How do you write smell? - Imagine the smell

[wtfNeedSignUp]

While a lot of smell descriptors are generic enough that you'd know the smell by heart (disinfectant, alcohol, motor oil). When things go outside the norm I always wondered how to research and describe smells (and whether you should even have them).

Things like, "the room with the corpse had the sickly sweet smell of decay". Luckily for me I've never had the misfortune of being exposed to thus sort of smell and I've just accepted that this is what dead bodies smell like. The best I can do is look how others describe it, which has the issue of just propagating a sensation you don't know nothing about and may very well be a falsehood.

 

[YourDadIsAMothed]

You write it like:
SMELL

 

[Nicholas Gur]

Smell is like color, no matter how descriptive you are someone that has never been in the presence of a bloated corpse will never be able to imagine the smell. Better off describing character reactions to the odor.

 

[Pavel Yudin]

"the room with the corpse had the sickly sweet smell of decay"

I have never seen anyone say decay smells "sickly sweet" ever. To answer this one very specific example, you need to first wonder how long the corpse has been there, and in what state of decomposition it is in. I recommend studying post-mortem intervals as well. It will not smell like anything the human nose can smell for a few hours, days or even weeks depending on the conditions. Humidity and warmer temperature help the body rot; after a certain point, the corpse will bloat, then what we call "purge fluids" will leak out, and that is where the (very) bad smell comes from. Depending on how the person dies, this can happen sooner than later (large wounds lead to purge fluids leaking early). Note that flies start scenting decay far earlier than we do (and from miles away), so the body is most likely already infested with larvae.
This is not my personal experience, but I have heard someone (who was fond of taking roadkill, let it decompose and gather the bones for their personal collection; paleontologists are weird like that) say that a blanket full of cat piss that had been left to fester for a few weeks/months (cannot recall exactly) smelled like death.

As for the general question, it is often easier to describe the reaction a smell gives you than it is to place exact words. Rot has a very strong smell that fills your mouth and throat and lungs, it is nauseating, nausea makes you feel dizzy,. You can be flowery with your prose, opting for a more abstract imagery instead of matter-of-factly describing smell (this works very well if you have a more "visual" style of imagination compared to people who have very little imagination and need to rely on words to know what is going on). Your best bet is reading stories and seeing how others describe it, and taking inspiration from there.

You may call me a faggot for answering this seriously.

 

[Cardinal Cardinal]

If I'm at a loss at how to describe a smell I imagine what the smell would taste or feel like and describe it that way.

 

[We Are The Witches]

How do you describe qualia?

In this case, you'd go to something similar that you think most would know about, like for your example, the smell of a dead small animal, but multiplied by a thousand. You can use your knowledge of the language to express this in a more elegant way.

 

[eDove]

I'd recommend checking out the book Perfume by Patrick Suskind. You don't have the read the whole thing necessarily, but it's a fantastic example of this sort of thing. You can smell almost every single scene in that story.

 

[Bionicle Enthusiast]

"Do you smell it? That smell. The kind of Smelly smell... The smelly smell that smells... Smelly..."

 

[COME ON OUT YOU RAPIST]

Things like, "the room with the corpse had the sickly sweet smell of decay". Luckily for me I've never had the misfortune of being exposed to thus sort of smell and I've just accepted that this is what dead bodies smell like.

More than anything I'm curious to know why you think decay smells sweet. Think of the signals your brain has evolved to send when there's rot (something that is in no way healthy for you to interact with) nearby. You may as well try to argue that poop smells sweet too, yet another thing your brain will tell you "Do not touch."

 

[Checkerboard Hero]

Not sure why you made a thread for this considering you already nailed it in your example, you just go into detail about how it would smell using as many descriptors as possible and if you don't know you guess. It's not exactly something that has only one way of doing it, it's really how well you are at describing things in your writing.

Anyone can write "Smells like shit." but the creative types can write "The foul smell of defecation and disease lingers in the air."

 

[regg]

The smell of body decomposition isn't actually sweet. It has its own very distinct odor that registers on an incomparable hindbrain instinctual level, I think. I'd actually like to know where this 'sickly sweet" idea came from in Western writing and how other cultures describe it.

 

[Email]

sharp, basic, acidic, thick, pungent
Comparing to things people know and twisting or misapplying it.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

Null removed his socks slowly, one by one, as his moribund feminine feedee could only watch. The smell entered her nostril, and had reached her brain by the time it had traveled to enter the other. Her mouth was watering, and only one thought crossed her mind:
European cheese.

 

[Trump's Chosen]

You remember the rancidity.

If you can't remember, you imagine the smell

If you can't imagine, you contemplate the aroma

If you can't contemplate, you philosophize the funk

If you can't philosophize, you ruminate on the reek

If you can't ruminate, you ponder the perfume

If you can't ponder, meditate on the musk

If you can't meditate, envision the essence

 

[GamerGateSurvivor]

I stood nervously on my online girlfriend's porch. After weeks of chatting with her, I was ready to see her in person. I reached forward to press her doorbell even though it felt as if my arm was being tied back with a dozen bungee cords and I had to fight an invisible tension just to push forward another inch.

My finger pressed the ridged plastic button and I heard a bell ring inside. I felt the enormity of the life-changing event I had just set in motion. I couldn't help but count the last seconds of normality in my life knowing that the moment that door opened, nothing would ever be the same for me.

The door swung open and I saw her smile. But my attention on her smile was short lived as I saw several objects moving behind her. I must've seen no less than a dozen cats scatter in a dozen different directions. But what followed next would forever haunt me. Like a tsunami, I felt a wave of cat stench wash over me. It clung to my skin like napalm and it enveloped my tongue as if I had dipped it in hot wax.

I noped it out of there so hard the bitch saw flames shoot out of my ass.

 

[Friend of Dorothy Parker]

Read Proust:

https://www.dailygood.org/story/2136/the-madeleine-excerpt-from-remembrance-of-things-past-marcel-proust/

 

[WhiteNight]

It's all right here:

 

[lIllllIiiiiLLLLiiiiIIIIll]

Do you smell it? That smell. The kind of smelly smell. The kind of smelly smell that smells... smelly.

Edit: I got scooped. It can stay though. It's kinda funny if people keep saying it.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

Spoiler

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[Black Man Underwear]

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