Tag: space

Blog posts with this tag are identified by writer Cortni Merritt as related to space and movement as an element of writing.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Fullness of Absence: Capturing Silence in Writing

fullness-absence-writing

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. 

**Tao Te Ching, verse 11

Contact SRD Editing Services

Need someone to support your ideas and help you cultivate silence? Consider developmental editing.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

The Importance of Writing in Space

writing-space

Your whole novel takes place in your head. As easy as it can be to forget that fact, you (dear, Writers), must remember that your reader cannot get into your head and see where people are moving around. You must keep in mind how you’re writing in space that the reader must follow you through.

While it seems obvious that the events you narrate in your novel must take place in some space, it can be amazingly easy to forget. With a line of summarizing transition, you can seamlessly sweep a character across a room or a galaxy. But in reality, the reader’s mind can’t always keep up. The reader can get lost in the jump.

Poor descriptions of space can leave your reader lost in the character’s house, bumping into walls or walking through them. You can even leave your reader at another location when you forget to mention that the character got out of the car, or left the lakeside, or went into the casino.

Writing tip of the day: Remember to write in space

Write the space into your scene, and write the characters in that space. It doesn’t mean you have to describe every step they take through their entire journey, but it does mean that, like a film director setting up a shot, you need to create an atmosphere around your characters based on their interactions with the spaces in their lives.

It does mean that you need to make sure that the room stays consistent and that the reader moves with the character. Think of it like a camera lens — as the writer, you are like a film director. It is the director’s job to see what the viewer is going to see: that is why they stand behind the camera or watch the viewing screen during filming; it’s why they oversee the special effects; it’s why they make their first cut along with the editors.

As a novelist, you get to do one better; you get to put your readers into the minds of your characters. You put the reader into their memory, into their history, into their desires. The director (and the screenwriter) is limited (always) to the exterior, but the novelist goes where no one else can: into the heart. This is why writing in space is so important.

Looking for an editor to help your fiction shine? You found one.