: Re: How do I define smells I have never experienced? I am a lifelong writer, who was also born without an ability to smell. I have been trained to engage the reader by applying the five senses,

@Bryan361

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Maybe you could think of scents as colors to understand them? A strong smell of say, lemon, could represent the color yellow. Vibrant and energetic, sometimes even tickling up your nose like the sun. (I hear half of earth's population can look at bright light to trigger a sneeze - I'm one of them) If there's sugar mixed into it, I'd say the color would be like a pale yellow. Softer to the palate.

I'm not saying go for colors that matches the fruit, food or flower in real life. Yellow and lemon was just my first thought. A bright color could represent a strong scent. Softer shades for more subtle scents. There's atleast as many scents as there are colors, probably much more.

And comparing scents to something you suspect people would know of could help. You could say a whiff of cinnamon hit your nostrils and a flash of childhood memories gushed through you. You're reminded of last fall when your family was baking in the kitchen and the apples hung big and red in the garden.

People like different things, so narrating taste and smell can be hit or miss. Memories or emotions can often do more for the reader to understand what your character is experiencing.

I use things like wet grass, smell of rain or ozon right before a lightning strike, sharp smell of metal or dust and so on. I hardly ever say something smelled good or bad. Find the object you'd like them to focus on and say it smelled of X. Then you're not telling people what to feel.

"Show, don't tell" is probably already familiar to you.

Happy writing!

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