“Eli, here’s an awesome frog. Sophie, look at these fish I found on Pinterest.” This is my wife, Susan. She’s scouting tattoo designs. She keeps her eye out for everyone in the family. Right now, we’re all gearing up for some new ink. I struck out on my crow search. Too intricate or too dull, and all the crows looked pissed off—not something I want to wear for eternity. And none leverage negative space the way I want. No one draws a crow without drawing a crow. The image I’m looking for doesn’t seem to exist. It’s time to put Susan on the case.
Negative space: Implied artwork created by the lack of medium. Too vague? Too confusing? I made that definition up. Negative space is the image that shows up outside the subject of a drawing or painting. A good example is Rubin’s Vase. Two identical men face each other. Between them sits the image of a vase. Depending on your perspective either the vase or the men are the negative image, something you see, even though it isn’t there.
As a writer, my medium is words. Years ago, I vowed to write more negative space into my stories. I hoped to say more by writing less, to enhance my stories by what I leave out. Sparsify. Imply. Let the reader fill in the blanks, make the reader work. My best example of this is a flash piece I wrote while on vacation (I love writing while on vacation) Natural order of things. I’m drawn to writing like this. I find it challenging to read, but also beautiful.
Over time though, I lost track of my vow. I became more focused on clarity, setting scenes and vivid descriptions than writing sparse prose. I essentially forgot what I was aiming for. Now when I look for negative space in my writing, I only find it in my dialogue. In my opinion, what characters leave unsaid can sometimes replace a couple hundred words.
In her recent post, Should We Set Writing Goals? Georgia Kreiger got me thinking about what direction I want to take my writing. I told her I would never successfully set an output goal, but I’m interested in setting a quality goal. I think a return to sparsity, to implied meaning, to negative space is the exact direction I’d like to take my writing this year. My next tattoo, if I ever find what I’m looking for, will be my visual reminder to take some of that negative space and weave it into my stories.
How do you feel about the type of sparse prose I’ve described? Beautiful or annoying? Inviting or opaque? Let me know in the comments.
I Killed a Crow | Crows | More stories about crows
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Previously Published on jefftcann.com and is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
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Internal image: Anonymousracoon123 on Wikimedia CC License
