What Does Writing Sound Like?

It's important to use senses in your writing. But what about the senses you use while writing?

Writing sounds like laptop keys clicking beneath fingernails. It sounds like a nearly empty pen scratching over paper. It sounds like a crayon fraying a restaurant napkin because you got an incredible idea during family dinner.

Writing sounds like a lot of things. But to me...

It sounds like a turntable in the corner, spinning Mozart or Aerosmith.

It sounds like a coffee shop—fresh pots brewing and indistinct conversations. When I'm not at an actual coffee shop, it sounds like Coffitivity.

The best writing days sound like rain pounding on the roof. When I really need to focus and block the world out, I turn on Rainy Mood and pretend.

Sometimes it sounds like birds and chickadees, when I'm sitting with a journal on my back porch. Or the gurgling of a mountain stream from a wide, cool rock—the wind biting at the paper on my lap.

Writing sounds like Noisli, when nothing else will do. And it often sounds like my writing playlist through noise-canceling headphones--John Williams, Two Steps From Hell, Epica, and Emilie Simon.

What does writing sound like for you? Tell me in the comments.