FOCUS ON… Using all the senses to engage readers

HomeFOCUS ON… Using all the senses to engage readers

How sensory storytelling can bring your characters and story to life

Readers want a story that feels real. And the best way to make it feel real is to use all the senses in your narration—not just in your descriptions, but in all of your character interactions and plot events!

This Focus On seminar takes a deep dive into how you can use sensory information to:

deepen your characterisations,
bring settings to life,
show the real effect of plot events, and
fully engage your reader in your story.

Key information
Key information:
This is an online self-paced seminar Duration 1 This is an online self-paced seminar Duration: 1.5 hours. Your 12 months’ access begins straight away Duration: 1.5 hours. Your 12 months’ access begins straight away Seminar presenter: Pamela Freeman Seminar presenter: Pamela Freeman $65

Sensory information is varied and personal; everyone perceives the world differently. A clever use of the senses creates memorable characters who live and breathe on the page—and every one of your characters can feel ‘real’ in this way to readers, not just your point of view character.

As well, the right choice of sensory information, hitting all the senses, brings the setting of each scene vividly alive; immediately, and over time, as characters and the situation changes.

Readers will engage with a story that is brought to life using all the senses, and which therefore gives characters believable reactions. Sensory storytelling helps put the head, heart and body of your characters on the page, and brings them alive in the reader’s imagination.

Take a quick peek into the course: FOCUS ON… Using all the senses to engage readers

“Pamela clearly explored more than just the 5 senses. It was quite an epiphany! Having completed several AWC short courses I was confident that I’d glean a wealth of new knowledge from this seminar, and I did!”

Tanya Allen

In this FOCUS ON seminar

Pamela focuses on how to write page-turning stories that use all of the senses to engage your reader. Each FOCUS ON seminar explores an important aspect of the art of writing – in an interactive, accessible and efficient way. The session consists of a 1 hour expert presentation plus an additional 30 minute Q&A – designed to entertain, educate and inspire you to improve your craft.

Meet your presenter

Pamela Freeman is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than 40 books and novellas, plus short stories and scripts. She writes under two names: Pamela Freeman for children’s and fantasy, and Pamela Hart for mystery novels and historical fiction.

Prolific across multiple genres, Pamela has a Doctorate in Creative Arts (Writing) and she has been the director of creative writing here at the Australian Writers' Centre for over 10 years.

“Pamela offered a huge amount of interesting information and presented it in a warm, easy-to-understand way with plenty of examples. I can see that increasing sensory material in my writing will add considerable depth to my work. The seminar also helped me to better understand how good writers create distinctive, well-drawn characters and scenes. The AWC is the go-to place in Australia for high-quality writing courses covering a wide range of topics, formats and pricing.”

Glenys McLaughlin

Key information
Key information:
This is an online self-paced seminar Duration 1 This is an online self-paced seminar Duration: 1.5 hours. Your 12 months’ access begins straight away Duration: 1.5 hours. Your 12 months’ access begins straight away Seminar presenter: Pamela Freeman Seminar presenter: Pamela Freeman $65