Music. Talk Radio. The TV in the other room. The neighbors indulging in their daily bedroom shenanigans or screaming match. The cats purring on her lap. The poodle down the street yapping at all hours of the day or night. The jacked up SUV with the bass booming so loud the windows shake as it drives by. The guy on the bus with his headset cranked so loud that the tinny boom-boom-boom after a long day at work could drive you to murder. Crickets just after the sun goes down. The red-tailed hawk perched about the cow pasture.
Sounds are all around us and finding even a few moments of peace and quiet can be a real challenge. You have people who rush home at the end of the day, close the door and only then relax because it's finally quiet.
And then there are some people who can't stand even a second of quiet and the TV or radio or telephone is always going. Maybe they can't stand being alone or the constant input makes them feel safe.
Sounds have different meanings and impact depending on the person hearing them. What drives one person nuts might not even be noticed by someone else. Some people are more sensitive to certain sounds than others. Women tend to hear and notice more than men.
Adding sounds to your story is a detail that gives more dimension, increases believability and gives your story more impact. Weaving in bits of things your character hears, makes your story more immediate and helps pull the reader in. You don't have to drop in reams of description or include everything she hears, just enough to set the stage and get the reader's imagination going so they fill in the rest from their own experience.
You could mention a duck doing that happy quack quack quack that sounds like it's laughing. Or the three year old in the sandbox screaming as his brother pours sand over his head. Or the teenager next door squealing with laughter as she talks to a friend on her cell phone - you could even include a snippet of the story as counterpoint to something going on in your character's head. (Hint: write down all the cell phone conversations you hear. People generally talk really loudly on their cell phones and don't have a tendency to censor themselves, so you can usually get some useful or even juicy tidbits.)
This next week, go to the park, a café, a bookstore, take the bus, or even just go out in the back yard. Pretend your character is sitting there.
WRITE the answer to the following questions:
What sounds does she hear? Describe each of them.
How does that sound impact what's going on in her life?
How does that sound impact what's she's thinking?
How does it make her feel?
What does she do?
If someone was watching her (but couldn't hear anything) how would they know what she feels or might be thinking?
How could you use this in your current story?
Now do this for each of your characters.
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