Write Description Using the Sense of Sound
Be More Creative by Describing What Characters Hear
Jun 11, 2009
Good description lets readers listen to the leaves of aspen trees quake in a fall breeze, waves crash on a jagged reef, or a horn's mournful wail as a train thunders along rickety tracks a mile away. The more authentic the sound, the more real the experience for the reader.
Adjectives that describe sound are common: rustle, splash, squish, thump… But what about the sounds that can't be described in words? Is it okay to make them up? Of course it is.
Go into the kitchen and pull out a chair from the table. It skids or scrapes across the floor. What kind of sound does it make? Does it go shqueek? Or how about thuf? These are nonsense words, but to accurately convey the way something sounds, made-up words are a good option. Just don't do it too much or the story will start sounding like gibberish.
Don't discount words that really do sound like the sounds they represent. Listen to a pebble ping against a windshield. How about the clop of a horse's hooves? Then there's the crack of a bat hitting a baseball. These are great action verbs that do double duty with their audible imprints.
A Simple Scene Using Sound in the Description
The tile was green and shiny. The air smelled like a swamp. Lisa heard footsteps coming closer.
It's too dull and needs some sprucing up:
Green tile glistened in the sunlight. A humid scent like wet moss and mud floated on the air. Footsteps sloshed through a puddle of standing water, forcing Lisa farther back into the bushes where she hid.
Now that a character has been added to filter the senses, readers can worry for Lisa and wonder why she's hiding. The great thing about effective description is that it creates suspense and anticipation for the reader. Word choices and action verbs breathe life into a descriptive scene.
Dos and Don'ts
DO combine description with action, and vice versa. Adding sensory detail to action scenes makes them more realistic. Let the description work to move the story forward.
DON'T stop the story just to insert a chunk of descriptive prose. Consider the reason for describing something, and what it means to the character and to the plot. Don't add more detail than necessary or the reader may get bored instead of being intrigued.
Examples of using the sense of sound in description:
Out on the frozen lake the storm howled, a blizzard, a whiteout around me. It clawed at my skin and beat at my eyes until I feared I would go blind. It came from beneath me then, from deep under the snow-covered ice. It wrapped itself around me, crushing my stomach and ribcage until I choked for air. I heard the wind's tone turn to tortured moans. I doubled over, knowing that the god-awful noise came not from the north, but from me.
The Purification Ceremony by Mark T. Sullivan
I cocked my head, listening to the pressing silence in this underground tomb, realizing that was exactly what this could be.
The Taste of Night by Vicki Petterson
An Exercise for Using the Sense of Sound in Description
Visit a public place, like a grocery store or shopping center, and listen to the sounds. Describe them using 100 words or less. It can be from either a first person point of view, or the POV of a character in a story in progress. Don't be afraid to combine other senses, but focus on sound for this exercise.
Enhance the reading experience for readers by adding astute detail using all the senses, including the sense of sound.
For related articles, see Write Description Using the Sense of Sight and Write Description Using the Sense of Smell.
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