Writing Prompt: Timed Sensory Details

Use this prompt for nonfiction, fiction, or poetry. You can also use it as a starting place if you’re feeling stuck: just use this prompt to jot down details about the world around you. 

You’ll need a timer for this; the timed element is critical. When I am having trouble getting started, a timer is my best friend. I have one going right now. I have six minutes and one second left to write this blog post.

The rules of the timer are these: while the timer is going, you have to keep your pen or your fingers on the keyboard in motion. Put your phone in Do Not Disturb mode. Turn off your WiFi. Settle in.

If you’re using this prompt to add depth to a piece of fiction, use these prompts to contribute to your world-building. If you’re using it for poetry, determine a scene you’d like to explore — maybe a scene from your own past, or maybe something adjacent. 

1. Set your timer for four minutes. In these four minutes, describe everything that you can see. Use only visual details. Seek to notice specific images, and feel free to embellish as much as you’d like. Write until the timer runs out.
2. Set your timer for three minutes. In these three minutes, describe everything that you can hear, and everything you can feel. Begin with what you can hear, and feel free to fill the full three minutes with sounds. Only move on to things you can feel — textures, temperatures, etc. — if you run out of sound descriptions. Write until the timer runs out.
3. Set your timer for two minutes. In these two minutes, describe everything you can taste and everything you can smell. If you find you can’t smell or taste anything, pick things up and smell or taste them. You can pick up a pen or a crayon or a book or whatever. Figure out how to describe what is most difficult to describe.
4. Set your timer for one minute. List every color you see, and do it in absurd detail: “pale lemon-on-the-tree green”
5. Take a break.
6. Set your timer for six minutes. Beginning with the words “I am,” fill the page with a painting of the scene before you. Incorporate the details you’ve listed, but feel free to go off the rails, too. 

There are similar timed writing prompts created by Lynda Barry, listed in her books “What It Is,” “Syllabus,” “Picture This,” and “Making Comics.” She also does some of these as YouTube videos, which feels like a gift from heaven. Here’s just one, but feel free to explore: