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IWW
Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: Stop and smell the roses (Version 3)
These exercises were written
by IWW members
and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its
members.
You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that
you found
them at the Internet Writers Workshop
(http://www.internetwritingwor
kshop.org/).
Prepared by: Florence Cardinal
Posted on: September 28, 2003
Posted on: August 14, 2005
Posted, revised, on: December 31, 2006
Posted on: April 27, 2008
Posted on: December 25, 2022
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Exercise: In 400 words or less, write a scene showing your
character's response
to a particular odor or scent.
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Smells can frighten us, nauseate us, or bring back memories, pleasant
or unpleasant.
They can repel or attract us--we turn away from rotten odors, while a
sweet aroma
draws us near. A rose wouldn't be a rose without its familiar fragrance.
Suppose a woman steps onto a bus and chooses to sit next to a handsome
man. When
she smells his strong body odor, is she likely to move somewhere
else? Or, does his
body odor brings back pleasant memories of a hard working husband?
Or, perhaps, he's recently bathed and is wearing her ex-boyfriend's
favorite
after-shave. Would the memories the scent evokes be unpleasant, sad, or
bittersweet? How might his scent affect her response to him?
A clever man has seen the woman he's courting react with joy to bakery
smells, so
on the way to her house for supper he buys a loaf of French bread fresh
out of the
oven. Then, perhaps, when he walks through her door he gets a
whiff of his favorite
food simmering in her kitchen.
The scent of cigar smoke floating through the air might bring back the
memory of a
special male relative or friend, or a haunting memory of something gone
wrong.
Think of the many scents that tickle your nose during the day, either
pleasant or not.
Choose one and build a scene that shows how a character reacts or
thinks in
response to the smell.
Keep in mind that a typically pleasant smell might bring out a negative
response in
your character because of past associations, just as a bad odor could
be linked to
something positive in the mind of your character.
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Exercise: In 400 words or less, write a scene showing your
character's response
to a particular odor or scent.
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Critiquing suggestions:
Are you able to identify the character's response to the a particular
odor or scent?
Does the writer present that response in a believable scenario?
Has the author managed to incorporate the sense of smell in a new and
unique way, something that rises above the typical or clichéd?
Web site created by
Rhéal Nadeau and
the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.
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