The Said That Could Not Be Said

[louiselux]

"No," he hissed. (somebody wrote this, don't know who).

How do you hiss the word 'no'? Try it, you can't. The best I can do is to wheeze it.

"No," he wheezed. Not quite the same effect. I always thought the safest way was to just have people say things. Otherwise you are in danger of ending up with a veritable farmyard of growling, barking, yipping, hooting, snarling, purring, and not forgetting hissing, characters. I know, I've been on that farm. It's noisy.

Comments

[lexin.livejournal.com]

I remember using the line once, (don't know when or what fandom) when I really needed a character to hiss a line with no s in it, that whichever one was listening was really impressed that he could do it, because he hadn't thought it possible.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Ha! Well, I didn't get it from one of your stories *g*. I think it came from some old sci-fi novel. I actually like those sorts of adverbs, but I like them too much and no one ever gets to just say anything. I suppose you could 'spit' a no instead of hissing it, maybe, but then...there's the whole phlegm issue. Oh dear. *L*