Negative Space

/ Jeff Cann

First I searched Google, and later Bing. ‘Crow graphic with negative space.’ I’m planning a tattoo. I have a thing for crows. A year ago, I went on a spree—three stories about crows in two months—the one I killed, the stuffed animal from college, the one that said ‘hello.’

I Killed a Crow    |    Crows    |    More stories about crows

“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.

45 thoughts on “Negative Space”

  1. I read and typed my childhood journals from when my mother was dying of cancer. I did not record, at eleven, any sad or intense or stressful experiences in my journal. I only wrote about my experiences at school and my strong opinions about various school things. I came away, from rereading it recently, “seeing” the stress and suffering in the negative space of what I didn’t write, as if what I did write had pushed it to the outside of the picture.
    I’m curious about your negative-space vision of a crow.

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    • I don’t really have a vision, or it’s a “I’ll know it when I see it”. I’m not very visually artistic. I have found some images I like though, so If I can’t find exactly what I’m looking for, I’ll still get a tattoo I like. What a horrible thing to happen in your childhood. My mother died of cancer when I was 16 through 21. That was gut wrenching and I wasn’t even home for most of it.

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  3. I love the idea, but I believe all great craft should be invisible to the reader. When you read something that’s well written, you should just go “Wow! That was great!” As a writer, you’d likely go looking for the why, but you shouldn’t notice it up front

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  4. I’m struggling with this Jeff but maybe it’s negative space that I’m seeing in the following sporting analogy.
    I’m sitting in the top tier of the MCG on Boxing Day in 1981, watching one of Test Cricket’s greats, Dennis Lillee, bowl.  I can’t see the ball due to its tremendous speed, but I instinctively know, because of the awkward turn of the bat, that the redoubtable Viv Richards is gone.  He’s out.  And the West Indies are sitting on just 4 for 10 after the last ball of the day.
    ~
    Clearly I need to sit with this idea for a bit.
    ~
    Meanwhile, a ying~yang curve down the normally straight seam of a speed-blurred red cricket ball feels like a good tattoo to me just now.

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  6. As a person who tends to over communicate I’m intrigued. I think I do this out of fear. Fear of not being completely understood. I don’t give my audience enough credit. I’m not a writer and I don’t know how I originally landed at your blog, but I I’ve been here a while and I learn a lot. A tattoo surprised me, another plot twist, ha. Where will you position Crow?

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    • Haha, a new tattoo, three existing actually, although no sleeves or anything on my neck. We all have tattoos in my house. Probably a lot of it is because we live in central PA where 75% of the people have tattoos, but I got my first one when I lived in DC, so that analysis doesn’t hold up. Do you follow other blogs? I often wonder if people who don’t blog or are friends with a blogger ever read a blog. Happy new year Biz.

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  8. Happy New Year to you also Jeff, thank you. I used to read lots and lots of blogs. Basically blogs became my research into areas of my life that I was experiencing. First there was fertility about ten years ago, then sobriety, and then some that I’m not sure how I found and yours is one of those, your sobriety is an added bonus. 3 tattoos, I would have never guessed. And the whole family too, how cool.

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  9. Sparse is good. I’m a fan of sentence fragments and things left unsaid. There’s nothing quite like the dawning of realization and the satisfaction of such when I put the pieces together myself, with the writer only hinting. Also, why not find a good tattoo artist and ask them to come up with a design for you?

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    • A good tattoo artist in Gettysburg? LOL We’ve talked about a family road trip to Montreal to go to the artist who did Sophie’s tattoo. Maybe we can turn that into a summer vacation.

      I like sentence fragments because it more closely mirrors how people speak, and if nothing else, I try to write conversationally.

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  10. I’m thinking an example of your concept of negative space may be what Hemingway called his six-word novel: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” It’s about as spare as it can be, but full of implications to fuel the reader’s imagination.

    Would you say that writing that includes negative space allows the reader to play as much a role in creating the message as the writer plays?

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    • Yes, I wish I had thought of the six word story motif as an example in my post. That illustrates what I’m trying to do exactly. Using the Hemmingway example (which I contend is the best execution of a six word story I’ve ever seen), the writer needs to create a narrative with multiple possibilities, and the reader will ‘write’ their own unique backstory and conclusion. Gosh, I could see this being the topic of a whole lecture and workshop in your class. MY writer’s group has an open invitation for members to lead a session. Do I dare volunteer to do a session on negative space & six word stories?

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      • Yes, you should definitely do it!!

        As a first-day-of-class icebreaker, I introduced my advanced writing students to Hemingway’s six-word story and then asked them to write their life story in six sentences. We read them in class–a way to get to know each other–and looked for what was suggested but unexpressed in the six sentences. I think it worked well.

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  13. Jeff, I loved your thoughts on negative space and how it applies to our writing. I love the works of the late Elmore Leonard, but when I tried to figure out how he worked his word magic, I discovered that his descriptions of people and settings were intentionally sparse, and that I filled in a lot of the details myself. Making the reader a collaborator is nothing short of magical.

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  14. “Say more by writing less…” Um, I love this. I love the concept of meaning in the negative space. I think it is such a beautiful art to be able to tell a story in such a way! I need to go check out those writings. 🙂 Thanks for sharing this. It’s encouraging.

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  16. Hope you find the tattoo you visualise in your mind. It’s important to get the right one! Spiritually, our Corvid 🐦‍⬛ friends represent transformation and intelligence. And they are super intelligent! They can solve puzzles. If you feed them they will get to know you. Fascinating birds. Tattoo aside, I think the negative space you talk about can be a good thing! Sometimes it’s good for the reader to discover or create the stories in between and beneath for themselves. It can be fun filling in the spaces! A great post!

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    • Crows intrigue me so much. As a gift from the universe I was alone in a parking lot getting something out of my car and a crow in a tree said “hello” to me several times. One of those life events that stay with you forever.

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  17. This is so timely. I’m writing a short story about an incredibly deep character. And then there is the story which I have in my head and I am in love with what is occurring and yet, it’s a 2000-5000 word competition that I’m intending to enter the completed piece in. How to take the story and distil the pure essence of each (quite complex) character and keep the horrendous beauty of the tale intact. Impactful. Thinking about that when I’m already 2000 words in and have barely moved from the first scene had me mulling. Then I read your blog post and of course! Negative space. I think each sentence will have to conjure at least ten more unwritten ones in the mind of the reader as they move through the story. Just to fit it all in within the word limit allowed. Great! Thanks Jeff, I will relish this challenge. Hope you’re well. By the way – tattoos, I didn’t figure for you – but then, no one thinks I would have them either and always seem surprised. Pinterest is great for ideas though.

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  18. Novels featuring heroes with tattoos:

    1. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson
    2. “Ink and Bone” by Lisa Unger
    3. “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris
    4. “Shiver” by Maggie Stiefvater
    5. “Deep Water” by L. Rambit
    6. “The Truth About Forever” by Sarah Dessen
    7. “Tattooed Hearts” by Mika Jolie
    8. “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern
    9. “The Bone Season” by Samantha Shannon
    10. “Clockwork Angel” by Cassandra Clare

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