Chiaroscuro of Writing: Smack Dab in the Imagination by Dia Calhoun

 

Ginevra de' Benci   Leonardo da Vinci

Our imagination is like chiaroscuro with its dazzling drama. Chiaroscuro was a painting technique developed in the Renaissance that used highlights and shadows—bold contrasts of light and dark—to create depth, drama, and dimensionality. Think Rembrandt, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Leonardo da Vinci.

 

Our writing imagination is a wizard at conjuring from theshadowy whirlwinds in our minds. All the images, ideas, experiences, emptionsspin in the darkness, and somehow imagination pulls them out, recombined, intothe light. That wondrous ah-ha! moment is a highlight of the creative process. This is one of the things I love best about writing. It’s why I follow thewriting maxim: “no surprise for thewriter, no surprise for the reader.” (I don’t recall who first said that.)

If I learn nothing new when writing a poem, take nodeparture from my original inspiration, the poem lacks depth. No highlights, noshadows—no richness. When writing novels, I never plot anything out to the nthdegree. I don’t want to work in a zone where every turn is planned, but in aliving zone. Yes, ah-ha’s emerge in planning and plotting, but my own work ismost alive when I leave room for my imagination to leap from shadow to bright ah-ha atevery step in the process.