Sound in Stories

Live. Write. Thrive. has an article on using sound of which I suggest reading in full - the following excerpts are meant to whet your appetite.

Filmmakers classify sounds into three categories.

First are natural sounds, ones that would normally be found in a particular environment, and those are the ones most novelists include in their scenes.

Second are “expressive” sounds, and those are normal sounds altered by the perception of the character. For example, a phone could begin ringing louder and louder until the character either notices it or starts to scream in anger. Again, it’s a matter of perception. In a novel, a harried new mother could be trying to soothe her crying baby, whose cries seem to grow louder and louder, along with the TV blaring and someone banging on the door, and even the tea kettle screaming. All this can be amplified into “expressive” sounds to portray her tension, exasperation, and growing panic.

Third are classified as “surreal” sounds. These externalize a character’s inner thoughts, nightmares, wishes, or dreams. They are not real sounds; they are imagined. Think of a man who does something stupid and hears everyone laughing at him although their faces are emotionless. Novelists can show their characters perceiving these surreal sounds, for their characters hear them, whether they are real or not.

 The following made me think of Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart":

This isn’t all that hard for novelists to emulate. By describing just how a character is perceiving the sounds around her, writers can essentially do the same. One sound out of many can be singled out, and that sound can even be symbolic or work as a metaphor as part of the image system.

A loud heartbeat can override all other noises. You may have seen this done in movies. A spaceman in a spacesuit is trying to fix something outside a station orbiting a planet hearing his heart beating hard. As danger approaches, the heart rate speeds up, gets louder. It’s all he can hear. Sounds underwater are distorted and muted, and a drunk or drugged character may hear sounds that aren’t really there.

I think a lot about smells as creating a realistic atmosphere but reading this sound also renders a place or an action more realistic.

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