Onomatopoeia.  Defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it.  For the sake of this discussion, I'll simply refer to John Prine's song by the same name, taken from his 1973 album, Sweet Revenge:

"Bang! went the pistol,

Crash! went the window

Ouch! went the son of a gun.

Onomatopoeia--I don't want to see ya

Speaking in a foreign tongue."

Using a word that evokes the sound of the action you're describing.  Genius!  Yet another great tool to bring the reader closer to the action.  And as words go, they're exciting, sizzling, crackling, thumping, whirring, buzzing, screeching, tick-tick-ticking...you get the idea.