Thinking about a trip you took, what were your thoughts and emotions upon returning home?
As you got closer to home:
Were you anxious to get home?
What were you looking forward to?
What were you dreading?
Let’s say this was a plane trip.
You arrive at your home airport.
As you leave the plane and enter the terminal, what do you smell?
Perhaps diesel fuel, leftover food, sweat, the dank, musky odor of the walkway into the terminal.
Notice the smells as you walk through the airport to the baggage claim, and then to your car or a bus.
You arrive at your home entry door. What are the smells of your yard, the area around your doorway?
What smells hit you as you walk inside your house?
What smells did you miss while you were gone from home?
What do you regret leaving behind on your trip? Will you go back? Have you gone back?
See Prompt #882 for ideas on writing about a trip.
After you come to a good stopping place with this writing, use appositives to add to your writing.
Or, use appositives for any of your writing.
Appositives: A word or group of words that add detail to the original sentence. Appositives are not essential for the sentence to have meaning.
Pick a section from something you have written.
For each sentence, write one to three sentences, appositives, to add detail. Add details using the senses of touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste.
Appositives can enrich the writing.
An example from writing teacher Adair Lara, italics are appositives:
“Within fifteen minutes a new scent began to waft its way through the kitchen, edging through the other, more pleasant odors like an impatient man pushing his way through a crowd.”an impatient man pushing his way through a crowd.”