SPARKS Sound effects
In the fourth set of quick creative prompts, K. M. Lockwood keeps her ears pinned back . . .
Hearing has a profound role in storytelling. The rhythm and music of syllables are fundamental to the spoken word. It also has an effect on illustration - where would sharing a picture book be without it?
For the writer, portraying sounds has two main purposes:
1. In scene setting, it deepens the mood for the reader. Entering a building full of creaks and whispers is quite distinct to one full of laughter and footsteps.
2. When conveying action, especially sudden events, it can signal the impact in the way sound effects are used in films.
Here are some creative ideas for both words and pictures (pun intended).
Collect
Sit still in a room by yourself (if possible) and just listen for a few minutes.
What do you hear close by?
- from your own body
- in the space with you
- anything mechanical?
- what about living things?
- people, pets, wildlife
- plants, trees,
- traffic
- weather
Shush, Bang, Skrike
What colour/shape/pattern are they? Might leaves rustle with bright spiky edges? Could a squelch be a green-brown splodge? Does a hum have wiggles on it?
Classify
Can you group them by, say, Nice/Neutral/ Nasty or order them Loud → Quiet
Would you prefer a Sound Wheel, or a Spectrum of Noises – with colours and shapes and patterns?
Convey
Pick a place you know/can imagine well.
Use sounds to describe it in two or more different moods: frightening, excited, sad, celebratory . . .
NB if you need a soundscape for your work or to block noise, try https://mynoise.net/
Header image credit: engin akyurt on Unsplash
***********************************************************************************
K. M. Lockwood loves stories full of folklore, fantasy and fairytale influences.
Happy hours are spent reading, editing and reviewing them – and writing
her own in Tales from the Garret.
Twitter: @lockwoodwriter
.png)
No comments:
We love comments and really appreciate the time it takes to leave one.
Interesting and pithy reactions to a post are brilliant but we also LOVE it when people just say they've read and enjoyed.
We've made it easy to comment by losing the 'are you human?' test, which means we get a lot of spam. Fortunately, Blogger recognises these, so most, if not all, anonymous comments are deleted without reading.