Exploring Sensory Subjectivity in Stories
Challenging perceptions can show a world that's more real than what's usually presented as real.
This is part of my “Art of Noticing” series, in which I learn, find, or discover the things around me that usually go unnoticed and turn them into an endless source of creative inspiration.
NOTE: The last of these “Noticings” blog posts will run on April 13th. I’m going to keep recording the 9-minute daily podcast on which these posts are based, though, so if you want to keep your dose of daily Noticings, be sure to subscribe to the Art of Noticing podcast here on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
(You could also listen here on Substack, but that’s a miserable way to listen to a podcast so I don’t recommend it. Do yourself a favor and use a podcast app so you can listen on your commute or at the gym or something.)
Think about this for a second: You’re hearing things right now, if you have hearing, and you’re thinking, “That’s the hum of an air conditioner. That’s a phone ringing. That’s Joe talking down the hall.” But the truth is that your auditory stream is just a bunch of nerve signals, and “what you hear” is actually just a “lump” of undifferentiated sound. If your brain didn’t separate sounds, you’d only hear one: all sounds mashed together.
The same is true of sight. You may think you see two boxes, but really you’re seeing a field of color and light and value. “Two boxes” is something your brain is plucking out of a picture that would mean nothing to someone without the concept of “box” in their heads.
I’m a writer. I get to play with reality and bend it to my will. Realizing that there’s no absolute truth in perception gave me all sorts of ideas about how to fuck with perception. I love getting unreal. It’s so much fun in a story.
Here's how this "noticing" can influence my stories and art:
Crafting Unreliable Sensory Narratives
I like the idea of experimenting with characters whose perceptions are unreliable or subjective. Screw with your story’s world as a whole (since it’s seen through unreliable eyes) and you create uncertainty and tension. Readers are left to question what is real and what’s a product of the character's perception.
Do that, and you create psychological depth and complexity. By exploring the unreliability of the senses, you can go deep into the characters' internal struggles, fears, and desires, adding layers of meaning to the narrative.
Blurring the Lines of Reality
I love doing this. Love, love, love.
Using sensory subjectivity blurs the lines between reality and illusion — a powerful tool in genres that thrive on ambiguity, such as psychological thrillers, horror, or speculative fiction. Or, maybe, in a story about magic made real.
By playing with the boundaries of perception, we can create a place where the lines between what’s real and the imagined are fluid … or nonexistent. That kind of ambiguity engages the reader's imagination, drawing them deeper into the world.
Subjectivity of seeing the world is such a fun tool. We can create stories that are thought-provoking and a real head trip, pushing the boundaries of how we understand reality.
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