Writing with All Five Senses

The Bodega

This week I learned…

A technique called Writing with All Five Senses. 

The morning after this technique jostled its way into my mind, I checked out a new coffee shop in Santa Monica called Bodega. It’s a wine bar/coffee shop, so you can consume America’s two favorite drugs under one roof. (The third is a tie between fentanyl and The Bachelor.) 

Anyway, it’s a lovely place with low nooks, high benches, humans, and a skylight—undisputedly the heavyweight champion of lights. 

As I typed, my wrist made a few chiropractic adjustments, the crunch of cartilage, bone, and air bubbles escaping the depths of my four-time broken arm. One pop was so loud I swore I heard an echo. 

The coffee tasted like vocabulary. One coffee company’s tagline is That First Sip Feeling… But if I held the reigns of that green mermaid, I’d change it to That First Word Feeling… Or That First Bowel Feeling… All those half-learned, out-of-reach words plop to the ground like ripe persimmons. 

Flounce, temerity, assuages. There are a few I’ll forget tomorrow and never say out loud.

Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Did we get them all? Writing with All Five Senses is a fun technique to notice more, figured I’d share.

Happy three-day weekend,

Kyle