A good example of someone using the body senses to create a scene that feels real is the opening of Hilary Mantel’s novel Wolf Hall.

PUTNEY, 1500

"So now get up!" Walter is roaring down at him, working out where to kick him next. He lifts his head an inch or two, and moves forward, on his belly, trying to do it without exposing his hands, on which Walter enjoys stamping. "What are you, an eel?" his parent asks. He trots backward, gathers pace, and aims another kick.

It knocks the last breath out of him; he thinks it may be his last. His forehead returns to the ground; he lies waiting, for Walter to jump on him. The dog, Bella, is barking, shut away in an out house. I’ll miss my dog, he thinks. The yard smells of beer and blood. Someone is shouting, down on the riverbank. Nothing hurts, or perhaps it’s that everything hurts, because there is no separate pain that he can pick out. But the cold strikes him, just in one place: just through his cheekbone as it rests on the cobbles.

How many body senses are used here? Do you think this makes an energetic physical start to a novel? Even though this is set in 1500 do you feel as if you are right there in the yard on the cobbles with the character Thomas Cromwell? Does it make you feel sympathetic to him?

Repeat the Body Senses writing exercise #2 but this time imagine another person, in a different place and situation. Could be someone you know or a fictional character. Choose someone as different to you as possible eg a pirate at sea in the eighteenth century cleaning the deck of their ship OR an alien life form touching water for the first time. Use the senses to make this imaginary scene as real as possible.