The Power of Quiet Moments in Fiction | Miyazaki's Storytelling Advice

Quiet moments can hit harder than action scenes, as Hayao Miyazaki explains in an interview with film critic Roger Ebert: “If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness.” In this video, I share my favorite moments of “intentional emptiness” from literature, with examples from Haruki Murakami, Jeff VanderMeer, Claire Keegan, and John le Carré.

Watch till the end for writing prompts you can use to embed quiet moments into your own stories to add realism and depth.

Read the text version on Medium!