Before I get started on the Creative Nudge for today I just wanted to let you know there is only one day left to win the above book!! Hush Money was a great read that reminds me of John Grisham's work, only written with a younger and edgier tone. Go enter to win it! There are very few entries so far so you have a good chance of being the winner.
Now onto today's Creative Nudge! As I explained last week, I am going to spend the next few weeks focusing on the different senses as a device to help add descriptive flavor to my writing, and hopefully yours! I'll be posting what I write up (this is what I wrote for the smell prompt) and I would love to read what you have to write as well.
Isn't that picture cute? It's cake....but it sure looks like a cup of coffee! Perfect picture to start out my discussion of taste. Make sure you check out the artist.
I decided to follow smell up with taste because the two are very connected, in fact 80% of what you taste is because of the smell, which explains why food tastes so bland when you have a cold and your nose is all plugged up.
When I think of taste I primarily think of food, which is normal, there aren't a lot of other things that adults taste, although tooth paste and the lips of a significant other come to mind. Food is a very important part of most cultures, and I've always found it fascinating that people have such a wide variety of interests in food, and that what I think of as comfort food you might find completely gross.
Here's some fun facts about taste thanks to this site and this site:
- Hypogeusia is a diminished sense of taste.
- Dysgeusia is a persistent taste, usually an unpleasant one.
- What we perceive as "flavor" is actually a combination of smell, taste, spiciness, temperature, and texture. So yes, it really does taste better cold, or hot, or whatever. Goldilocks knew what she was talking about!
- That "taste" I mentioned in the last fact? It is made of up of taste groups sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (a savory taste).
- You know those bumps on your tongue? Those aren't your taste buds, rather, they contain your taste buds, and each one has an average of 6 taste buds inside it.
- The average adult has between 2,000 and 10,000 taste buds, "super tasters" have even more!
- Your flavor preferences change over time and can be very affected by social queues. For example, if the first time you see someone eat something they react badly, you are less likely to like the taste of it yourself.
So how does the Creative Nudge work? Read on...
The Creative Nudge:
Theme: The sense of taste.
Genre: Any
Other requirements: Try to make the sense of taste central to whatever you write!
How it Works:
Take a few minutes to write a short response (any format or genre) to the prompt.
Post it on your blog.
Come back here and leave me a link in the comments so I can read it!
I'll post my own response on Tuesday for you to read.
Check back next Saturday for another Creative Nudge!
Need some ideas to get you started?
1. Write about your favorite food and a memory associated with it.
2. What's the worst thing you've ever tasted? Write about it!
3. Send your main character to a restaurant. What would they order? What do they think about the food? How does it make them feel?
4. Go to a World Food Store, pick something you've never tasted, try to describe it.
5. Pretend to describe your favorite dish to someone totally unfamiliar with the cuisine. So describe macaroni and cheese to an African tribesman. Or Thai food to someone who grew up on Southern home cooking.
6. Describe a taste none-food related. Someone's lips, medicine, toothpaste, or even blood if you write about vampires!
Have fun!
~ Ruthie ~
No comments:
Post a Comment