Scent Sensations

Olfaction, our ability to smell things, whether good or bad, it's useful and plays an important role in our lives. It is also one of the underrated sensory perceptions used in writing. Most writers know how to do visual descriptions, we're around visual stimuli all the time, but when it comes to the delicate sensibilities of our noses, sometimes writers fall short. I fall short, in some ways I forget that characters even have noses. What's an angel supposed to smell like anyway?

What is amazing and fascinating to learn about, are all the ways that our sense of smell has an unconscious role in how we relate to others. I'm about to get a little scientific here and throw in some of the ideas I've learned from biological psychology, but as I said, it's fascinating.

Did you know that we use our sense of smell when selecting partners? It's an evolutionary advantage to have someone with a different immune system than you because, when you procreate, your offspring will receive a wider selection of immunological genes and have a greater chance of survival. Ah science, it disgusts and surprises us, the t-shirt study explains this in particular, those poor women who had to smell those shirts, a moment for them and their noses.
So, there is an immunological function, what else...

Another interesting difference is how when a male smell a sweaty woman, he feels aroused, and when it is the other way around a woman releases cortisol (stress-chemical). I'm sure there are plenty of explanations for this and reasoning behind it, but I won't go that way, this time.

Pheromones are another interesting part, and in some ways they are a vestigial sense for us, but in other ways we still use it. Apparently are vomeronasal organ is very tiny and has no receptors. However, some of our working olfactory receptors respond to pheromones anyway. Women who live in close proximity and are around each other may sync up during their menstrual cycles; you know when those little trashcans get full in the bathroom and everyone takes forever when you just want to pee. There may be other pheromones released by other animals that we can detect, but there is still a lot of research that needs to be done to conclude anything.

How does this relate to writing? As mentioned above, smell is underutilized, so open your nostrils and take a sniff. Fill your writing with smelly scents.