How important is smell in your writing?
How important is smell in your writing?
— Women Writers (@WomenWriters) August 16, 2014
@WomenWriters I use scent for various visceral things in my writing. Scent and taste bring the reader into the character's immediate world
— AK Anderson (@A_K_Anderson) August 16, 2014
@WomenWriters Smell is a key sense we must describe in our writing. It can evoke memories, heartbreak, fear. It's all about the smell.
— E. L. Johnson (@ELJohnson888) August 16, 2014
Someone we know lost her smell for three years and wrote about not remembering until healed. .@WomenWriters
— SeattleWomenWhoWrite (@Seattle3W) August 16, 2014
@WomenWriters I think it's very important. It's one of the ways I immerse the reader into the story.
— Natali Kim (@EternallyNatali) August 16, 2014
@WomenWriters I just hope my writing doesn’t stink. The sensory is always important. Smell, I think, is the most neglected.
— Denise Clemen (@demanuelclemen) August 16, 2014
Very important. Main characters have specific scents associated with them. RT “@WomenWriters: How important is smell in your writing?”
— Tiffany Reisz (@tiffanyreisz) August 16, 2014
@tiffanyreisz @WomenWriters There's a certain roast of coffee that if I catch a whiff of I'm instantly transported to my grandma's kitchen.
— Karen Stivali (@karenstivali) August 16, 2014
Category: On Writing
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i have heard that the sense of smell can evoke the strongest emotions. A most important addition to writing.
Cooking aromas, outdoor scents, the smell of skin and hair, of clothes, cars, houses – it’s a bit of a smellathon my writing 🙂
I think that smell is as important a sense as the more regularly described ones to give an authentic feeling of place. I still remember the disappointment I felt twenty years ago when I visited the Epcot centre at Disneyworld. Their sets trying to evoke various countries were so clinical and clean smelling! Its the same with writing, but it’s so often overlooked.
I know I don’t use it enough in my own writing. I’m working on that now.
I do use scents, colors and sounds in my writing. My mentor, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, shared with me years ago that writing is an extension of our 5 senses. We as writers need to remember that we are human and those sensations make the writing richer. I LOVE this post! Thank you for sharing it!
To me smell is one of the essentials. Smell can do so much to draw the reader into the story whether it be frying bacon, perfume, flowers or nastier smells like dead bodies. My favorites, I think, are rain after a dry period and freshly soaped skin.
One of the nicest comments I had regarding my writing was after a reading. A member of the group came up to me and said,”I loved your description of the man’s study. I could smell the leather, wood and cigar smoke. I was there.”
As I read this question, How important is smell in your writing? I realised I use it very little. Thank you for drawing my attention to this and reminding me to use all the senses. I’ve been tending to focus on sight and neglecting the other senses which are so important for describing a scene.