Writing The Art of Silence

[Deleted member 84247]

Silence. Often when people think about sad scenes, they picture characters crying over the death of loved ones. They imagine a musical score in the background, but how often do people imagine silence. How often is silence used to instill discomfort, fear, or sadness?

When I think about silence in media, the first movie I picture is "A Silent Voice." If you've not seen it yet, it's about a deaf girl and a boy that used to bully her. The boy struggles with trauma from knowing what he did to her, and the girl struggles with her own trauma. The movie uses silence as a central part of its theme, and I find it to be interesting. However, what about individual scenes with silence as a driver?

I've been thinking about all of this and wondering if you use silence in scenes to make an emotion stick? If you've significantly built up a character death and the surrounding context, I feel like the death itself will be sad enough without any extra stuff. You don't need tears of characters or wailing, sometimes you just need the characters to go silent. Likewise, if you have a scary scene like walking through dark or desolate hallways, I feel like the scene itself can be scary enough without noise. You do not need the knocking of doors or the falling of a vase somewhere. The silent hallways and darkness should be enough to guide you.

Do you have any thoughts on using silence to paint pictures? And have you read any good books that used silence in a climax? What else can you use silence for, and do you have any examples?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

 

[LilRora]

Silence can be used in a lot of situations. When someone's so pissed off they stop speaking, or when romantic tension, or when there's any other kind of tension such as when characters reunite, or when characters witness something extraordinary. Spelling things out does often help convey information or emotions, but it's also frequently unnecessary. I can't name any examples right now, but I've definitely read stories which did this.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

…

 

[SeaJay]

I think that silence hits deeper, as if it strips away all the noise and reveals nothing but the bare bones of emotion. So it sticks with you longer. Noise, to me, is flashier and overwhelms you with pure emotion. So it's a delicate balance - too much silence generates noise, too much noise makes everything go bland.
It's something like the kind of beats the author uses, the rhythm, how they want to make the story sound. Just my thoughts on the topic.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

When processing your opinion about "silence" moments, They reminds me the most of The scene that I remember the most in 2015 :

[Prior to silence]

Spoiler

"Go back to your books and your armchair. Plant your trees. Watch them grow."

The masterclass of silence afterward :

Spoiler

This was actually Ian’s last shot on his last day of filming as Gandalf. There was originally dialogue between him and Bilbo but on set both Ian and Martin agreed that it would be more powerful if there was just silence. Good choice on their part as it means that this scene can say so much more to us through their expressions, whether we’re right or wrong

It's been 10 years after I watched the Blu-ray for the first time back in 2015, and several yearly rewatches before I sold them in 2020s.

I still remembered this scene to this day.

 

[Tyranomaster]

Six pages in a row with just "..." at the top. That's how you know that there is silence in a book.

 

[georgelee5786]

The art of Sybau'ing

 

[Eldoria]

Good question. I personally designed a silent apocalypse at the climax of the Black Mist arc. In the context of the story, Black Mist is a living ideological entity seeking revenge on the old world that has forgotten its sins. She is a tragic woman who brings nightmares through a calamitous mist that engulfs a city. And the city she engulfs will experience an apocalypse, not with magical explosions, monster attacks, or bombastic effects, but with eternal silence through the "sleeping plague" - a disease that will put the sufferer in an eternal sleep in the mist until they die with a smile or nightmares (depending on whether the sufferer is sinful or not). If you are interested in what the silent apocalypse is like and to see if this plot is melodramatic or not, please judge for yourself, click here. Hope this helps. Best regards.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Do you have any thoughts on using silence to paint pictures? And have you read any good books that used silence in a climax? What else can you use silence for, and do you have any examples?

I use it often in my stories, especially to 'amplify' sadness or a shocking revelation.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Hard to use in prose.
One of the most effective uses of silence on television that I've seen was at the end of the final episode of the "Earthshock" serial of Doctor Who. Instead of having some big speech or sad music, it just goes straight to the utterly silent credits. Made the scene far more emotional for me (well, made me kind of choke up instead of cheer as I kind of wanted to going into the episode...)

 

[Corty]

…

Jokes on you, I use that

 

[Azhurie_Mythephan]

The world goes silent for about 5 minutes right before a major update to the Etho'oaxanauixva source code, which allows for the processing of huge amounts of data over the sound channel within the Axithema'anemt Deep Reality Simulation type ∆-73 Version 6.3.1.2.27.2.0.9