The most powerful line in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is never spoken.

Two people sit at a train station, discussing “it.” They never say what “it” is. But readers know: they’re talking about abortion.

The entire story happens in what’s not said.

That’s the power of silence in storytelling—the strategic omission that makes readers fill in gaps, lean forward, and participate in meaning-making.

What Is Narrative Silence?

Silence in storytelling isn’t the absence of words. It’s the deliberate withholding of information, explanation, or resolution.

It manifests as:

  • Gaps in information (what happened is implied, not shown)
  • Unsaid dialogue (characters avoid naming the thing)
  • White space on the page (literal breaks in text)
  • Ambiguous endings (no clear resolution)
  • Suppressed emotion (characters don’t express what they feel)

Each type creates a different effect.

Why Silence Works

1. Reader as Co-Creator

When you withhold information, readers fill the gap with their imagination.

This makes them active participants rather than passive consumers.

Example:

“She looked at the photograph. Then burned it.”

What was in the photograph? You don’t know. Your brain supplies possibilities. Whatever you imagine is more personally resonant than anything the author could specify.

2. Respecting Reader Intelligence

Silence says: “You’re smart enough to figure this out.”

Readers appreciate being trusted. Over-explanation feels condescending.

Compare:

Over-explained:

“She walked into the house where she’d lived with her now-deceased husband for thirty years. Seeing his empty chair made her sad because he used to sit there every evening.”

With silence:

“She walked into the house. His chair was empty. It always would be.”

The second version trusts readers to understand loss without spelling it out.

3. Creating Emotional Resonance Through Restraint

Sometimes the most devastating moments are the ones described minimally.

Example from The Road by Cormac McCarthy:

“He’d carried his grief too long. The weight of it had made him crazy.”

McCarthy doesn’t describe the grief in detail. The silence around it makes it heavier.

4. Generating Ambiguity (Which Can Be a Feature)

Not every story needs clear answers.

Ambiguous endings let readers debate, interpret, and revisit the text.

Example: Inception - Does the top stop spinning? The film doesn’t answer. The silence is the point.

Types of Narrative Silence

1. The Implied Event

Something major happened. You’re not shown it. You infer it from aftermath.

Example from Toni Morrison’s Beloved:

The novel never fully depicts the trauma at Sweet Home plantation. You piece together horrors from fragments, memories, and silences.

The unsaid is more haunting than graphic description could be.

How to use it: Show the before and after. Let readers fill in the during.

“He left the house at noon. When he came back three hours later, there was blood on his shirt and he wouldn’t meet her eyes.”

What happened in those three hours? The silence makes it sinister.

2. The Unsaid Dialogue

Characters talk around a subject without naming it.

Example from Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”:

Characters discuss love for pages. They never define it. Each person means something different, and the gap between their definitions is where the meaning lives.

How to use it: Create conversations where the real topic is the one not mentioned.

“Are you happy?” “I’m fine.” “That’s not what I asked.” “It’s the answer you’re getting.”

The real question (“Do you still love me?”) and the real answer (“No”) are never spoken.

3. The Emotional Gap

A character experiences something intense but doesn’t express it.

The silence becomes louder than words.

Example from Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day:

Stevens, the butler, narrates in repressed, formal language. His feelings for Miss Kenton are never directly stated. The emotion lives in what he doesn’t say.

“It is sometimes said that butlers only truly exist when they are at work. […] I think there is a great deal of truth in this.”

He’s describing loneliness and emotional suppression without naming it.

How to use it: Show a character’s actions and restraint. Let readers feel the suppressed emotion.

“She stood at his grave. Her face was blank. After ten minutes, she turned and walked away.”

No tears described. The silence makes the grief palpable.

4. White Space and the Unwritten

Literal gaps in text—scene breaks, chapter cuts, ellipses.

Example from Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad:

The novel jumps through time. Entire years pass between chapters. The gaps are where life happens—the mundane, the painful, the undocumented.

How to use it: End a scene mid-crisis. Start the next scene after resolution. The gap holds the tension.

“He raised the gun.”

[Chapter break]

“The funeral was on a Tuesday.”

What happened is obvious. Showing it would be redundant. The silence is more powerful.

5. Ambiguous Endings

The story stops without clear resolution.

Readers are left to interpret.

Example from Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”:

The story ends with Tessie Hutchinson being stoned. We never learn why the lottery exists or what the townspeople believe they’re accomplishing.

The silence around the “why” makes the horror universal.

How to use it: End at a moment of realization or choice, not aftermath.

“She looked at the pills in her hand. Then at the note she’d written. Outside, the sun was rising.”

Does she take them? The story doesn’t say. The silence lets readers decide.

When to Use Silence

Use Silence When:

1. The reader can infer what happened

If showing the event doesn’t add meaning, omit it.

“He went to the interview confident. He came home in silence.”

You know he didn’t get the job.

2. The mystery is more powerful than the explanation

Horror works through suggestion.

“She heard footsteps in the attic. No one was supposed to be up there.”

Showing what’s in the attic might be less scary than leaving it unknown.

3. Emotion is more resonant when restrained

Over-describing grief, rage, or love can diminish it.

“He read the letter. Folded it. Put it back in the envelope.”

The restraint makes the emotion stronger.

4. You want readers to debate and interpret

Literary fiction often embraces ambiguity.

“She walked into the water. The horizon was endless.”

Is it suicide? Rebirth? Escape? The silence allows multiple readings.

Don’t Use Silence When:

1. Readers need the information to understand what’s happening

Clarity matters. Confusion frustrates.

2. The event itself is the point

If the story is about the confrontation, show it.

3. Withholding feels arbitrary or manipulative

Silence should serve the story, not just create mystery for mystery’s sake.

The Hemingway Iceberg Principle

Hemingway famously said you can omit anything from a story, as long as you know what it is.

The tip of the iceberg is visible. The mass beneath the water gives it weight.

Example from “Hills Like White Elephants”:

The word “abortion” never appears. But the story is heavy with it because Hemingway knew exactly what the characters were discussing.

The reader feels the weight of the unspoken.

Application: Know the backstory, the trauma, the secret. Write around it. Let it inform everything without naming it.

Subtext: Dialogue’s Silence

Characters rarely say exactly what they mean.

Real conversation is full of:

  • Evasions
  • Implications
  • Coded language
  • Things left unsaid

Surface-level dialogue (weak):

“I love you.” “I love you too.”

Dialogue with subtext (stronger):

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” “The job starts in two weeks.” “That’s not what I asked.” “It’s the answer I have.”

The words “I’m leaving, and I’m not asking you to come with me” are never said. But both characters (and readers) hear them.

Silence in Action

Not everything needs to be described.

Weak (over-described action):

“She walked to the kitchen, opened the cupboard, took out a glass, turned on the faucet, filled the glass with water, turned off the faucet, and drank.”

Strong (silent action):

“She drank a glass of water in the kitchen. It didn’t help.”

The reader fills in the mechanics. You only describe what matters (it didn’t help).

The Danger of Over-Explaining

When you explain too much, you rob readers of discovery.

Example:

Over-explained:

“She looked at him with sadness in her eyes because she knew their relationship was ending and she felt deep sorrow about losing what they once had.”

With silence:

“She looked at him. Then looked away.”

The second version lets readers feel the ending without being told.

Silence and Genre Expectations

Literary Fiction

Embraces ambiguity and silence. Readers expect to work for meaning.

Genre Fiction (Thriller, Mystery, Romance)

Requires more clarity. Readers expect certain resolutions.

But even genre fiction benefits from strategic silence—especially in building tension.

Example: Mystery novels withhold the killer’s identity. The silence creates suspense.

White Space as Silence

The physical space on the page can create silence.

Line Breaks

“I’m not coming back.”

She didn’t answer.

The white space is the pause. The silence speaks.

Chapter Breaks

Ending a chapter mid-crisis, then jumping forward in time:

Chapter 12: “The bomb is going to—”

Chapter 13: “Three days later, the survivors gathered at the memorial.”

The explosion happens in the gap.

Paragraph Breaks

He read her letter. Every word.

Then burned it.

The space between is the emotional processing.

Exercises to Practice Silence

Exercise 1: The Implied Event

Write a scene showing only the before and after of a traumatic event. Don’t show the event itself.

Example:

  • Before: Character walks into a building
  • [silence]
  • After: Character stumbles out, shirt torn, bleeding

What happened? The reader imagines.

Exercise 2: Dialogue Without Naming the Topic

Two characters discuss something important. Never let them name what they’re talking about.

Example:

  • Topic: Affair
  • Dialogue: They talk about “the trip,” “what happened,” “the mistake”—never “affair”

Exercise 3: The Ambiguous Ending

Write a story that ends at a moment of choice. Don’t show the choice made.

Example:

“She stood at the crossroads. Left led home. Right led to him. She took a breath. And turned.”

Which way? The story doesn’t say.

Famous Examples of Silence

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The green light across the bay. What it represents is never fully explained. The silence lets it mean everything: hope, longing, the American Dream, unattainable desire.

Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

Godot never arrives. We never learn who he is or why they’re waiting. The silence is the play.

No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

The novel’s most violent moment (Llewelyn’s death) happens off-page. We learn about it secondhand. The silence makes it more shocking.

Beloved - Toni Morrison

Sethe’s full trauma is revealed in fragments. The horror of slavery is told through gaps, silences, and what can’t be spoken.

The Balance

Too much explanation = condescension Too much silence = confusion

The art is in the balance.

Ask:

  • What does the reader need to know?
  • What can they infer?
  • What is more powerful left unsaid?

The Power of the Unsaid

In real life, the most important things are often the hardest to say.

  • “I love you” when you’re afraid of rejection
  • “I’m scared” when you’re supposed to be strong
  • “I’m leaving” when you know it will hurt

Stories that capture this—that show characters not saying the thing—feel true.

Final Thought

Readers remember what they have to work for.

When you hand them everything, they forget it.

When you make them dig, infer, and interpret, they own the meaning.

Silence isn’t absence.

It’s space for the reader to enter the story.

Further Reading

Explore More from the Storyteller’s Toolkit

You’ve completed the series! For a full overview of all techniques, visit the Storyteller’s Toolkit page.