How I Learned

How I Learned

28 x 20

Day 4: Immersion | 28 x 20

The rest of us following like seals

Blaise Allysen Kearsley's avatar
Blaise Allysen Kearsley
Feb 04, 2026
∙ Paid

UPDATE: Links added to the books mentioned. Also, support indie bookshops, your local library, and buy used. Please, never Amazon.

HELLO. Welcome back. Good lord, so many errors in yesterday’s 28 x 20 post. While I fix those, you read the prompt for Day 4. Happy writing.

E.L. Doctorow, author of Ragtime,1 said “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader — not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

Many of us experience the world through our five senses — sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Sensory details don’t only describe experience — they recreate it, triggering deep visceral memories that reverberate. When you appeal to senses on the page, and do it well, you’ll immerse the reader in the world of your story.

Guess what we’re going to do next.

Your daily reminders:

  1. The 20-minute timer is super important. It’ll keep you focused. Someone somewhere said it’s “enough time to enter the cave and come back out relatively unscathed.

  2. Phone should be out of reach. Turn on Do Not Disturb if you’re using the timer on your phone.

  3. Aim for 150 words minimum, 800 max. But don’t let it distract you from the writing.

  4. Start anywhere. Start with the first words that come to your head.

  5. Keep your hand moving.

  6. If you get stuck, relax your shoulders. Relax everything. Take a deep breath.

  7. If you can’t go any further, keep going anyway.

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