One Little Spark…

One little spark
Of inspiration
Is at the heart
Of all creation
Right at the start
Of everything that’s new
One little spark
Lights up for you!

~One Little Spark, by The Sherman Brothers

When the idea for this website first sparked in my mind, I was deep in the middle of writing my first novel. And like many authors, I was agonizing over a single word to describe someone laughing. Should he snicker? Chortle? Guffaw? Just laugh? And what the heck is the difference between them? Sure, I could seek out my answers in a dictionary or on a search engine, but then I end up where many other authors also end up—down a rabbit hole of information on the topic in question.

When I sought out sound sites, I mostly found places where sounds could be purchased or downloaded. Even sites like YouTube could have these sounds available, but accompanied by a plethora of extra information that may or may not be relevant (or distracting). I found no centralized location at all for defining facial expressions accompanied by actual video clips, nor sounds available to hear in real time. And so, the idea to have a centralized audio and visual library sparked in my mind. I use the word “library”, but it might be closer to an audio and visual lexicon.

What is the difference between a chortle and a snicker? What is the difference between striding across a room, and trudging across a room? What about a grimace and a wince?

It is not my intention to assert that the examples on this site are definitive, more just to provide visual and audible representations of what they could be. I don’t seek to limit imagination, but rather expand it, allowing writers, storytellers, and other artists to express themselves on ever-ascending levels!