The work I do as a writer doesn’t always occur in front of a computer or notebook. If you’ve been around Noveltea for any length of time, you’ve probably heard me talking about taking long, rambling walks whenever I have a deadline. This always puts my brain into gear to work fast and get a lot accomplished. There are other times and places though where writerly thoughts push through and brainstorming commences.

In fact, there are probably only two times when I actively try not to think about writerly things and that’s when 1) Someone is talking with me and 2) I’m in church. And even during those two instances, I still welcome writerly thoughts when they’ve been inspired by what I’m hearing. Only, in those cases I have to file the thoughts away to pull out and ponder later, instead of dwelling on them then.

Being an author isn’t a 9-5 job. It’s not something that can be shut off on the weekends. See, it’s not only a job, it’s also a lifestyle. Everything I say, do, and think colors my writing in some way or another. Most of the time that’s fun, and other times, well…I just have to learn to deal with it.

One of the things I greatly enjoy about life is seeing the world from a different perspective. Of course each one of us sees the world differently from everyone else, but we also have the ability to see the world in a different way than we’re used to seeing it.

For instance, I’m a really touch-feely person. I enjoy textures and sometimes catch myself absentmindedly rub my hands along surfaces (as a child my mom often reminded me that touching walls and such in public spread germs). On the other hand, I generally take note every time I smell something, because the sense of smell isn’t something I do as naturally.

It hit me recently that in my Echoes series, which is told by two point of views, I could make the characters more distinct by having one of them always notice the senses that have to do with seeing and hearing, and the other notice stuff that has to do with tasting, smelling, and touching. Now that I’ve decided that, whenever I’m working on that series (currently it’s set aside so I can focus on editing), my brain will be like “Hey! Did you notice that taste? Nicolette would probably describe it this way.” and so on and so forth.

This weekend that my brain kept pulling up solutions for a slight problem I’ve run into with When Life Hands You Lymes. By the time this morning came around, I was ready to sit down and fix the issue, even though I hadn’t been “working on writing” at all over the weekend. It’s delightful when problems solve themselves like this…

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What about y’all? Which one of the five senses are you most likely to notice the most?