with something that people know.

Example: She took a bite of the forbidden fruit. It tasted like the first batch of sour apples from her garden back home. She grimaced in response and tossed it away.

Of course, I can describe the sourness even more, but then it becomes almost academic, as if I was a chef or a cicerone describing flavors as if it was my job. At this point, you lose most people. However, with the visual, you can continue for quite a while, especially when it comes to describing people or places. You can have pages and pages with these beautiful descriptions, and people will find them poetic and wonderful. Doing that with the other senses proves much more tricky.

However, there are two major drawbacks with the visual sense: One is obvious, one is not-so-obvious. I decided to write about them, because I often fall into these traps myself. It is something I have worked continously on for a 2-3 years to improve, but even today, it still influences my reading and has to be re-worked in editing.

The Obvious Drawback: Over-descriptions. How often has it not happened that a character has been introduced, and the writer has filled up half a page with all their unique traits, their hair, their clothes etc. The writer wants you to have a perfect image in your head, but the thing is - the reader will never be able to have that. Its too much information, and trying to connect the dots inside your head is a very exhausting exercise. Sure, some people can do this - but most people cant. The result: The reader really has no idea how to picture this person - it has the exact opposite effect of what the writer wanted.

The solution: Make simple character descriptions, but focus on something that is unique. Maybe its a distinctive jacket. Maybe he's the archetype brute/bald guy, then the reader can fill in the blanks based on their own idea of what a brute guy is. Or maybe, all the reader needs to know is that the character has a cute face, to the point where he almost looks like a baby. And then, re-emphasize that over and over during the story. Remind the reader, not because the reader is stupid, but because it helps the reader create associations to the character's looks and create a stronger mental image.

The most important thing is to create an image of the person for the reader. It doesnt have to be a high-rez image - it can be one or two things, and then let the reader imagine the rest.

The Not-So-Obvious Drawback: Whenever a reader starts reading descriptions through senses, we as writers wants them to start imagining those senses as they read, to put themselves into the world they are reading about. If we write that the character feels cold, we want them to imagine feeling cold with them. This is such a strong tool - but here lies the biggest drawback of the visual sense: We use the visual sense to read the text. What does this mean? It means that in order for the reader to visualize him/herself in the story, they need to multitask. They read the text AND they image what is described. As has been proven many times now, humans are not made for multitasking. Our brains are not wired for it. This means that when we force the reader to visualize while reading, the immersion is not nearly as strong as other senses.

Of course, a lot of especially experienced readers are better at this. They dont read the words, they sort of just flow to them, which creates stronger immersion. But people are still humans, and in the end, this is the biggest drawback of the visual sense. With the exceptions of audio books of course, where the visual sense is switched with the audio sense. As audio books gain popularity perhaps this is something writers need to be aware of in the future.

The solution is simply to remember the other senses as well. What is the touch? The smell? The feeling in the air that you can almost taste. Bring them together with smaller visual descriptions, and you will have the reader finding him/herself in a world of wonders.

The visual sense is amazing and maybe rightfully so is the most used sense to describe the world to the reader. That will, and should, not change. But when the visual sense goes from enabler to disabler of immersion, that's when writers gets hindered by their own ambitions to create something beautiful. It's something I'm keenly aware of in my own writing - and probably will continue to be for a long time. Improving ones writing is a never-ending journey after all.