658349328743289

142 Part III: Painting the Picture with Description
Write a scene in which your characters struggle to have a conversation against
loud background noise – music in a club, drilling in the street outside or a
baby screaming. How does the noise affect the characters and the course of
the conversation? Remember not to constantly mention the sound itself – if
you mention it initially and then show the characters struggling to speak or be
understood, the reader should get the idea.
Not everyone can hear, or hear well. Think of including a character with a
hearing difficulty in your story, and the effect that has on her life and that of
others.
Making musical moments
You can use music for all sorts of powerful effects in your fiction:
✓ Music is great for fixing your story in a particular time period – you can
find out which songs were popular at that time and have your characters
hear or dance to them.
✓ Music is an excellent trigger for a flashback – your character can hear a
piece of music being played through the open window of a house she’s
passing and be instantly transported back in time.
Write about a memory triggered by hearing a piece of music. Think of where
the character was when she last heard that music and what it meant for her,
including any images that come into the character’s mind.
As you may find, describing the sound of music isn’t easy – writers usually
rely on their readers knowing the music they’re referring to. This approach
works with very well-known music, but not with everything.
The depth and abstract nature of much classical instrumental music (with
its often highly personal interpretations) is perhaps the most difficult to
describe, although EM Forster makes a good attempt in the following passage
involving Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Notice that he creates an impression
of the music through the images that come into the character Helen’s mind as
she listens: