Things Left Unsaid

One thing I love about writing is that it gives me the opportunity to say the things I am too much of a coward to say in real life. It is an outlet not accessed by many. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian novelist in the 1800's most known for the classic Crime and Punishment, though my favorite is The Brothers Karamozov) captured my thought in this brilliant quote:

“Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.”

So true. Though the word, once spoken, can never be retrieved, the word, never uttered, can never be resolved. Bewilderment may cause some dis-ease, but it is far better to walk about in mystified confusion than to walk about empty - hollow.

Resolution is a basic human need. We have an innate pyschological drive for closure. It is so strong, in fact, that an individual presented with an incomplete image of some type will instinctively "fill in" the picture in their minds so that it does not appear unfinished. A writer too close to his work may in fact "see" words that are accidentally omitted because his mind completes the sentence or fills in the missing word.

We seek it - closure. We crave it. We must have it. Without it, we are lost. We finish others' sentences when they don't finish them quickly enough to satisfy our need for closure. When we enter a conversation near the end of the story, we ask the storyteller to start over so we can get the whole picture.

Try starting a task or stating half of a thought and then try not to complete it. You will go mad waiting for the other shoe to drop, or you will give in. (The latter usually prevails.) The cliffhanger to the series finale of a favorite show, or waiting for the third book in a trilogy to finally be released is an adrenaline rush, but we can only wait for so long.

Unhappiness comes from the word unspoken, the thought unfinished, the truth left unsaid. I love writing because the truth always finds its way onto the paper and I gain much-needed closure . . . that sense of peace that I can now move forward. It is cathartic. It is healing. It is another gift meant for the hands of a writer.