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Negative Space
Oct. 3rd, 2005 10:36 amI talked very briefly last night with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dopplegl about the concept of negative space. He was working on a drawing assignment that used it and I made an offhand comment about how much I like drawing with negative space. He said he felt entirely the opposite (I'm paraphrasing because I'm nice).
But it got me to thinking: what's the negative space in writing? I know that's a question with a different answer for everyone writing, but for me, I believe it's all the unspokenness, the internalizations, the private thoughts that characters never share. Not so much the descriptive turn of phrase about a place or thing that's evident to everyone in the room, but the millions of things that take place any time there's character interaction but are only known to one person and never shared.
Then I started thinking about this in roleplay (which is basically a highly warped version of scriptwriting, after all) and how some characters come alive and have depth and others are just... one-dimensional and only care about themselves and never delve into what's going on with the other character, and I suppose that's a whole other manner of negative space in writing: the not telling. The not giving anything away, the not thinking, the not doing anything but using circumstance to get your character's words out and not giving a rip about what's going on for other people. This style of play plagues me and bothers me deeply and, snob that I am, there are some people I won't play with because interacting with their characters makes me feel like I'm pulling teeth: it's all about them them them and I feel like my voice is only there as a foil for their greater or lesser purposes.
To everyone who writes, aspires to write, or is in any other way creative-minded, I recommend the book Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. It's about both acknowledging and letting go of fear when it comes to creativity and though it's based on painting as a medium, it applies to all creative endeavors. Is it the be-all and end-all? No, but it's a fascinating look at things and a great way to see yourself as not so isolated because, really, whether you're writing or drawing or painting or crocheting, it's a solitary pursuit and we can dwell in the loneliness of it if we let ourselves do so.
dopplegl about the concept of negative space. He was working on a drawing assignment that used it and I made an offhand comment about how much I like drawing with negative space. He said he felt entirely the opposite (I'm paraphrasing because I'm nice).But it got me to thinking: what's the negative space in writing? I know that's a question with a different answer for everyone writing, but for me, I believe it's all the unspokenness, the internalizations, the private thoughts that characters never share. Not so much the descriptive turn of phrase about a place or thing that's evident to everyone in the room, but the millions of things that take place any time there's character interaction but are only known to one person and never shared.
Then I started thinking about this in roleplay (which is basically a highly warped version of scriptwriting, after all) and how some characters come alive and have depth and others are just... one-dimensional and only care about themselves and never delve into what's going on with the other character, and I suppose that's a whole other manner of negative space in writing: the not telling. The not giving anything away, the not thinking, the not doing anything but using circumstance to get your character's words out and not giving a rip about what's going on for other people. This style of play plagues me and bothers me deeply and, snob that I am, there are some people I won't play with because interacting with their characters makes me feel like I'm pulling teeth: it's all about them them them and I feel like my voice is only there as a foil for their greater or lesser purposes.
To everyone who writes, aspires to write, or is in any other way creative-minded, I recommend the book Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. It's about both acknowledging and letting go of fear when it comes to creativity and though it's based on painting as a medium, it applies to all creative endeavors. Is it the be-all and end-all? No, but it's a fascinating look at things and a great way to see yourself as not so isolated because, really, whether you're writing or drawing or painting or crocheting, it's a solitary pursuit and we can dwell in the loneliness of it if we let ourselves do so.
