breaking silence

"With every story, long or short, there is an implied silence that is broken. The same silence that obtains when the conductor walks out and the audience quietens, and he steps up and taps the little stand where all the music is waiting, and then he raises his arms, and presto! Beethoven's ninth symphony comes into the world again. It is the same, in its way, where writing is concerned. And if you ask yourself, during revision, 'why has the silence been broken here?' you can reach into the very center of the piece, its heart. And work outward from there. And then remember that the broken silence is your voice going out into the world, and it will still be sounding in these words and phrases when you are long gone. Whether anyone comes to it or not, it will be there. And so in that one lovely way, you are never effaced. You have made the joyful noise."

— Richard Bausch