Month: September 2017

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Short story

Too Much Pressure

ElevatorToo Much Pressure

The long “ting”, followed by the endless squealing of the heavy automatic doors, announced the long-awaited stop of the elevator; Lucas, drowned in his own extreme, claustrophobic panic, hurried out, crushing his already sore right shoulder against the edge of the door, plunging without a glance into a mouldy, pitch-black hallway.
Behind him, in the thick darkness, one could hear the heavy doors closing; that shuffled, metallic, icy sound, revived in his memory other times, in which fear, hunger and war were part of his daily life.

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Tips

Ringing sounds

Sometimes we lose precious seconds of inspiration in search of a single word. It’s worse with onomatopoeias.
Here are some ringing sounds. I chose “ting” when translating the short story “Too Much Pressure”.

bell – the sound that a bell makes when it rings
bong – a long deep sound that a bell makes
chime – a ringing sound made by a bell, or by a clock with a bell inside it
ding – the short sound that a bell makes
ding-dong – the sound that a bell makes
jingle – the sound that small metal objects make when they hit each other
peal – a sound of several bells ringing
ping – a short high sound like the sound of a small bell
ring – the sound that a bell produces
ring – a sound like a bell
ting-a-ling – the high clear sound that a small bell makes
tinkle – a high ringing sound
tintinnabulation – the sound of bells
tocsin – a warning signal made by the sound of a bell
toll – the loud slow repeated sound of a large bell
—“Ringing Sounds” at Macmillan Dictionary and Thesaurus

Adding knell: “the sound of a bell, especially when rung solemnly for a death or funeral”, and “tin tan din dan bim bam bom bo”, from “The Nine Tailors”, Dorothy L. Sayers