Why white space is vital to communication

White Space

The first known use of ‘White Space’ was back in 1946, and it means the area of a page without writing or pictures. It’s the part between the words, the part that allows us to pause and consider. it allows us to compartmentalize one set of thoughts from another.

Social Media and the looooooong post

Have you ever noticed posts on social media sometimes people post a few words, hit a couple hard returns, then say a few more until the post is about a foot tall? They do this to manipulate the way you read it. Each line becomes (presumably) an impactful statement. Guess what they are force-feeding you? That’s right, white space. So instead of a meaningful paragraph separated by some whitespace, you get white space on

every

single

line.

Why saying nothing is as important as saying something

It takes stamina to consume any form of communication whether you are reading a book, listening to an audiobook, a conversation, or watching a speaker. Pauses matter. In fact, sometimes they matter just as much as the words they separate.

Attention spans and the desire to complete sentences

But there is a danger, especially when communicating in person, or in a conversation. If you have ever had thoughtful pauses in a conversation, more often than not, that will be interpreted as confusion, hesitation, lack of confidence, or uncertainty. Those who perceive this will then interrupt you and/or try to complete what they think you want to say. It’s also an open invitation for those that do not feel like they are heard, or have an unbalanced desire to add to the conversation.

Fiction, dialogue and ADHD

Fun fact – when I first started writing (even before I wrote my trilogy years later) I was so fascinated with dialogue that it intimidated me and inspired me to examine it very deeply. When I finally wrote my trilogy (after three nonfictions that did not contain dialogue) I developed a very specific way of writing it. I allowed it to stand on its own. I did not violate any rules of style but did develop a fairly unique way to present it.

The interesting thing is it became second nature and I didn’t think much of it… until a review specifically mentioned it. The review said the book was an easy read. It wasn’t in my humble opinion. it’s a deep slow burn with lots of layers. When I read further I found the review specifically mentioned the layout, and the reviewer explained that he had ADHD and this 400-page book was one of the few he enjoyed reading—because of the white space.

Listen to this episode—it’s got ample white space, and hopefully it gives you something to ponder as to not only how you communicate, but how you stay true to your thoughts.

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Transcript

You’re listening to the Mark Bradford Alchemy for Life podcast. How much white space do you allow yourself in the document of life?

The Overwhelming Effect of Dense Information

Well hey there welcome back. Have you ever received an email or had a document on your desk that you needed to read through and you look at it and it’s one giant paragraph or if it’s a full-size sheet of paper maybe it’s two giant paragraphs? What’s the first thing you think of? For me it’s oh oh my God. I don’t know I don’t know where I’m going to rest basically is what I think. Now granted I can stop reading at any time but you want to at least make it through a paragraph or a page before you pause. But that’s exactly what you do when you produce something that’s without breaks, something that people have to trudge through and use up all of their stamina to get through. Because the way that people read and absorb things is that they need brakes, they need to compartmentalize, they need to to filter, they need to categorize and you don’t allow them to really do any of that stuff if you give them a giant paragraph without brakes or without white space.

Why White Space is a Powerful Communication Tool

By breaking your information into smaller digestible bits people will be able to accept it easily, they’ll be able to see what you’re talking about, they’ll be able to understand and they won’t run out of stamina because they won’t be using their reserves to just get through that paragraph. The concept of this white space and it’s literally white space because it’s not where the text which is typically black on the page the white space this is the page showing through. That concept isn’t just important in documents and communication, it’s also important in writing in general, whether it’s non-fiction and it’s your hierarchal arranged ideas on a page. People love seeing bullet lists, they love to see a list of things, they love to see big titles, they love all that stuff because their brain just gets it and when your brain just get something you can just sit there and absorb. The same applies to fiction if your brain can just get the way that dialogue works and so forth, your brain will just get it and you’ll just keep flipping those pages and absorbing and enjoying it. And that’s just your way of communicating and it’s not even what you’re communicating so it’s that’s a layer between you and people in your life, your audience, your peers and so forth.

Applying the Concept of White Space to Daily Life and Work

But this whole concept of white space is taken even further in in life. I mean if you’re working a standard job and remember the podcast on job career or calling and if you don’t please go take a peek at it. If you have a job you typically have your day broken up into 15-minute break, lunch, 15-minute break. As far as I can remember from when I had a regular quote unquote job that was sort of mandated by the government that things had to be broken up that way. And I know people bend rules and so forth but there’s there’s a reason for that too so that you can kind of regenerate and continue forward. It’s also important in relationships where people have a boys or girls night out or they have their me time. It’s even important for people who typically over think oh you can’t see that I’m raising my hand yeah I’m raising my hand I’m one of those people. You need a break sometimes from yourself, you need a break from thinking. So if you’re planning your entire rulership of the of the planet you need sometimes to just sit and stare at a wall or watch mindless television or something.

The Role of “Doing Nothing” in Creativity and Regeneration

It’s been said many times that creatives need time to do nothing and part of that time to do nothing is white space but part of that time is also to kind of regenerate and I mean spoiler alert still be creative but be creative in a completely unrestricted way that has no pressure or consequences. So this particular episode is just simply telling you a few things. When communicating in anyway give some white space. I do that in the podcasts, I mean I can communicate to you right now by keep talking and trying to give you all sorts of interesting things to say and and interesting things to think about and so on so forth and or I can give some white space in between the ideas I’m giving you and you absorbing, categorizing, filtering and thinking about them. And if I do it that way I’d like to think that you also will appreciate what I’m saying a bit more and understand. It applies to public speaking as well.

Navigating Conversations and the Challenge of Pauses

So again when you’re communicating in any form whether it is the written media where you can literally see the white space or the media in which people are are hearing and seeing something visual from you or just communicating in general when you’re speaking with someone. You know I have to throw a little caveat on that or an asterisk at least because some people may actually think well hold on. Some people may have an experience and some people may intuitively be going there’s something about that that doesn’t sound right and the something about that that doesn’t sound right or that you have a memory of is that with some people when you try to communicate at that way they’re going to interrupt you. They’re going to interrupt you and they’re going to finish your sentence or they’re going to think that you’re not a very bright person. I’ve encountered all of those things when I’ve communicated sometimes. Sometimes I’m in a conversation with somebody and I just have a thoughtful second where I think about what they’re saying which is actually quite honorable if somebody actually thinks a second or two about what you’ve said to them, please give them the breathing room to go ahead and process it and then respond. That’s a good thing.

The Benefits of Thoughtful Communication in All Relationships

But we sort of live in a society now that has no attention span so people aren’t really allowed to do that or I do see that it’s more prevalent than it used to be so I understand that but I think it’s still the best way to communicate is to communicate thoughtfully. I’m not talking about full-blown stoicism which we can talk about some other time maybe the next episode but I’m talking about just giving the proper white space which takes the form of pauses or takes the form of of breaks or fades or space between sentences or space between paragraphs or or something broken down as a bullet list rather than you rambling on about it for 14 pages. Those are all really important considerations that are going to affect your life whether it’s you speaking to your kids it’s you, well let me stop. If it’s you speaking to your kids and you allow for thoughtful pauses they are going to feel like they can express themselves. You don’t even have to agree with what they’re saying but if if they feel that they can kind of take a breath they’re far less likely to become angry or agitated. If you do this with clients the clients will feel like they’re being heard. If you do this in your relationship the person will feel like you care about them and you do and in all cases it’s not a false thing it’s a it’s a real it’s a real thing. If you do this in your documents people will appreciate what you’re saying and understand it better. It it’s it’s a win-win win-win win across the board to try to communicate this way. It takes a bit of effort and it takes a bit of stamina to do it or to start doing it if you’re not used to it but once you start doing it it feels very natural and it’s very it feels very natural because it is is the way to communicate even for people who are hyper and when I say hyper I mean someone like myself who has a million thoughts going on that wants to communicate and sometimes overcommunicates. Try it out please and let me know as always and thank you so much. Take care.

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