I think I have a signature scent. Well, scents. One, I use when I want to smell good, one when I want to smell fabulous. We went to a party this weekend and I wore Scent #3 - a perfume that was just laying around and I figured what the heck.
What the heck is right. All night, I had the urge to go wash my wrists. I smelled fine, I just didn't smell like me. I smelled like some lady hugged me and her scent stuck.
Smell (I'd put aroma, but sometimes it's just plain-old-smell) can play a major role in memory (Have a big exam?: wear the same perfume while studying and while writing the exam). We know what our childhood home smelled like. We know what our best friend's childhood home smelled like. We can recognize the scent of rain on the air. We know the smell of a hockey bag.
I think it triggers something in stories, too:
- Reading a Karen Marie Moning book? Sandalwood = the smell of a sexy, sexy man. What's that on the air? Sandalwood? Don't be surprised if Adam Black is around the next corner.
- Jamie Fraser HATES the smell of lavender. Is that lavender soap? No, thank you. You can just go ahead and toss that in the latrine. My husband would rather remove the dirt from his body with a potato peeler.
- Bella smells so delicious, vampires have trouble controlling themselves from turning her into a snack on a windy day. It's windy! Quick Bella! Jump in that human-sized Rubbermaid container!
Anyway, I got a bit carried away there. Something about scent helps the memory stick. So long as the smell is recognizable by the reader, it can connect the dots. It helps share a bit more about them than eye and hair color.
It shares their hobbies ex. horse sweat and fresh-mown grass vs diesel fuel and engine grease.
It shares their personality ex. Davidoff's Cool Water vs Vivian Westwood's Boudoir.
Tell me people of blogland: Do you have a signature scent? Do one of your characters? Do you have a favorite book where you could recognize a character by scent alone?
4 comments:
I love smells, but sometimes I fall flat at describing them. I fall back a lot on things like 'sharp' or 'strong' or 'cloying' (love that one) but they don't really help at all. Perhaps I should wander back toward simile and metaphor, hah.
I enjoy when characters have some sort of identifiable scent, as long as it makes sense and the author doesn't over-use it. When everyone has a signature smell, it's a bit much. When people inexplicably, naturally smell like sandalwood or jasmine or something, it starts getting a bit weird (same for natural skin tastes... no, the heroine shouldn't naturally taste like honey, weird).
I like working with existing scents, like the hobbies you've listed. Rather than having my supporting main inexplicably walk around smelling like sandalwood or something, I have the much more appropriate scents of fire smoke, leather (not exactly a long-distance scent) and horse. For my protag, it wouldn't be some innate scent (being smelled before she comes to pick your pockets wouldn't be too good) but rather the scents associated with a certain period of time the characters spent together, which involved a lot of rain, wet soil, pine needles, etc. She doesn't walk around smelling of those things, but it might trigger a memory for the other character.
My heroine in Lady Bells smells like Lavender. That's how she came to me. And her signature smell drives my hero crazy with want. I also used it in a humorous way - she has had a bath on her first night in her new home (having riden for two days - she wishes to wash away the smell of horse). When he goes to use the same bath she hopes he doesn't mind the scented water and that his men won't tease him the following day. His reply: "Not the first time I'll have smelled like a woman on the training field." Of course, being young and inexperienced, she doesn't get the joke.
Great post, Stephanie - smell plays a major role in our memories.
Hi Hayley and Janet,
Great comments.
Hayley - you made me lick my arm to see what humans taste like - I'd say we range in the nothing to cardboard range, not honey. If a character wants to taste like honey, they will need to do some planning ahead.
Janet - great joke :)
I should have mentioned, Base Notes (http://www.basenotes.net/fragrancereviews/), is a fragrance review site where you can find some great descriptive words (for both the good and the stinky). I have spent way too much time on there.
Man, I can tell that page is going to be lots of fun to dig through. Thanks for the link!
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