I once knew a man who had no sense of scent. He couldn’t smell anything, nor had he ever been able to. Like those born blind, or deaf, he had been born without the sense of scent. We spent hours talking about it and, for his part, he was unabashedly amused at my intense interest. Immediately, I began to notice scents more intensely. More than a decade later, I’m still profoundly affected by this experience and as a writer, I’ve allowed the sense of scent to influence the way I shape words.

The Scent of Memory

Experts believe the sense of smell is the most directly linked sense to memory. When we smell something familiar, our brain’s limbic system triggers memory. Scent provokes the memory of happiness, passion, loss, simplicity, if you can feel it, scent can evoke it. In terms of writing, memories and emotions infuse our work with a depth it could never otherwise have.

• Experience the scent of memory: Gather five different scents. Close your eyes and focus on the features of each scent. Are they spicy, sweet, tangy? Jot down each item, its scent and how it made you feel. Now write a story where each of the emotions is represented.

The Scent of the Past

Remembering the past is an important part of life. No matter your feelings about your past, it’s shaped who you are. It is an inescapable truth that, more than any other factor, who you are shapes how and what you write. It’s important to know yourself and to remember how you got to where you are.

• Experiencing the scents of the past: Go somewhere you haven’t been in a long time or gather something from the boxes in your attic. Allow the scents to call memories to mind. Make note of the item or place, its scent and your feelings. Be completely honest; the emotional connection will enrich your words. Now create a character using the scents of the past. Take care that the character is not you. Rather make her someone inspired by your past

The Scent of the Future

While we inevitably shape our future hopes and dreams in our minds, what’s yet to come is still unknown. Everyday we’re making memories that will someday be called to mind by some unknown scent. As surely as the sense of scent affects our pasts and the memories we’ve made, it affects our futures and the memories we’ve yet to make. Writing a future for your character involves knowing them in a real way, both who they were and who they will be.

• Experiencing the scents of the future: Go somewhere new, eat something new and make a new memory. Write down where or what it was and how it made you feel in the moment. Not in the past, but now. Using the character you created with the scents of your past, write a story using the newly created memory as inspiration.

Never reject the memories evoked by scent, be inspired by them!