Another blog I frequent, The Unknown Screenwriter, recently came out with an awesome list of sound words, or Onomatopoeias. Very useful.

The spec screenplay I’m writing right now is an action/fantasy flick, and I want it to have that comic book feel. That being said, I’ve been using quite a few sound effect words. I’ve had a few people look at it, and they seem to think it’s a great fit.

This probably won’t work for every script, but for something like I’m doing it’s perfect. And you can use onomatopoeias different ways. You can go all serious, Bourne series-style. You can go campy, 1960’s Batman-style? Or somehwere in between, which is probably closest to the approach I’m using. Correctly done, this method can really add oomph to an action scene.