Ever get a cold chill when walking by a place or a person who seems perfectly ordinary? One that everyone else regards as perfectly ordinary?
Ever taste something which doesn’t compare to any food or drink you’ve ever tried? One you struggle to find the words for?
Do ever find yourself drifting during a particular piece of music, floating off into a space where light and color are born from the sound, shaping something you can’t quite remember when you remember where you are? Realizing that for a few moments you forgot those things? Including who you are?
Ever smell something which evokes a memory, a time and a place you’d forgotten? Even if you can’t completely recall the time or the place?
Have you been dazzled by a curious pattern which you close your eyes after witnesses, only to have the after image linger upon your eyelids?
These are just a few examples. There are many strange sensations in the world, waiting to be experience. Each of one is a potential story. Something which can be expanded upon and explored.
Even the most ordinary events can make a strong impression upon us. An impression our imagination can take in surprising directions.
Curious chill have invoked curious relationships with less than tangible entities for my characters. My own light-headedness after meeting an intense gaze became an entire novella which expanded into a novel. The sense of drifting off, apart from my body when I’m listening to music or a story has become an ability for more than one character.
I’ve seen other writers explore the strange sensations their characters had, the directions they’ve taken them. It’s been intriguing and entertaining to see the journeys they’ve embarked upon with those sensations.
Ever explore such sensations yourselves? Where have they taken your characters?