Gustatory Imagery: 80+ Show Don’t Tell Examples

If you’re a writer or you’ve studied creative writing, chances are you’ve come across the expression ‘Show, Don’t Tell.

In literature and poetry, this is called ‘Imagery’ — the use of different expressions and figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader. 

What is Sensory Imagery in Literature?

When authors use the imagery in their writings, they provide readers with the sensory details to help them fully understand the imaginary world created in the book.  

Sensory imagery works by engaging a reader’s five senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, and feeling) with concrete details that allows them to create vivid imagery of what is happening. 

New writers often struggle to understand the difference between showing and telling

But, Most of the authors know these differences, and yet they fail to maintain the balance between showing and telling.

If you’re one of them, bookmark this article that has over 300+ Show Don’t Tell Examples. These sentences are completely at your disposal. You can use them in your writing as they are. (Just put us in attributions, it’ll make us happy).

Show Don’t Tell Examples.
Show Don’t Tell Examples

Before I begin, understand that there are 7 different types of imagery in literature:

Types of Imagery in Literature

  • Visual Imagery
  • Auditory Imagery
  • Olfactory Imagery
  • Gustatory Imagery
  • Tactile Imagery
  • Kinesthetic Imagery
  • Organic Imagery
300+ Show Don’t Tell Examples
300+ Show Don’t Tell Examples

In this article, I’ll talk in-depth about Gustatory imagery.

Gustatory Imagery:

The Gustatory imagery appeals to our sense of taste by describing something the narrator or protagonist tastes. It’s most effective when the author describes a taste a reader might have experienced before so they can recall it from their memory.

Taste. The character gets a taste of something or tastes something. How will the reader know what it is or how it tastes? To provoke your reader’s taste buds, make ample use of gustatory imagery. Whether something is spicy or sour or too sweet for the character’s liking, the reader ought to savour or be disgusted with that. Besides food, there are more obvious objects which a person tastes.

Gustatory Imagery Examples:

  1. Blood oozing out of split lip
  2. Chlorine in water while swimming
  3. Taste of a corroded coin
  4. Overcooked Meat
  5. Ink from a pen
  6. Cement or soil a kid swallows while playing
  7. Rainwater falling from the tin-roof
  8. Chewing Gum
  9. Tobacco
  10. Fingernails
  11. Runny Nose
  12. Earwax/ Booger
  13. Baby’s skin while kissing it
  14. Shampoo/ Soap/ Oil
  15. Snow/ Ice
  16. Phlegm
  17. Clay
  18. Cookie Dough
  19. Dessert Sprinklers
  20. Toothpaste
  21. Dust
  22. Paper
  23. Cold Metal
  24. Mud
  25. Sea water
  26. Freshly baked bread
  27. Stale broccoli
  28. Moulded Pizza
  29. Ripened banana
  30. Sweat trickling down forehead

Adjectives which suit best the above written nouns are as follows:

  1. Corroded
  2. Gravelly
  3. Grainy
  4. Acidic
  5. Ascetic
  6. Bitter
  7. Sweet
  8. Sour
  9. Salty
  10. Watery
  11. Muddy
  12. Creamy
  13. Citrus
  14. Milky
  15. Caramel
  16. Chocolaty
  17. Bubbly
  18. Buttery
  19. Burnt
  20. Crispy
  21. Crumbly
  22. Crunchy
  23. Nutty
  24. Fruity
  25. Coppery
  26. Delicious
  27. Delectable
  28. Savoury
  29. Rich
  30. Succulent
  31. Yummy
  32. Sapid
  33. Nectarean
  34. Delish
  35. Greasy
  36. Oily
  37. Gritty
  38. Frosty
  39. Flakey
  40. Fishy
  41. Fizzy
  42. Fried
  43. Floured
  44. Fibrous
  45. Frothy
  46. Boiled
  47. Foamy
  48. Honeyed
  49. Heavenly
  50. Herbed
  51. Herby
  52. Grapey
  53. Juicy
  54. Tangy
  55. Icy
  56. Leathery
  57. Lemony
  58. Luscious
  59. Overcooked
  60. Undercooked
  61. Powdery
  62. Plummy
  63. Pasty
  64. Rotten
  65. Red-hot
  66. Rubbery
  67. Sandy
  68. Soiled
  69. Seasoned
  70. Snowy
  71. Soggy
  72. Sloppy
  73. Squishy
  74. Syrupy
  75. Gravied
  76. Tart
  77. Ripe
  78. Yeasty
  79. Zesty
  80. Mouldy

Before you leave, check out these 100+ examples on Tactile imagery to empower your ‘Show don’t tell game.’

1 thought on “Gustatory Imagery: 80+ Show Don’t Tell Examples”

  1. Pingback: 50+ Show Don’t Tell Examples for Olfactory Imagery: | OakWords

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