Sensory Triggers
About four years ago, my husband switched shifts at work and had to be there at 5:30 a.m. Back then, we only had one car and I needed it to take Son to school. So every morning, the three of us got up, took Joe to work, then Son and I would go to the gas station. It was mid-January. Snowy. Cold. Son and I would get hot chocolates, maybe a donut.
Back at home, we'd hang out in my bedroom. I'd turn on VH1. Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around Comes Around" played non-stop. Now, whenever I hear that song, I'm instantly taken back to those few months in the dead of winter. Hot chocolate in hand, music playing in the background, Son sleeping next to me because he always crashed out. I might have hated getting up so early, and I might have hated driving in the snow, but somehow those months stand out in memory, those dark, cozy mornings meaning more to me than the summer months that came after.
In Altered, Anna's life drastically changes around page 30. While on the run, certain things remind her of home, and these sensory triggers are important, for her and me. Brittle field grass shifting in the wind always reminds her of the field behind her house. The glow of anything orange reminds her of the keypad at the entrance to the lab.
I realized Anna had several triggers, but it made me wonder, what about the other characters? Right now I'm in the process of jotting down their sensory triggers. For the boys, this is a little trickier, since they have no memories of their life before the lab. Sam does mention that water seems to trigger something. It's never enough to form a memory, but enough for him to know water was a large part of his life before the lab (of course, I have yet to decide if Sam was just BSing Anna to manipulate her into snooping through his file).
When I'm working on a project, I spend a lot of time on this site a free stock photography site where I gather photos that remind me of the book or the characters or the setting. Sometimes I make backgrounds for my computer with the photo and a line from the book so every time I open the computer, I'm greeted with the image. It always gets me in the mood. Like this:
What sort of sensory triggers do your characters have?