The Artistic Product

Desire, Appeal, Demand, Art....

In any creative venture there is an element conceptual fulfillment and appeal. Often many choose to define their works as an art. These concepts demonstrate a defined expression and communicate emotion through specific aesthetic criteria, in short works that are of more than ordinary significance.

There are many different mediums that can be termed art, ranging from the standards of painting and sculpture to writing and even film or gaming. The ideal of conveying a concept through a medium in such a way as to be desirable is a fundamental motive for many artists. Through practice, refinement of technique and expression a work can be viewed as art.

While any work can be viewed as a work of art it is undeniably the aesthetic criteria that permits the work to be classified and termed "a work of art" within the medium. The aesthetics of a piece, while entirely subjective, are often representative of the 'high-concepts' that determine the appeal of the piece.

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As with any creative work, the determination of appeal is quite subjective however the broader the appeal the more accepted the piece is overall.

It is the appeal of a piece that many artists seek so that the work is broadly accepted as a work of art without dispute. Many artists are willing to sacrifice for the sake of their work, barely making a living while trying to find 'mainstream success' in their desired field. These Starving Artists epitomize the concept of an artist and are entirely dependent on the demand for their work.

Starving Artists and demand are where a couple of misconceptions enter.

Many writers/artists that are new to the industry often claim that their work is art as a defense to changing their work. As previously discussed, there are components to this that determine viability of their claim and then there is the misconception about the 'Best Seller' author.

The Best Seller author may have made their way into the best selling ranks but it does not mean that they have left 'Starving Artist' status. Most authors work other more permanent jobs because it often takes more than six published works and at least 2 'best sellers' before they can even consider focusing on being an author as their career.

In reality, an artist creates a work that they hope has enough appeal to drive the demand for their work including future works. Successful artists can convey their work with broad appeal but still remain truthful to their original concepts so that it is a work of art. Even starving artists who have sacrificed for their art dream of 'breaking into the business' and having their work desired. This desire effectively makes the work of art a product.

Products rely on marketability to determine success and even art needs an audience to claim success. In the writing industry success is measured in more facets than stars in the sky but claiming a work is art is not a defense against change, it only means that you'll be left by the roadside in an industry of unique artistic products.

Assembling Art

The argument of art has always been not only a conceptual one but one of personal perception of both the product and the practice used to create that product.

A recent story that has brought into question series endings as well as artistic vision has been the whole Bioware/Mass Effect 3 ending that has managed to go from an industry specific topic to national news and even spurred Forbes to begin analyzing the industry. This is really interesting because it is an argument of artistic expression versus respect for the property for fans.

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Many critics and writers, even myself have dedicated significant time to analyzing writing as an artistic expression, an art form. Through comparisons in perspective, similarities in techniques across mediums including photography, film, sculpture and even performance arts, writing is about the art of creation but is that all?

The primary dispute that critics are using to defend the flawed story of Mass Effect 3 and often what many writers also rely on it the idea that it is art. The story is an art and the creator has full artistic license to craft the work however they see fit but this isn't entirely true.

"Many definitions of art have been proposed by philosophers and others who have characterized art in terms of mimesis, expression, communication of emotion, or other values. During the Romantic period, art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science"-Wiki

When an artist creates their piece of work it is what they envisioned and they are ultimately only constricted by how they perceive their own work. This entire process changes when the artist chooses to share their work with others as a career. The work then needs to become commercially viable.

In every artistic medium there are criteria that need to be addressed for the work to be accepted by enough critics and individuals to be a viable work.

What this means in short, a toddler's crayon drawing may be art to their mother but no one is likely to be buying it for thousands of dollars. In writing terms if someone writes a 200,000 word novel with the grammar of an eight-year-old and refuses to address these issues no one will publish it or want to read it.

For all of the artistic intent every work needs an outlet to be viable. In the writing industry, as in photography and film these are publishers. Publishers set criteria for all works because they have a set target market and prospects for those works already that also establish the work's commercial viability. It's an assurance that any work that they accept will be viable for them. If the artist's work does not meet their criteria then it will not be accepted or they will request it is changed to suit their criteria.

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Many budding writers instinctively dispute the need for changes to their work but the publisher is focusing on what is commercially viable. EVERY work is altered for publication. Some publishers require larger changes and more dramatic alterations to the piece to suit their target while other publishers will only refine the work.

When I was editing Nightfall for my publisher their requirements were fairly simple, no profanity and no trademarks. I had no problem dropping the cursing, it opened up the audience for my work but I found more difficulty with trademarks, mostly giving up car models. In the end it was just a matter of edits.

No matter the medium, if an artist wishes their work to be successful then it should be expected there will be changes that need to be met. If the artist resists the recommendations, then they should also expect the criticisms that come with that choice. While the work may be a piece of art it is also a product. If the customers are not happy with the product while the artist defends their work as art then they should know that they will have fewer customers next time.

While we regard writing as an art form, artistic expression in the finest, we should always be wary of claiming it's our artistic license to make certain choices about our work. If we want to succeed as authors we need to accept the criticisms and make the changes that make our works viable, otherwise it's not a career in writing just more unpublished works in our desk.

Intriguing Observations: How Choreography Helps a Scene

The Intriguing Observations series was created to gather some of the greatest supporters and bloggers to provide their own insight on all things creative both in their ventures and their techniques. This week on the guest series is another all-star supporter and an outstanding wordsmith Jill Kemerer.

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Each October I spend hours choreographing a dance routine for our school’s cheerleading squad. First, I select fast-paced, appropriate music—no suggestive lyrics or cursing—then I think of possible sequences, often searching YouTube for new-to-me dance moves.

The real choreography doesn't begin until I throw on my yoga pants and practice performing eight counts. It’s a fun but arduous process of repeating moves until they’re memorized and then deciding which order to put them in. Often, I have to throw out entire eight counts for being too difficult, too fast, or too confusing. When I have the routine finished, I rehearse it often to keep it fresh until practices begin in December.

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As a fiction writer, I incorporate choreography in every scene. If you’re a writer, you do too, but you might not have realized it. First, we select the location of the scene the same way I select music for a dance. It must be the appropriate locale for the season—we wouldn’t put our characters on a sunny beach during a Canadian winter—and it should be a venue where our characters would logically appear.

After we’ve determined the setting, we have to figure out how to start the scene, who is in the scene, and what the viewpoint character wants to accomplish. The real choreography doesn’t begin until we open up our manuscript and start writing. I don’t believe I’ve ever written a scene where the characters didn’t move. Even if the scene is mostly in one character’s head, movement should occur. Maybe she stomps to the kitchen in frustration as she tries to figure out who sabotaged her project? Or he tries to ignore his problems by flipping through the television stations at the speed of light?

When there are several characters in a scene, the choreography gets trickier. We have to clarify who speaks, responds, and walks away when the scene is crowded or we risk losing the reader.

If you, like me, overuse gestures from scene to scene, choreography can help. Visualize the interaction between characters and strive to find the unique actions they take. If nothing new comes to mind, picture them moving within the scene.

Try to provide tension and conflict even in their actions. Let’s say your characters have reluctantly paired to solve a crime. Maybe one shuffles slowly through life and takes the time to notice little details, while the other has a goal and won’t be distracted by anything. You could show their personality traits by setting the scene in a store and having one striding to the counter to question the clerk while the other picks up merchandise and examines walls, prices, even the other customers. The dialogue will remain the same, but the little actions tell a reader much more than their words ever could.

In many ways, our characters’ interaction is a dance. We simply choreograph their movement on each page and throughout the story.

How do you choreograph your characters’ actions in a scene?

Jill Kemerer writes inspirational romance novels. Coffee fuels her mornings; chocolate, her afternoons. A former electrical engineer, she now enjoys a healthy addiction to magazines, fluffy animals, and her hilarious family. She is a member of ACFW and RWA and also serves as vice-president of MVRWA. Jill is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary Agency.

To learn more about Jill, head to her website, www.jillkemerer.com, stop by her blog, http://jillkemerer.blogspot.com, be friends with her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJillKemerer), and follow her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/jillkemerer).

Intriguing Observations: Art In Writing

When this blog was first launched early last year, there were concerns about subject matter and finding an audience that would be interested in these ramblings. Over time, topics became more creative and more distinct, focusing on not just writing but all creative aspects. On the anniversary of the initial launch it only felt appropriate to gather together some of the greatest supporters and bloggers to provide their own Intriguing Observations on creative ventures and techniques.

Kicking off the Intriguing Observations Series this week is an outstanding supporter and wordsmith Amber Keller. 

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When you read a book have you ever felt like you were in a scene? Maybe you could see what the character sees, feel their anxieties or fears, maybe even smell certain scents or hear a particular sound. This is what a writer strives for; to have their audience as lost in and passionate about their work as they are. In order to achieve this, several things must be taken into account.

This is also a way to incorporate art into writing.

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When you write a scene, place yourself in your characters head. What do they see? What do they hear or feel? What would they do? If you start with these questions, many times you can branch off into much deeper details in a natural progression. Like an artist with a canvas, the writer needs to convey emotions and meanings. Give the readers a real, visceral interpretation of the scene so that they can lose themselves in it.

Also much like a potters’ wheel, a writer starts with a crude idea and begins to mold it into the right words and phrases, building elements such as scene, characters, setting and plot. It is a work of passion, of sweat and tears, maybe even literally at times, but one that is not meant to show the work. It needs to seem flawless and fluid. The delicate balance is what we attempt to achieve.

Another way to assimilate art into writing is to use symbolism. This can be in the form of a repeated phrase or item throughout a story. Once the reader sees something repeated, it becomes significant and there will be a meaning bestowed upon it.

One example of a widely known artistic movement is Surrealism. There were works of literature being created at this time that are fundamentally considered a part of this movement. The method was to concentrate on undertones instead of the literal meaning. This can be a powerful tool in a writer’s toolbox.

After all that’s been previously discussed, there is one discernable truth that speaks to the totality. 

Writing itself is an art. 

Amber Keller is writer who delves into dark fiction, particularly horror and suspense/thrillers. Besides having finished two horror novels this past year, she has numerous short stories available on her blog, and is fortunate to be a part of two anthologies. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and also contributes to various websites and emagazines, including horror and science fiction movie reviews. When not at her laptop, she can be found looking for things that go bump in the night.

Amber's blog ~ Ramblings by Amber

Amber on Twitter ~ akeller9

The newest anthology that was just released is the Night Terrors II anthology and can be found here.

New Year's Review

As 2011 is coming to a close everyone takes stock of the trials and tribulations, the victories and validations of the year and what all of these have meant to each of us.

At the start of this year I was editing my manuscript and looking to get my series published. Through the conversations of the amazing writing community, I decided it was time to build my 'author platform' starting with a blog. I had never 'blogged' before other than a few contributed articles. I was nervous about finding material, even having a topic others would be interested in reading. I wasn't sure how this was really going to turn out, how it was going to develop and most importantly to me, how this would help with publication.

I started with a few topics that seemed logical to me and started sharing my rambling thoughts out to my friends and contacts out on the inter-webs.

My first observation was that I really did have some outstanding writer friends in the twitter-verse and through the comments I saw, I really did have an interesting take on things that more than my virtual-friends were willing to have an interest in reading. I also started producing articles for a regional media outlet that started gaining significant attraction for them.

In April together with a few friends we set about investigating and spending the night at one of the country's most notorious locations, a dilapidated asylum that is now a mainstay of television shows.

Through no small feat I signed with my publisher in May and gleefully started organizing my thoughts to make sure the series would not only be coherent but also something significant when it debuted. All of my research, all of my ramblings and dreams worked out.

In the summer I went back to the beautiful Massachusetts coast where I was able to draw on more inspiration and restructure some of the later events in the series as well as catch some breathing room.

Later in the summer I stumbled upon a novel idea for my weekly articles, a look at compositions, not just the writing idea but how any story is told through a composition. Whether it's a film, a still shot, writing or even sculpture all components work and if looked at from the right perspective the techniques could work for any medium. It was also about this time that along with some friends we went out to the Qunicy Harbor and spent a night investigating a retired Cold-war Era naval destroyer.

In the fall, my fiance and I were married. After being together for more than 5 years we decided it was what we both wanted. It was the next step in our lives together and while a bit nerve-wracking at the time, it was life.

So at the end of 2011, after all that has happened in this year what was the outcome? Well, for Writing Files it was a number of guest posts and highlights on some outstanding writing friend's blogs. Highlights included  Jill Kemerer in June, Jen Talty in Sept, Samantha Combs and Donna Galanti in Oct and oh so much more. Significant thanks to all of my writerly friends, fellow word-herders to borrow a phrase. After a single year of blogging, Writing Files has had more than 9K views, 290 comments, and almost a third of all traffic is from twitter. The remaining visits are courtesy of friend's blogs like Jami Gold, Michele Shaw and Jill Kemerer. After a year of Writing Files it's hard to imagine not being part of these communities, author platform or not.

Looking back at 2011 the easiest thing to say is that life happened. There were challenges, difficulties and there were triumphs, dreams that came true and plenty of adventure to be had.    

As I look toward the new year and know how much I have changed over this past year, it is clear that life dictates change. The first big change for the new year is actually going to be saying goodbye to Writing Files.  2012 will be the launch of the first novel in my series Nightfall, the new home for this composition needs to reflect more of the character of this piece but also focus my ramblings. As any composition, the theme needs to be unified. Writing Files is becoming The Surveillance Report next post.

Happy New Year everyone!

Assigning Depth of Field

As the artist conceptualizes their work, they designate a specific subject or focus for that work. There is a particular message that they wish to convey with their subject and as a result, a given selection of details that must be emphasized in their work.

In a particular work, the artist will need to select the appropriate 'focus' for the piece. This focus will reveal a subject in greater detail while de-emphasizing the surrounding subjects to provide a greater contrast that allows the subject to stand out. This technique of emphasizing a particular subject with a selected focus is commonly described as a depth of field in photography and cinematography. In a visual sense it is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in frame that appear 'acceptably sharp.'

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Much like the visual arts, it is just as necessary and integral to select the appropriate focal length, the depth of field for a piece. Three primary means of focusing on a subject across mediums include the deep focus, shallow focus and a selective focus.

A deep focus or large depth of field is common in cinematography and is also quite common in fantasy novels as well. In a deep focus shot the foreground, middle-ground and background are all in focus. This emphasizes moderate detail across all planes of the frame and in narrative terms this is revealed as detailed descriptions of the world, characters, atmosphere even political machinations. While there will be given subjects within the frame they will only exhibit an equal level of detail as that of the rest of the frame regardless of positional emphasis(if they're the main characters, subjects, etc.).

Ex: The rusted mechanical horse slowed its piston-timed pace until it brought the carriage to a stop before us. It was clear that the Algenie were being selective about transit updates in this section of the city. "Select your destination sir." The robotic voice echoed.

The counterpoint, a shallow focus or small depth of field is often more effective. In a shallow focus the subject is emphasized while de-emphasizing the foreground and background. This emphasizes great detail on a single plane and significantly less detail on surrounding subjects and in a narrative sense, is common in most contemporary novels. The subjects in frame will exhibit varying levels of detail depending on their positional emphasis.

Ex: The cab swerved across traffic in response to my hail drawing to a stop in front of us. I jumped in and tried not to recoil at the stench. The cabbie looked over his shoulder, "Where to boss?"


A balance between the shallow focus and deep focus is the selective focus, a large depth of field with selected emphasis. This focal method allows for a larger detailed frame than a shallow focus but also provides more detail than a deep focus on selected subjects in the frame. In a narrative sense this is more uncommon but also generates an air of inconsistency.

Ex: The battered yellow cab swerved around the sanitation truck as the workers hopped off. The car dodged a pristine Mercedes and slid to a stop in front of me almost taking my toes off the curb. I shook my head as horns sounded in the distance and I pulled the door handle. The scent of sweat and decay greeted me as I slid in on the cheap vinyl seat. "Where to boss?" The large cabbie asked with a thick Brooklyn accent.


Every creative piece has a selected depth of field, a focal length that establishes what in frame is emphasized and de-emphasized. Once a focal length is selected, it is abundantly apparent to the audience when that focal length changes. If there is a shift within the focus it often weakens the piece and often distinguishes a professional piece from the amateur. Do you know what focal length you're using?

Defining the Absence

When any creative piece is crafted the artist must analyze and interpret a number of elements to bring their vision to life. Just as a painter or sculptor must consider the aspects that they must insert into their composition they must also consider how they will use what they will not include.

The Negative Space of a composition is just as integral to the piece as every brush stroke or chisel mark. The artist can use it to add depth to the composition, further define the structure of the piece and act as a transition between the elements.

As an artist sculpts their piece from the void they select the elements that will serve the piece best whether by insertion or omission. The negative space is not a simple void but strategically implemented space that can bring the composition to life. Sculptors often utilize the negative space of a piece to draw the shadows and light the piece with emotion much like a writer can wield implications through omitted events. That which is omitted can bring events, actions and even emotions for characters into sharper focus.

While the negative space defines the piece, the structure and shape of that space can be molded to guide the audience's perception. In the visual arts this can be done to define the focal point of the piece, while a literary perception on this can be called a theme. A specific attempt by the creator to shape a piece towards one singular point, one event, that the creator wishes to convey.

The most common use of negative space in any creative piece is it's use as a transitional element to prevent inconsistencies or detract from the piece. It is not only more powerful to bypass the 'mundane' parts to keep the piece cohesive but by leveraging that negative space a piece can enhance the emotional impact of what is crafted.

In writing, negative space is just as prevalent as in any other art. When characters are describing traveling to location and the next scene is the characters at that location the journey to that location is implied, it is negative space. When characters act according to their past history but do not explain it, it is implied even though it is omitted. These omissions in the writing are actually the negative space in the piece.

In any creative piece what is sculpted and what is omitted are equally important elements. While there is an extensive amount of attention that is given to what is crafted, it is imperative to understand that what is omitted is still integral to the structure of the piece and has its own impact.

How do you use the negative space? Do you arrange your piece with the impact of that space in mind?