Describing a person's smell

[Kurt]

What is the best way to describe someone's smell in writing?

[corvus]

By saying what it reminds you of and what your reaction to it is. You can also coopt words from other senses like a synesthete would -- e.g. "he had a bright, vigorous smell, like a well-scrubbed boy from Nebraskan cornfields."

[Benji]

What is the best way to describe someone's smell in writing?

 

......Not really suer how to respond, recently the scientist of the world have proclaimed that the individual scent is akin to fingerprints.

[hh5]

hehehe the sniff of the beholder

There's a story out there called "Blind Sensations" and yup that story confirms the smell print.

[Benji]

hehehe the sniff of the beholder

There's a story out there called "Blind Sensations" and yup that story confirms the smell print.

 

......................I am liking the story as well as smellaolgy 101

Edited November 13, 2008 by Benji

[hh5]

now don't try to describe someone smell in a locker room scene

that place smells bad

 

hehehe follow your nose it always knows but I'm not sure its can tell sexual orientation

Edited November 13, 2008 by hh5

[David McLeod]

What is the best way to describe someone's smell in writing?

 

Corvus

[DomLuka]

All I can think about is a Koontz book, The Taking. He was describing this glowing rain that everyone seemed pleased about except for the lead character. He kept saying words like unnatural, and unclean, but it didn

[Former Member]

Since i read alot of Anita blake Vampire hunter by Laurell K Hamilton i kinda think i can help here... She's got this really awesome way of describing her characters from eye colours to how they smell. It can be the simplest thing like the type of shampoo they use... Jean Claude The Master Vampire (his bathroom is full of shampoos etc etc..) Nathaniel.. Anita's Animal To Call smells like Vanilla and for a long time it was debated whether that was his shampoo or just him underneath his skin and all that... Belle Morte when she comes knocking everyone smells roses... In Laurells Merry Gentry series there is "The Goddess" and to each different person in the room when "The Goddess" shows up each person gets a different smell. Some will smell a flower like Jasmine others will smell earth, others will smell Apple Blossoms. It's kinda neat actually by just the word of a certian smell you can tell which character is now coming into the scene. They can be in a high speed car chase and Anita will be like "Do you smell roses?" lol. I have 1 character who smells like blankets fresh out of the dryer. Maybe thats why my 2 characters spend so much time in bed? lol

[hh5]

Dumb question? Where is this smell??

In "Blind Sensations" its the perineum

I hope the character always snif after a shower and before the next poop

[David McLeod]

 

Re: I'm an optimist. But I don't think it helps.

 

Both an optimist and a pessimist are right about half the time, but the optimist has more fun.

 

Your comments on smell, however, are right on target.

[David McLeod]

Dumb question? Where is this smell??

In "Blind Sensations" its the perineum

I hope the character always snif after a shower and before the next poop

 

 

The merocrine sweat glands produce the watery sweat that cools us; each is connected to a pore in the skin. They distill water from the blood. Their sweat is mostly water with a bit of salt and a few impurities. The apocrine glands produce sweat by exocytosis ("cell suicide") but they don

[JamesSavik]

This is dangerous ground. The smells of a person are usually never noticed unless it is either fair or foul.

 

You can easily step in it by describing someone's smell:

 

he smelled like...

• a stockyard
  
• a redneck politician
  
• a polecat in heat
  
• the dirty laundry of the universe
  
• the south end of a north bound garbage truck
  

[Benji]

This is dangerous ground. The smells of a person are usually never noticed unless it is either fair or foul.

 

You can easily step in it by describing someone's smell:

 

he smelled like...

• a stockyard
  
• a redneck politician
  
• a polecat in heat
  
• the dirty laundry of the universe
  
• the south end of a north bound garbage truck
  

 

[hh5]

This is dangerous ground. The smells of a person are usually never noticed unless it is either fair or foul.

 

You can easily step in it by describing someone's smell:

 

he smelled like...

• a stockyard
  
• a redneck politician
  
• a polecat in heat
  
• the dirty laundry of the universe
  
• the south end of a north bound garbage truck
  

 

I hope that describing of smell is during love making that's after a good shower

Unless you're describing disliking for someone

[KJames]

I hope that describing of smell is during love making that's after a good shower

Unless you're describing disliking for someone

 

I still like the subtle, such as: The smell of his silky, shoulder length, blond hair was that of fresh cut alfalfa with a touch of mint, and the scent of his body was like that of malted waffles.

 

[Duncan Ryder]

Similies and metaphores....

 

Have you ever noticed how many stories say "the smell that was uniquely (fill in name here?)" (often accomanied by the smell of toothpaste and soap...and maybe deoderant...). I mean...it's true...but that particular way of expressing it...I've just seen it so many times....

[Verm]

I think it's best to describe/write a smell by relating something to the scent, like most posters here suggested. Usually if it's something you like, you'll describe it pleasantly, even if other people would find it foul-smelling or offensive. Different people/characters in a story would relate to the same smell differently sometimes, depending on how they relate to the scent, or what the scent reminds them of. Personalities and attitudes should be taken in consideration in my opinion.

 

For example:

 

A lady walks by two men, and her perfume scent lingers.

 

One of them might say "She smells like a field of roses"

 

The other might say "Smells like a cheap whore"

 

but the scent is still the same, just different mindsets will describe the scent differently according to their tastes.

[KJames]

Similies and metaphores....

 

Have you ever noticed how many stories say "the smell that was uniquely (fill in name here?)" (often accomanied by the smell of toothpaste and soap...and maybe deoderant...). I mean...it's true...but that particular way of expressing it...I've just seen it so many times....

 

 

I've noticed that..."His pubes smelled of 'Irish Spring'..." crops up a lot...

 

How 'bout, "His hair was the color of alfalfa that had been bleached pale yellow by the summer sun," ?

Edited November 17, 2008 by kjames

[JamesSavik]

 

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two

sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

 

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances

like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

 

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience,

like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse

without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around

the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking

at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

 

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was

room-temperature Canadian beef.

 

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog

makes just before it throws up.

 

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

 

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

 

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated

because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a

surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

 

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a

bowling ball wouldn't.

 

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag

filled with vegetable soup.

 

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an

eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another

city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30

 

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

 

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when

you fry them in hot grease.

 

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced

across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains,

one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the

other from Topeka at

4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

 

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket

fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

 

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds

who had also never met.

 

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was

the East River.

 

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap,

only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

 

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

 

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike

Phil, this plan just might work. << My favorite