Ah, the ever elusive sense of smell.  While this may be the most difficult of the senses for writers to incorporate in their work, it is no less important than the others.

Fun Fact: did you know that while receptors for all the other senses connect to the main part of the brain (the cortext), the olfactory receptors are different?  In fact, one part of the olfactory system connects via the amygdala, which is one of the parts of the brain that deals with memory.

My theory is that this is why smells hold such powerful, vivid memories for us.  Who can mistake the smell of birthday candles as they’re being blown out.  Or what about that crisp smell the air gets right before a big snow?

Haven’t you ever been somewhere and smelled something that transported you to a whole other time and place?  The other day I was walking down the street and something smelled dry and still, like airport air that has that musty travel smell to it.  In instantly got this pang of memory of a time when I was stranded in an airport in Brazil for an entire day, not knowing whether or not my flight would be allowed to leave.

The truth is, part of the reason why scents are so difficult for writers is that there are very few “smell words” in our vocabulary.  We have lots of words for sounds: loud, soft, brassy, whisper.  There are also plenty of words for touch (soft, smooth, rough) and taste (sweet, salty, bitter, sour).  And don’t even get me started on sight; aside from a plethora of adjectives, we also have the vocabulary of colors at our disposal.

But for smell there’s hardly any.  Instead, we’ll use similes and metaphors to say “that smells like movie theater popcorn” or “that smell is suffocating.”  The only smell word I can think of is “pungent” and even then, it can refer to taste as well as smell.  In fact, most words we use for smells have been appropriated from one of the other senses (like saying something smells sweet or sharp).

Because smells are linked so strongly to objects or places, it is no surprise that smell should be so closely tied to memory as well.  That’s where this week’s exercise comes in.

Writing Exercise: Scent of a Memory
Follow each of the steps and don’t proceed to the next one until you have finished the current step.

1. Think of a scent you love.  Write it down (3 words or fewer).
2. Describe this scent.
3. Is there a place you associate with this scent?  What is the significance of this place?
4. Is there a person associated with this scent?  What is this person’s relationship to you?
5. Why does this scent remind you of this person or place?
6. Write down a memory of this person/place.
7. Last question: what color is this scent?

Now write a short poem or prose piece about this scent and the memory it evokes.

Here ends our foray into Writing Through the Senses.  It’s not to late too late to join the challenge so sign up by clicking on the above link and read all the Writing Through the Senses posts.  I’ll be drawing the winner and announcing the results next week!

Tomorrow is the last day of Writing Through the Senses.  I can’t believe how quickly the last five weeks have gone.  Before I start waxing nostalgic I’d better get on with the purpose of this post and that is to remind you all of the Writing Through the Senses Challenge.

Here’s a reminder of the challenge rules:

1. Post a comment to this post so I know you’re participating.  (If you’re on the list below, I already know you’re doing the challenge so you can skip this step.)
2. Post a link on your blog, if you have one (optional, but you’ll get an extra contest entry).  Please leave a link so I know you posted.  Contestants who’ve already posted links will have a + next to their name.
3. Read the Writing Through the Senses posts and post an on-topic comment.  For your convenience, I’ve included a link to all the posts below.

Prize:  One bright, shiny and new Moleskine notebook and a few surprise goodies.

Right now I have the following people as challenge contestants, but it’s not too late to join! 

• Ghenet +
• Michelle Davidson Argyle
• salarsen +
• Julie Musil
• sonia

 If I’m missing anyone or didn’t give you credit for posting on your blog, please let me know and I’ll correct it!  Thankees!

Writing Through the Senses Posts

Sound
Sight
Touch
Taste Part 1 and Taste Part 2
Smell

Please note: Since there are two parts to the Taste post, you don’t need to comment on both.

The Challenge is open until 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, July 27.
On Wednesday, July 28 I’ll pick the lucky winner and announce it here.

*Updated to add “Smell” link.

As I assemble my thoughts about the DIY MFA idea, I thought it might be fun to consider how we all became writers in the first place.

 I became a writer at this little school pictured on the left.  This is how it happened.

I was in first grade.  It was library time and I had slipped away from the picture book area to the section with floor-to-ceiling shelves that housed the “big kid books.”  I pulled a book from the shelf (I believe it was Lloyd Alexander’s The Black Cauldron) and stumbled my way through the first sentence or two.  Sliding the book back into place, it occurred to me: I could read this book.  I looked around the room and thought: I could read all of these books.  (OK, with some of them I might have needed some help sounding out the words, but still.)

That’s when panic struck.   If I read all the books in the school library, there would be no books left to read and I’d be bored forever.  You must understand, while the library was rather small–nothing more than a large room with bookshelves–to me it was gigantic.  I thought the books in the school library were all the books in the world.

Back in the first grade classroom, our teacher Miss H must have noticed that I was out of sorts because she asked me what was wrong.  I told her and she nodded.

The next day, Miss H introduced a new activity for the classroom.  It was nothing more than two plastic paper trays–one filled with blank lined paper, the other empty–and a metal canister full of sharpened pencils.  Miss H explained that we were to write stories on the blank paper and draw pictures for a cover, then place them in the empty tray.  Each day she would staple the pages together to make a book (a real book!) and she would read them to the class at story time.

Immediately my fears of reading all the books in the world subsided.  After all, if I ran out of books to read, I could just write my own.  And then I could read them.  I would never be bored again! (Ah, the beauty of a first-grader’s logic.)

And this, my friends, is how I became a writer.

How did you become a writer?  Was there one particular incident, person or place that helped spark your writing?  I love hearing how writers became writers, so please share!

In preparation for my super-secret, super-exciting DIY MFA project, I realized I needed to figure out how to use Google Docs, in particular the little form-making feature.  As I learned this morning, you can easily create a form using Google Docs, then embed it in your blogger post by pasting the HTML code under the “Edit HTML” tab when you compose a post.

I wanted to test out this Google Docs form and I thought, why not use this as a way to get to know my readers a little bit better?  So if you please, fill out the form below and tell me a little about yourself.

Thank you muchly!

(And don’t worry, I’ll let you in on the super-secret, super-exciting DIY MFA project super-soon!  Promise.)