I’ve been recording and then editing the audio commentaries I promised as part of the Kickstarter I ran last month for the Dragons of Kaitstud omnibus edition. And doing that, the editing side of it especially, made me consider the power of pauses.
In writing, we use commas, semi-colons, colons and periods, to control the flow of the reader. Showing them where to pause and encouraging them towards reading with a certain cadence. Pauses can be powerful.
Yet, the first thing I did when working on the audio files for these commentaries was to remove the pauses. To take out the moments where I collected my thoughts and waited for a second, or not even that long. I know the ums and ahs and where I stumbled on my words are worth removing. But aren't some of the pauses good things?
As an infrequent audio listener, I'm not sure what the advice is, anyway. Probably down to the person putting it out to decide. One of those things that make the recording of audio an art, rather than a science. The physics nerd in me revolts at this, even while my creativity rejoices.
And, I didn't reach any sort of conclusion while working on these either. They are three short audio clips, after all. But it made me think, and I hope this short piece has passed that thought on to you. Which is as much as I can hope for right now!