Pauses come before things...

...not after them.

It's obvious if you think about it. You can't pause after something really because then it isn't a pause - it's an end. The only thing that makes a pause a pause is the line that follows it.

Pauses go wrong in performance when it becomes waiting. A pause needs to be full.

So what are we doing in a pause? We are thinking what to say, looking for the word, wishing we were somewhere else, trying to figure out what to say, looking for meaning, hoping to be rescued, trying to control the conversation, wishing we were dead etc etc fill in as you wish.

A trick for you: pause on the in-breath. Pause full of inspiration. On the out-breath the life goes out of the the moment.

Pauses are the thinking that speaking and doing comes from. The text comes from the pauses not the other way around. Pausing is acting.