Writing Prompt 61: Bird
Looking out of the kitchen window from the house where we used to live, we enjoyed a breathtaking view across the bay towards Vancouver.
Some days, clouds would billow and puff across the skyline, covering the sun, stealing its warmth and casting a chill over the landscape.
Those days often brought to my mind Daphne du Maurier's horrifying tale, "The Birds," one of my favourite short stories. Set in a quaint coastal village in Cornwall, England, the story unfolds as Nat Hocken and his family find themselves attacked by flocks of aggressive, marauding birds.
What I love most about du Maurier's story is her masterful incorporation of sound, weaving it intricately into the fabric of the story.
From the outset, Nat Hocken is curious about the birds. He notices the peculiar restlessness among the sea birds as they call eerily across the water, the wind carrying their voices to land. The sound of the wind and sea adds to the feeling of threat.
”He woke just after two and heard the wind in the chimney. Not the storm and bluster of a sou’westerly gale, bringing the rain, but east wind, cold and dry. It sounded hollow in the chimney, and a loose slate rattled on the roof. Nat listened, and he could hear the sea roaring in the bay.”
In describing the quiet but unnerving sounds of the birds' onslaught against the Hocken household, du Maurier manages to craft an atmosphere that is deeply unsettling:
“Nat listened. Muffled sounds came from the windows, from the door. Wings brushing the surface, sliding, scraping, seeking a way of entry. The sound of many bodies pressed together, shuffling on the sills. Now and again came a thud, a crash, as some bird dived and fell.”
Throughout the story, du Maurier employs a repetition of words to convey the relentless motion and sound of the birds. Words like: restless, circling, soaring, rising, thud, crying, tapping, fluttering, scraping, stabbing.
“She had her face turned to the dresser backed against the windows. Try as they did to ignore it, they were all aware of the shuffling, the stabbing, the persistent beating and sweeping of wings.”
I love the rhythm and pace generated in this story — the feeling of ebb and flow, mirroring the ebb and flow of the tide within the story, as it surges back and forth, back and forth.
Looking at the photograph above and reflecting on the role of sound in a story, think about how you might harness this element in your own writing. Filmmakers use music to evoke emotions in their audience, and we as writers can use words as our melody, enriching our narratives with layers of depth and resonance.
What words can you use as the music for your story?
Photo:Tanya Clarke 2023
