I love the smell of freshly baked bread, chocolate chip cookies, pine cones, my cats' heads (weird, I know), sheets just out of the dryer, grass after it's been cut, the pages of a new book, and mint tea.
I'm not crazy about the smell of overcooked broccoli, dirty socks, dog breath, wet wool, cheese that's been left in the refrigerator (ugh), burned toast, and car exhaust.
What smells do you like? What smells do you dislike?
Our sense of smell is a powerful way to connect with our readers. I don't mean our readers will actually smell US. I mean we can use the sense of smell in our stories to draw our readers in.
An example:
When you smell freshly cut grass, what does it make you think of? The time you walked in the park with a favorite grandparent? The time you hit a home run in Little League? The time you got grass stains on your jeans and your mom was mad?
We all make emotional connections through our senses when we read. Smell is one of the most powerful of the five senses. We make a connection between a smell in a story, and an emotion we felt when we encountered that smell in real life. The smell in the story takes us right back to that emotion, even if the event happened three years ago.
Try this. Write a scene with two characters talking. (Any two characters: a police officer and the driver he's giving a ticket to; two worms in a garden; or a boy and his martial arts teacher.) Can you include a smell in your scene? Maybe the police officer smells the thick exhaust coming out of the old car. Maybe the worm smells the wet dirt. Maybe the boy smells the sweat in the classroom.
Most readers have smelled car exhaust, wet dirt, and sweat. Readers will remember those smells and make an emotional connection to your story.
Try using smell in your stories. What will it be? Overcooked broccoli? Or freshly baked chocolate chip cookies?
