The Sound of Writing

One of my writing strengths is descriptive settings like this passage from The Tide Turns:
 
They sat in comfortable silence, watching the sky catch fire when the sun approached the sea. Clouds swirled in a mewling pink, then flamed in hot scarlet, before melting into creamsicle orange. The water mirrored the blaze in breathless closure of the night. When the sun slipped beneath the horizon, a gibbous moon and stars claimed the sky. Scant light pierced the darkness. The seaside seemed so placid, yet it was twisted with trauma.

That visual description flowed easily from my pen, but what about sound? The scene was utterly silent. I’m always learning as a writer to improve my craft and read about the need to incorporate all of the senses in our work. Embedding sound within writing is new to me. I had to go back to book 1, page 1 and sit within each scene planting sound. Sound that can make a passage leap off the page or draw a reader in with the familiar. I wrote…
 

• The service room’s door creaked like an old man’s bones when he pressed upon it.
  
• Dry leaves scratched against the pavement like the Devil’s nails on a coffin.
  
• The storm strengthened. Rope tethers creaked on moored vessels. Cusk eels croaked with pleasure while drowsy waterfowl honked in annoyance.
  
• The wind in the dead of winter lamented loudly, quivering brittle corn stalks in the field.
  
• The song of the selkies rose from the slack water. Songs of loss. Ballads of loneliness.
  

 
To pump up my use of sound in writing, I listen to recordings when I write. I upload YouTube videos which are hours long, playing them in the background. The soundtracks carry me away from my laptop and drop me into the storyline. The roar of the surf crashing along a shore, gulls screeching, firmly sets me beside the Boat Club in Barrington Bay. The chorus of birds rising at dawn has me striding beside twitchers across the foothills of the Anglo-Scottish borderlands. The rhythmic groan of a foghorn on a misty morning carries me along the jagged coast looking for fresh clues.
 
Sound has an enriching impact on my writing and my readers’ imagination. I’ve also realized something unique in my manuscripts. While Colin Dexter gave Inspector Morse divine operas in all of his mysteries, I invariably offer my readers the noise of nature – my favorite soundtrack.