What do you smell?
I'm reading John Downer's book Supersense, and finding myself boggled by the extraordinary range of senses animals possess. But we humans possess powerful senses too, and I'm thinking about smell today.
Smell is the oldest and most primeval sense, and can transport us back to scenes decades ago, but often we don't use it in our stories. Sight is such a dominant sense that we forget to engage the others in our writing.
Humans even buy smells, in the form of perfume. The lingering scent of a familiar perfume can trigger memories of a lost love, or a much-missed parent or sibling.
Then there are the smells of places. The salty tang of the sea can draw us back there again and again. The scent of flowers in a garden may remind us of our childhood, happy or unhappy. The musty smell of damp and fallen leaves in the forest in autumn may remind us of the changing seasons, and of the changes that have taken place in our character's life since he/she last stood there.
The sour smell of manured fields is something I wanted to get away from fast as a teenager. The smell of fresh coffee draws me in to the cafe to drink it. We're told that the smells of fresh bread and coffee help to sell a house.
Smells will have personal association for every character, and we deepen their personalities if we tap into this primal sense and its associations and use it to make the more rounded people.
Smell is the oldest and most primeval sense, and can transport us back to scenes decades ago, but often we don't use it in our stories. Sight is such a dominant sense that we forget to engage the others in our writing.
Humans even buy smells, in the form of perfume. The lingering scent of a familiar perfume can trigger memories of a lost love, or a much-missed parent or sibling.
Then there are the smells of places. The salty tang of the sea can draw us back there again and again. The scent of flowers in a garden may remind us of our childhood, happy or unhappy. The musty smell of damp and fallen leaves in the forest in autumn may remind us of the changing seasons, and of the changes that have taken place in our character's life since he/she last stood there.
The sour smell of manured fields is something I wanted to get away from fast as a teenager. The smell of fresh coffee draws me in to the cafe to drink it. We're told that the smells of fresh bread and coffee help to sell a house.
Smells will have personal association for every character, and we deepen their personalities if we tap into this primal sense and its associations and use it to make the more rounded people.
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