Include The Sense Of Smell In Your Writing

Joyful Smells

The sense of smell is one we sometimes take for granted. We smell hundreds of things on a daily basis; some of them we aren't even aware of. Others assail our noses with pleasure and also those that make us cringe a bit.  Our memory bank is filled with smells of the past and the present. 

When we write fiction, memoir or creative non-fiction, we're often told to be sure and include some sensory details. Doing so brings your story alive and offers something readers can relate to. Regarding the sense of smell, don't we all remember and know the smell of bread baking or gasoline at the service station or coffee brewing? We're aware of the good aromas and the putrid smells, as well. 

If you wrote Gina smelled the flowers., your reader knows what Gina is doing but doesn't know what she is feeling or experiencing as she dips her nose into the flowers. If you wrote, Gina brought the bouquet to her nose, closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet scent, which tickled her nose. She spiraled back to her grandmother's flower garden in England where the aroma of the many blooms permeated the air as if someone had sprayed a perfume mister over the area. In this passage, we get a better picture of Gina as she smells the flowers and we learn what memory the scent triggered. It might also trigger some memory for the reader.

Look at the list below. Write a short passage for each showing the smell and what memory it triggered for you (or a memory you think might be triggered for others.)  

• A real Christmas tree
• Candles
• Chicken Soup simmering on the stove
• Popcorn popping
• Ashes in the fireplace
• A full trash can on a summer day
• Newly mowed grass
• A hog farm
• A bouquet of flowers
• Bubblegum
• A wet dog

When the How-To-Write books tell you to add sensory details such as the sense of smell, they don't mean that you should just tell the reader that the character smelled something. Let them see how the character acts and reacts. It's a simple thing--rather minimal in the overall scope of good writing. Pay attention to a whole raft of simple things like this and your writing will improve.