Pinpoint The Sense of Smell in Your Writing

As a writing exercise today, let's concentrate on using the sense of smell in your fiction, personal essays, family stories, and poems. We all know that some things smell wonderful while others can literally turn our stomachs.

Write two paragraphs showing your character dealing with a smell. One should be with a pleasant smell and the other one should illustrate something that smells bad. You might use the same character in both paragraphs to show how he/she reacts to both a good and a bad smell. Or create two different characters.

Use descriptive language and active verbs. Be sure to show the reader how the character reacts. Don't just tell them.

An exercise like this one helps only in details of your writing, but by making those details come alive, your story can only benefit. Doing this by showing will bring your reader into the scene.

I thought about giving you a sample paragraph but decided against it. I would rather you come up with something entirely your own, uninfluenced by anything else.

Give it a try.