While listening to a video about personality types, something happened which often happens to me: I started thinking. About silence. In writing. Thinking…
Oh no, you say. Not again, you say.
The speaker in the video said something along the line of: Extroverts think silence is space to be filled, and introverts think silence is a space to be cherished.
I see her point. I know what she’s trying to say. As an introvert, I relate. But then I thought, Well, silence is a space that’s already full.
Maybe it’s not how all introverts see it – I can’t speak for anyone but me. But to me, silence seems to be bursting. And, if writers can capture that silence in writing the moment just right, they will capture an ethereal moment of experience that might otherwise be missed.
The Fullness of Silence (in Writing and in Life)
Silence is full with the sensation of crusty boogers in my nose, and it’s full of the colors of the trees, and it’s full of the shape of the clouds. A lack of sound doesn’t mean anything more than a fullness of other senses.
It is because it is empty that the cart is useful.**
Silence and an empty cart are not useful in the same way. The cart is not lacking. It has purpose and is full of potential.
Silence is also not lacking. It is a moment rich with the absence of sound. It has purpose of being non auditory and is full of the richness of life without sounds.
There’s a there there, not emptiness. Silence, in writing and in life, is the time when and the place where we can feel life moving.
Need someone to support your ideas and help you cultivate silence? Consider developmental editing.
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