Question Arising from Recent Fanfic

[moon_custafer]

Do a lot of people, or at least a lot of fanfic writers/readers, consider humming particularly sexy, or something? There seems to be a convention of men humming seductively as they kiss somebody, or gaze into another’s eyes, or just pause in the conversation.

Maybe it’s not literal humming, maybe it means the character is saying “hmm,” or making some inarticulate sound that can’t be accurately conveyed as a grunt or a sigh?

Comments

[kore]

"Hmm" is okay, "Mmmm" maybe, but someone "makes a humming noise" or "'Okay,' he hummed" drives me NUTS. And "Hmm" only works as a conversational filler or noncommittal sound for me. No during sex!

I remember it from chat RP back in the last decade, too. Lots of humming, lots of Mmmm, also "huffs a laugh" or "laughs softly" or similar things. I dunno if they leaked over from old school RP like toxic waste or what, but "chuffs" or "huffs a laugh" makes me want to take a blowtorch to something.

[nineveh_uk]

I think it's people failing to recognise that humming is not the same as hmm-ing.

[sabotabby]

I never thought of it as such. I think people just want to break up the dialogue.

[cuddyclothes]

No, I would find it distracting. I think of it more like "hmmm" along with the gasps, etc.

"Huffed a laugh" - Something I always think writers should do is try to do something they've written like, "You guys!" he laughed. Or he chuckled. You can't speak and laugh at exactly the same time, it's "he said, laughing".

Humming along

[palain-7.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's not supposed to be an oral humming but a passionate vibration of the whole chest - although, in my experience, that comes out as more of a purr than a hum.

Re: Humming along

[moon_custafer]

A day or so after I posted this, it occurred to me that if I’d mentally substituted “murmured” for “hummed,” I’d have had no problems with any of the examples. Of course I’m now unsure what a murmur sounds like in speech terms, but at least it’s an accepted description.