Onomatopoeia

[Ermo]

Yes or No? Why or why not?

[dios4vida]

As a general rule, I like onomatopoeia. There's something about a sword thunking into the ground after being disarmed that resonates with me more than "the sword fell to the ground."

I have seen instances where it's done too much. Dennis McKiernan (who is one of my favorite authors) uses onomatopoeia a lot, and once in a while I found it distracting instead of inspiring. When the dragon is roaring and belching fire, somehow RAAAAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! just didn't seem to convey the depth and power of it. I found that distracting. Many other times, however, he's used it so successfully that I wouldn't dream of having a particular sentence without the onomatopeia.

I use it in my books, but only sparingly. I find a little sprinkling of onomatopoeia keeps things fresh and helps my senses stay attuned.

[polymath]

dios4vida's example of a sword thunking into the ground is a seamless use of onomatopoiea. They can be jarring when they're used as aural interjections. The Show Don't Tell principle is implicated. Is the author or narrator reporting an aural sensation directly to readers? Or is it a viewpoint character's self-reported perception of a sensation? Close narrative distance is jeapordized in the former, unless the intended reader surrogate is a narrator, which nonetheless still has a somewhat more remote narrative distance than the latter.

Using a traditional formal prescriptive formatting style for emphasis that's still used in some genres demonstrates onomatopoeias' interjectory awkwardness;
Crash! Out of control cars collided in dense fog.
Pyrrhus' sword missed Priam's parry and, Thunk!, buried in Priam's leg.
Wheaton Mill Stream spilled down a gentle slope into the mill pond. Burble, burble, babble.

I'm reminded of the campy balloon captions from the television show Batman. Bang! Bop! Bam! Crash!

Onomatopoeia used as dynamic sentence action verbs are a best practice for depicting aural sensations. Imagery-like but aural instead of visual sensation.

Fans whirred, machinery clicked, tictock went the interminable time clock on Dave's nightwatchman shift.