Smelling Brownies

A few days ago, I did something wonderful. I made chewy, chocolatey, delicious brownies. When I tugged open the creaking oven door to check on my dessert, the scent wafted over me. 
In fact, I smelled like brownies until I took a shower. It was kind of gross.
Quiz time! What's one thing that adds magic to books?
Answer: using the five senses! Touch. Taste. Sight. Smell. Hearing.
The reader's imagination is a wonderful thing. It creates a world from a scattering of symbols on a page. C-H-A-I-R become a actual figurative chair. Bet you pictured a chair in your mind, didn't you? But why not take it a step further? Describe how the chair feels! What it smells like! Get a little weird and describe the taste!
Each of these steps adds more details that makes the imagined world come to life. 
That said, don't go overboard. Ever read one of those books were a guy smells like three very specific things that don't have any relation to each other? Well, I have. It's unbelievable. Unless your character has a nose that rival's Gus' from Psych. I'm talking "Super Sniffer."

 Keep it simple, but keep it descriptive. Your readers will find themselves immersed in your story, and your world will become as real to them...
As it is to you.

Getting The Right Paint

Writers know exactly how locations should appear in their books. There's a beautiful setting in their minds. Maybe castle, a forest, a bedroom. They just have to "paint the scene."

Easy, right?

                                                      

Where are you right now? Maybe you're in your car. The soft rumbling of the engine is your soundtrack as you read my blog. The heavy scent of bananas serve as a reminder that you really need to clean out your car. Air conditioning whisks out between the vents, slightly too cold. Hello, goosebumps. Through the window, cars of all makes and models are parked. The grocery store beckons, but you're not quite ready to brave the aisle yet. You pull out your gum, tired of the taste of stale mint, and put it in a napkin.

Not the best scene ever, but it shows my point. Now let me tell you (blog post on the lovely war between showing and telling to come).

We have five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. And they all need to be used in writing. Taste is tricky and isn't used as abundantly, but the other four are a must. No, you don't need to jam them all into one paragraph like I did above. Talk about a sensory overload!

They should be interspersed throughout your writing as you set a scene.

So, as you're picture that beautiful bedroom your character is given at her aunt's country estate, consciously think to yourself. What does it smell like? What does your character hear?

 My advice would be to wait to add the sensory bits until you're going back to edit. But do whatever is best for you and your writing.

...On a side note! THREE DAYS until Camp NaNoWriMo is over! I'll give you full update on Thursday and the pros/cons of sprinting it. But where things stand right now?

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win.