The Goddess Notes

‘The language of scent is rich and evocative.’

How true.

There are endless descriptive words to describe scents, smells, odours.

Our sense of smell is so personal to us, memories triggered by familiar scent, of past homes, or lovers, happy, or not so happy childhood memories. An associated smell can transport us back in time in an instant.

Because our sense of smell is so unique to each of us, it can be hard when writing, to get across what you are trying to convey. One person’s rose, is another’s durian fruit.

(For those interested in the mechanics of olfaction, I have a more in-depth post on the topic of our sense of smell.)

I am sure many of you have tried and true fragrant descriptive words for bringing to life a scene or poem. Because of my work, whenever I am reading, I find myself drawn to the words of scent the author is using to convey the atmosphere.

Perfumers have their own vocabulary, and like wise, those of us who work with aromatic plant extracts have categories or families that odour profiles are grouped into such as below:

• Coniferous
• Spicy
• Fruity
• Floral
• Balsamic
• Herbaceous
• Green
• Citrus
• Medicated
• Woody
• Agrestic

For me this this can sometimes make it hard to put aside the technical for the creative. ‘It smelt of freshly mowed hay’, sounds much nicer than ‘It smelt agrestic’!

Do you use smell descriptions much, if at all, in your writing? I would love to know.

Emma x

📷 The Goddess Notes