#I thought everyone sniffed a bell pepper and thought ah yes that smells very green

[mysteries-x-mistakes]

When I’m character building I’ll usually give my characters a color palette and/or a signature scent (because scents have colors to me). I tend to think of things in the abstract so having this impression of the character really helps me get a sense of who they are, sometimes even more so than a concrete description would.

like the MC for one of my wips is described as smelling like: wood violets, violet leaf, orris root, polished silver, cold glass, ink, dewy moss, a single black currant. the MC for another wip has the color palette: aquamarine, sky blue, seafoam, milan yellow, sand

to some extent these are special interests for me: I love indie perfumes and have taken the time to study what notes smell like what and the different combinations they can make & whenever I do digital art I get really picky about colors bc I seem to have a natural eye for what shades go together and can sort of tell colors apart better than other people. Using my senses is just one more language I’ve gotten really good at speaking. And it’s fun to be able to reflect that in my writing.

but yeah reading those descriptions, doesn’t that give you a hint about who that character is without even saying much? it’s one of my favorite things to do during character building :3