The Use of Silence

What's not said is as powerful as what is. A line break creates silence. White space creates silence. A dash—silence. Ellipsis... silence. These silences force readers to pause, to fill blanks, to think.

Emily Dickinson's dashes aren't mistakes; they're deliberate silence. Use silence to create suspense. "He walked in. She didn't / look up." The break creates tension. Use silence to create emphasis. "I loved her / more than" (then stop). The reader completes the thought. In free verse, white space is a tool as powerful as words.

Trust silence. Your reader's imagination is more powerful than your description.