Out of Silence, Sound. Out of Nothing, Something. by Susan Griffin

Author:Susan Griffin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2022-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Transitions

Once you have one or more paragraphs that address the same subject or depict a common scene, you may want to change the subject, in which case you will need to create a transition.

A transition is like a bridge connecting two different themes or events or even styles. You can write about the way they are connected or simply indicate a change with the use of a blank space. In her extraordinary memoir, Memorial Drive, Natasha Trethewey shifts both voice and tone, writing as “I” (“I have come into the room and am standing in front of the door . . .”) in Chapter 5, and shifting to the paradoxically more intimate “you” in Chapter 6 (“You remember even though you don’t want to . . .”), using only the blank space between chapters as a bridge. It works very well, better than any attempt to explain the shift could ever do.

How do you know what will work and what will not? Like so much else in life, in the end the only way to know what works is to try it out.

Transitions can be especially challenging when you are forging new ideas and making unconventional connections along the way.

One way to carry the reader to a new territory is through an image. (The more abstract your idea is, the more it will benefit from a concrete example.) Like sound, images weave together subjects not usually connected through sensual experience. They allow the reader to make a leap because the landing appears familiar, like solid ground.

Sometimes you will need more than one transition, if for example you are following both a story and a train of thought. Including two transitions, even if one seems like a stage whisper, facilitates perception. Perhaps because a weave is usually made of more than one thread.

Transitions can also give you unexpected insights, revelations that will lead eventually to a deeper understanding of your work. By connecting different elements, even if only by using space to indicate a change, you are creating a whole from the various parts you have written. And as readers navigate the bridges you’ve built, they will be discovering the whole terrain too. Bit by bit, bridge by bridge, a clear vision arises. Which is why, as you consider what bridge to build and how to do it, once again, taking a walk or even sleeping on the question is a good idea. Knowledge takes time to ripen.

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