The senses. Most of us have at least five of them.

Sight
Sound
Taste
Touch
Smell

Use them in your stories. They add depth and texture to your narrative. Use emotions in conjunction with them. Let the physical details of the surroundings echo the action of your story. A character can taste the ice in their drink as they reject their lover.

Something as simple as the slide of a finger on bared skin can make your readers shiver with the suppressed passion behind the touch. Use contrasts. Even the obvious ones, light and dark, hot and cold, or hard and soft can add incredible depth to your story.

Take a look at this:

Alex waited, trying not to let his anxiety show. He waited, he'd been waiting for years for this. There was no way to know if Mulder sensed his tension, shared the same depth of need.

Mulder had just shrugged. Had said, "Sure" as though Alex had asked for nothing more complicated than a glass of water. And then he'd led the way to the shadowed bedroom. Alex followed, then hovered in the doorway, unable to comprehend the ease of Mulder's acceptance.

Mulder stepped away from him and slid casually out of the heavy shirt, kicking off his shoes at the same time. "You planning to join me?" The jeans. Buttons. One, two, three, four, then five. Not a tease, but deliberately casual.

"Yeah." Alex took that final step into the dim room and toed off his own shoes. He started with his own jeans, putting off the moment when his ruined shoulder would be exposed. One button, and a zipper. Not as fashionable, but easier with one hand. Heavy denim around his knees, he leaned against the wall and pulled his legs free. Shivered in spite of the warmth of the room.

"The shirt." Mulder, naked in the weak light that seeped in from the other room. Too much to take in all at once. Alex looked at the calm eyes, darkened to black in the dimness. "The shirt," Mulder repeated.

He didn't let himself fumble with the buttons. Now or never. There was no beauty in what he exposed. Gratitude for the shielding darkness of the room. A razor-sharp pain moved into Alex's throat as he waited for revulsion. Rejection. He wanted to keep the arm, keep the security of leather straps that separated him from nudity.

Mulder stepped closer, just out of Alex's reach but close enough to let the meagre light slip across the perfection of two arms. Two broad shoulders framing a strong chest. He waited with uncompromising patience. "All of it."

Head, eyes lowered, Alex pulled at the harness, freeing his ruined shoulder from the pressure of hard plastic. The prosthetic, obscene in its detached rigidity, dropped to the floor.

A breath. Another, and Alex lifted his head and looked into Mulder's eyes.

Eyes that didn't meet his own. Eyes fastened on the disfigured flesh, the shrunken useless muscle that hunched one shoulder into itself.

An instant of sour fear, oceans of panic filling Alex's brain and replacing the stillborn passion he could no longer remember. "So?" The words were strangled from his throat.

Mulder leaned in toward him, his weight braced on an arm against the wall. "So?"

Sound, sight, touch, taste. I didn't get any smell into it, but you don't have to include all five senses in every scene. The more you do include, the better your scene will be, of course.

We have Alex, vulnerable and uncertain. The sour taste of fear. Insecure as he compares his body to Mulder's, looking at the two perfect shoulders. Alex has the courage to have made the offer and to wait for...whatever he's going to get. Or, does he? The words are "strangled" from his throat.

There's Mulder, withdrawn and distant but for some inexplicable reason he has agreed to Alex's suggestion. He's seen what Alex didn't want exposed, watched the clumsiness as Alex strips off the faked arm and stands there, more than naked in the shadowy room. So far, Mulder's reaction has been suppressed. We know there IS one...but what it's going to be could be anything. The story isn't Mulder's P.O.V., it's Alex's. We know Alex's sensual experiences, what he sees and hears, what he feels. That's where the reader's attention should be concentrated.

You don't want to include sensory detail for anyone except your story's narrator. Keeping the description of sensory detail confined to what your narrator can see, taste, touch, feel, and hear allows the reader (who should be identifying with the narrator) to become more fully involved in the action.

Then there's the more standard type of sensory detail. The sight and touch of the physical surroundings. Smells. Sounds.

If the characters are eating, the food should have taste and smell, there should be a physical sensation of the texture. If they're talking, voice tones and background noises fill in the unspoken meanings in the words. If they're driving, is the road smooth or bumpy? Is there a lot of road noise in the car? Is the radio on? Are they sitting? Are surfaces scratchy? Cool? How is the light?

Sensory detail can be added even if you're working with less than the full five senses. Moderation in all things, of course. Not every inanimate object needs to be described and not every paragraph should include all five senses.