The Imagination Editor: Smack Dab in the Imagination by Dia Calhoun

 I'm working on cutting a verse novel manuscript by at least twenty-five percent. So, I've been wondering, how does the visual idea of negative space in visual art work in writing? How does the imagination kick in to determine what doesn't need to be there? Usually, I think of the imagination as additive rather than subtractive.

Thinking of Greek and Roman ruins helps me with this. The pillars and walls still standing suggest or imply the entire structure. That's one reason why ruins are so beautiful and haunting. I must make leaps through the vacant (or negative space) to complete the structure.

What can I remove from my manuscript that will give the reader that same experience? If I take out too much, there is no place for the leap to land. If I leave in too many pillars, the thrill diminishes. Of course, some of this depends on the age of one's reader and the commercial vs. literary.

And how do I change the types of leaps to create variety? Zooming the camera lens--from detail to cosmos? POV switches? Emotional changes? Time shifts?

I'm trying to encourage myself to be ruthless. Yes, I know, as you do, that "less is more." But it's hard to erase what I've painstakingly built. I had to build the entire edifice to see what I had. Now the art comes in like a dozer--topple the pillars.

Perhaps this is one reason we writers need the earthquake of critiques.