Writing Like Jazz: The Power Of Space

The quiet beauty is in those spaces

photo by the author:: the piano was a gift from my grandad

Just as the quiet space between notes is crucial in music, the space between words gives my reader time to think. In music, the rests, pauses, and silences allow the notes to breathe and the listener to anticipate. This creates the rhythm and tension of the piece. It is similar to the written word.

A good jazz musician doesn’t fill every measure. She knows a held silence can say more than a run of eight notes ever could. The listener leans in during that gap. That’s the point. The gap is doing the work.

My prose is often clipped, not polished. The staccato beat is in my head long before it hits paper. My 9th-grade English teacher told me my sentences were too simple; they had the structure of a third-grader. I told him, “Thank you. That is what critics say about Hemingway’s work.”

I got detention. Hemingway drank a Papa Doble.

Later, I learned that Hemingway called his writing style the iceberg theory. He explained that facts float above water; the supporting structure and symbolism operate out of sight. Seven-eighths of the iceberg is under the surface. You don’t see it. You feel it holding the rest up.

Spare prose often omits details on purpose. It is minimalism at its finest. It is difficult to do correctly, but once done, you can feel the difference, and so can your reader. If you are an introvert like me, spare is often how we look at life. We take in the room, say little, and trust that what we noticed was enough. The rest is just too much.

The key is finding the right balance — providing enough substance to make your words memorable without extraneous filler. Short, thoughtful prose guides the reader and writer to focus on what’s truly important. The subject.

So even when you have a hundred details in your pocket, you don’t need to hand over all hundred. Choose the three that carry weight. Let the reader fill in the rest. That’s not withholding. That’s the rest between the notes, doing its job.

Thanks for reading, I know you have many choices and I appreciate the time spent with me.

I’m not perfect, but I’m perfectly myself.

Grace 🌷