Blogger: Wendy Lawton
A couple of years ago I got one of my favorite kinds of calls. It was an offer to let me go through the library of a young pastor who died in 1963. His widow was preparing to give up her home and knew she could no longer keep all his books. I was to take anything I wanted before the book reseller was to come. Happily, everyone knows how much I love buying pastors’ libraries—especially those books that are marked with notes and underlines.
I ended up with three boxes of wonderful classics—several C.S. Lewis American first editions, first edition Bonhoeffers, O. Hallesby, sets of G. Campbell Morgan, A. W. Tozer, Thelicke and others. ::Sigh:: My shelves are filled with new-old treasures.
As I began to thumb through the books, planning which I’d read first, I noticed the difference in the interior design and writing style of these classics. Most are dense. Small type, long paragraphs, long sentences and few divisions and sections. What a difference from the nonfiction books being published today. Off-putting to modern readers.
It reminded me how important white space is. The books being published today allow for plenty of white space with pull quotes, sidebars and sections. Even novels look different to the eye. No more long paragraphs of description—pages need to be broken up with dialogue. White space.
I look forward to discovering the buried treasure in these books but I must say that I appreciate our interior book designers of today. Some ideas are so weighty, they need to have a little white space around them to give us pause to let the wisdom soak in.
The funny thing is, as I tried to design an attack for reading these treasures, I realized my own reading calendar is every bit as dense. It’s not just books that are crammed— our lives need white space as well. I crave time to read non-work reading. I need time to putter around the garden and to try out new recipes. I am a better friend, a better wife, a better mom and grandmother. . . even a better agent when I design white space into my over-packed life. We can’t be creative without time to dream, time to look out the window.
G. K Chesterton didn’t know he was referring to white space when he said: “The modern world has far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile one thing on top of another, without caring if each thing was crushed in turn, People forgot that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it. And by crowding things together they lost the sense of surprise; and surprise is the secret of joy.”
What about you? How do you write to allow for white space? How do you create white space in your life? Do you love the old classics? If so at the end of your comment, write the word classics. I’ll put your name in a hat and choose one of you to receive a duplicate classic from my library, just for the fun of sharing.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
There’s no time for white space here. I’ve got three different freqs and there’s no good news on any push, and the low-rpm WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP is the rhythm section of doom. (Old Huey drivers, are you listening?)
The door gunners are suppressing the h*** out of the treeline, but the little people are going to swarm nonetheless. The goose is out of the oven, and it’s well and truly cooked.
* That bit of histrionic analogue aside, I really DON’T have time for white space. There’s a lot to say, a lot to do. and the reserves that allow the saying and the doing are being drained. Prime, coherent writing time is about an hour a day now. Enough, barely, to maintain a blog. The rest of the time is spent in a semiconscious zombie-state. Groundhog Day meets Night Of The Living Dead. Way fun.
* All that said (anyone still here?), I love the classics, and decry the tendency to white space and pull quotes in nonfiction. We need developed ideas, not sound bites that can be taken out of context (as happens all too often with Scripture, of all things. Read Jeremiah 29:11…and THEN have a glance at 29:10)
* But in proudly blatant inconsistency, I write…well, wrote…fiction with a lot of dialogue, a lot of white space. I can’t describe the eerie, almost tomb-like diminution of light in a partial eclipse, that desperate separation from the light and space of Normal…I can’t describe that to save my life. (Maybe a better closing metaphor could be found, yes?)
* As an example…look at John Toland’s classic narrative of the Battle of the Bulge (Battle: The Story Of The Bulge). It’s full of long sentences forming long paragraphs, and its density is the blood and faith and pain of the young men – on BOTH sides – who were loosed on one another in a madman’s dream, and who died, with the spring blossoms of peace in sight, in the defiled snow of the Ardennes. The only white space in their lives was the killing iron winter.
* And, yeah, CLASSICS.
Damon J. Gray
Andrew, have you considered recording your ideas audibly, and then having those recordings transcribed? If you have more to say than white space for saying it, that could be a solution.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Damon, thanks for the suggestion, but things are a bit past the point where it would be possible. Talking’s very difficult, and hurts too much.
* There is some comfort to be found:
“Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about.” – Saskya Pandita
* I may be a dedicated Parrothead, but I ain’t no parrot! (Cue up ‘Margaritaville)
Damon J. Gray
Hmmm, so what you’re really saying is, you have no interest in sitting atop the shoulder of a seafaring pirate? Okay, I’m good with that. 😉
Betsy
You are amazing, and I love your writing.
Betsy
I should have said, You are amazing Andrew, and I love your writing.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Betsy, I don’t know what to say except thank you. Your words just turned a world-class bad day into a shining treasure that I will enfold close to my heart, for as long as I live and beyond.
* I am so honoured.
Wendy Lawton
Sometimes, Andrew, the most profound things you’ve said take up just a line or two, so if you are down to one hour to communicate with us, it’s an embarrassment of riches. We are blest to have you sharing your insights on this difficult journey.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Wendy, I really don’t know what to say, which is good enough, as something has made the screen all blurry. I wipe the darn thing and it doesn’t help, but obviously nothing wrong with my eyes. yeah?
Thank you so much!
Shirlee Abbott
I spend two hours a day driving back and forth to work. It’s my white space. I listen to the news at the top of the hour along with a song or two on the CD player. But most of the time I want the electronics OFF and the white space ON. It’s my uninterrupted God time.
* I debate the virtues of retiring, or at least working fewer hours and closer to home. That debate includes finding a new spot in my schedule for this precious white space.
Wendy Lawton
That must be precious white space between working full-time and being a pastor’s wife. So many demands on your time.
Damon J. Gray
As I read the opening of your blog posting, it resonated with me to such a level that I felt a physical reaction, a warmth in the middle of my chest. I love the classics, and they constitute the majority of what I consume. It is a style I appreciate, and one that has profoundly influenced my own speaking, thinking and writing. Yet, my critique group regularly tells me (as to agent rejections) that it is a style that does not fit today’s culture. It lacks the warmth (a word I hear a lot) that today’s reader demands. I get that, but I object. It is the same objection I have to being told that I must constrain myself to the 8th grade reading level. I do not even know HOW to do that and still convey the message I want to convey, and I deeply admire those who have the gift for doing so.
That said, the greatest consumer of white space for most of us is that mind-numbing LCD screen on our television. A dear friend and brother in Christ with our local congregation does not even own a television, yet his life is rich and full. Two things that are non-negotiable with me after work each day, 1) time to do “author stuff” whether that is reading, thinking, writing, etc. and 2) time with my best friend, my wife, which usually involves a game of Dominoes, RummiKub, or time on the back deck watching the sunset with a glass of wine. White space … or what Michael Hyatt calls “margin.”
CLASSICS
Shirlee Abbott
God has clearly called me to write to reluctant adult readers (I am for a 5th grade level). Remember that half of American adults read above the 8th grade level. Maybe God calls you to write to them, Damon.
Damon J. Gray
Shirlee, I really admire your ability to do that. I really wrestle with it, and applaud that gift within you.
Wendy Lawton
Some of the simplest writing produces profound impact. It’s one of the reasons I am such a fan of children’s books. Think of Sarah, Plain and Tall; The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Jacob Have I Loved, Walk Two Moons. .. I could go on and on.
Wendy Lawton
That’s one of the hardest things to swallow, that to be commercially viable today we must be able to take complex concepts and make them simple. The master of this was Jesus. The scholars of his day made things so complex that the “people in the pews,” so to speak, could do nothing but fail. Jesus, on the other hand could boil a gargantuan list of dos and don’ts to two rules. And one someone asked him to define “neighbor” he sat down with them and told them a story. “There once was a man. . ..”
There is definitely a place for scholarly writing but the academic community is critical and skeptical. It’s a tough audience as well. (If this were easy everyone would be doing it, right?)
Janet Ann Collins
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who still loves reading children’s books.
Damon J. Gray
Wendy, yes, I suppose if it were simple everyone would be doing it, just like you said. I like to keep challenging and inspiring quotes on my office wall. One of them from E. F. Schumacher reads thus: “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger – more complex. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.” When I apply this two writing, I think of authors like Donald Miller. His writing is so simple (not to be confused with simplistic) that it flows – as though I am listening to a close friend on a lazy afternoon. Then at some point he says something – still simple, yet profound – that causes me to pause in a moment of “Whoa!” That is a gift. It is one I admire, but one I simply do not have and a fuels the feelings of inadequacy with which I wrestle so vigorously.
Damon J. Gray
… “to writing” … among other things. I really should not respond so early in the morning. Certainly not before my first cup of coffee. 😉
Shelli Littleton
I love traveling, but home is my happy place. I initially got my first answering machine because I needed more white space. I had a hard time saying no to church work, etc, so I required time to reason and pray about my answer … work up the courage to say no. 🙂 And when my youngest daughter had kidney cancer as a baby, the whole ordeal made me draw my girls closer than ever. Plus, I’d prayed for a family for so long. But I didn’t want to be the mom who drove her kids to activity after activity, eating in the car, not spending time at home together, and living a stressed life. The one-kidney situation meant that daughter couldn’t play contact sports, which placed limits on us. Lately, my teen girls and I play Princess Uno together every night … which leads to cards being placed down and talking and laughing together for nearly an hour after. It’s good white space, time we’ll always treasure. And when I write … I try to balance, as well.
*Classic.
Shelli Littleton
Classics 🙂
Wendy Lawton
My daughter, Rebecca, has always thanked us that we allowed so much time at home, in her room. It’s why music has been such an important part of her life. She took lessons and played in school band and community bandbut we let her buy fun music books like Beatles and Disney Soundtracks and Broadway show music. She’d spend hours playing because she had the “tools” and the time. By the time she was out of her teens she sang, played flute, piccolo, piano and oboe and ended up with a very generous oboe scholarship to college. White Space.
Angie Arndt
My hubby great-uncle (also a pastor) donated his library to our little church in his will. As we went through the titles, we were surprised to find a few books that were written by “cults.” When we asked his daughter about it, she said he wanted to know the enemy he was fighting.
Uncle David filled his white space with music. I fill mine with art, jewelry-making, anything creative. A professor (and Rhodes Scholar) once told me that the brain has to process, just like main frame computers once did.
Thanks for the reminder, Wendy!
Damon J. Gray
Oh, Angie, I quite agree, and have several eyebrow-arching titles in my library. While I do not subscribe to the enemy’s doctrine, I need to understand it well enough to know what to combat. Your great uncle was very wise!
Angela Arndt
Thank you so much, Damon! He was. He could recite two hundred years of English history then tell you what you needed to hear even if you didn’t ask. Knowledge and wisdom. I hope I can be that wise someday.
Carol Ashby
I still love the classics, both theological and fictional. Andrew Murray is one of my favorites. He certainly isn’t a bulleted-list and soundbite kind of writer, but the newer style seems to produce much shallower content.
*I wrote my first three novels in the classical style, only to learn through the ACFW Genesis contest that I needed to rewrite everything in 3rd person limited with “show don’t tell” constantly in mind. Now the books have lots of white space. I didn’t damage the depth of the plot, and they probably are more “engaging” reads with their deep POV style. Their style of beats and dialog with enough description to set the scene but no more would let a screenwriter pick one up and flip it into a screenplay very quickly. But I miss the vivid descriptions of places and things that the new style forbids.
*I’ll keep writing and reading the new style, but I’ll also keep loving the classics.
Classics
Wendy Lawton
I know, Carol. I still enjoy James Michener but can you imagine trying to sell that to a publisher today?
Jeanne Takenaka
Wendy, when I read your title, I figured your post would either go to the white space on book pages or in life. Turns out, you covered both! 🙂
*My summer held very little white space. Now that my boys are back in school, I am working to guard my time during their school days. To have longer quiet times with the Lord, to ramp up the creative juices, to begin writing again. This summer’s busy-ness sucked dry the creativity within me. Living a less scheduled pace is my goal for these next few months. I’ve discovered no white space in my days also causes me to drift from intimacy with God. And that is not healthy.
*I enjoy reading classics, but I haven’t got time right now to sit and enjoy and ponder them. Maybe when my boys are older . . . ? 🙂
Wendy Lawton
You are in the busiest season of life, Jeanne. Sometimes we just have to hang on and enjoy every minute.
Sarah Loudin Thomas
Recently a friend commented on Facebook that she was bored and asked for suggestions as to what she should do about it. My thought was . . . treasure it! Oh, to be bored. Seems like those boring days when I was a kid were when we came up with the BEST ideas. Hay forts and woodland adventures. Building birdhouses no self-respecting bird would live in. Having thoughts and ideas. Investigating, learning, NOTICING. All too often, we treat free time like a disease that needs to be cured.
Mary Kay Moody
Oh, yes, Sarah. We must share these experience with our young ‘uns! I remember clearly when my youngest was 4, I told his after 1/2 hour of cartoons on a Saturday morning to go outside & use his imagination. He told me his imagination was tired and wanted to watch television! As an adult, he seldom watches it. 🙂
Wendy Lawton
Sarah, you wrote: “we treat free time like a disease that needs to be cured.” I’m putting this in my collection of quotes. You hit the nail on the head!
Mary Kay Moody
Wendy, your library sounds like a vacation!
During a busy and pressured time in the 90s I worked with abuse victims and tried to recover from spinal surgery. My white-space time was reading Christian fiction! There are times in the last 17 years where life has held no white space ~ but that was only for the God-ordained season of leading two ministries along with working and writing. Grateful for the learning and grateful now for white space.
In writing I seek to balance narrative and dialogue, sentence and paragraph length. If a page has a large block of print, I reevaluate to see if it’s essential or I’ve been lazy and need to rework. In life we often go to the shore of nearby water where fresh air and open horizons magnify the white space. Spending time reading Scripture also does the same. Interesting that now that I write Christian fiction, reading it ~ while enjoyable ~ is not the respite it once was because it all becomes a form of research, which is why I sometimes read a favorite author’s work more than once. LOL
Treasure the old classics, and hymns.
CLASSICS
Wendy Lawton
I’ve found that one way I evaluate a book is that if it is so compelling that I forget to read it critically, it’s a keeper.
Kari Trumbo
Thank you, Wendy. I needed this today. My schedule has been so jam-packed I often forget that I need a Sabbath, the white space, to refresh. I need to read and spend time with my family. You’re absolutely right, it isn’t just “a need” it’s crushing to the spirit without it.
Wendy Lawton
What ever happened to the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer? Crazy, yes. Lazy? I wish. (Said as I face packing for quick trip to Minneapolis tomorrow.)
Eileen Grafton
I’ve always loved white space – both visually and in life. Some people call it margin, building margin into your life. Your blog post was such a delight to read, Wendy, both the old library collection and the concept of white space.
I believe white space can also be part of our writing. It’s the art part – saying just enough without over-explaining. Getting your reader from Point A to Point B without having to drag them there by the hand. It’s the breath of ease in-between the lines. I also believe God is the master of white space!
Wendy Lawton
Well said!
Janet Ann Collins
When I was a teenager I read and enjoyed the classic, Ben Her. A few years ago I decided to read it again, but after reading 60 pages where the only action was animals walking across a desert, I put it down and have yet to picket up again. But I still enjoy the classic books for kids I’ve had most of my life like Heidi and Little Woman. They’re truly CLASSIC!
Cynthia Ruchti
I love this line: People forgot that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it.
I haven’t always allowed space to think and ponder. But then memories get jumbled in a tangle because they weren’t allowed space to breathe, room to inhale and exhale. The memories suffocated for lack of air.
In my writing, I like to give the reader Selah moments–“Stop and think about that.”
Even though some people don’t care for short paragraphs, incorporating them makes the individual paragraphs carry more weight. The human brain doesn’t skim, thinking it already knows what the long paragraph is GOING to say. 🙂
CLASSICS!
Wendy Lawton
Exactly! The perfect reason for spacing. There is a rhythm to writing and it requires rests just like music does.
Janet Ann Collins
Ooops! I typed Ben Hur but spell check attacked my post.
Wendy Lawton
Absolutely. My second grade grandson, Alex, was assigned The Secret Garden to read over the summer. He loved it. He also got to watch the BBC movie with his mom and loved the scary-ness of it. Mistlethwaite Manor, a huge old estate, hearing screams in the night. . . real goosebumps.
Cindy Payne
Please pick Ben Hur up again! I struggled too, at first. I vaguely remember watching the movie as a child with the famous chariot scene. This book is a vivid portrayal of the times of Christ – in fiction form. Intigue, suspense, romance, religious culture of the Middle Ages at that time. Skim what you must, savor the rest. But please give yourself the opportunity.
Janet Ann Collins
Okay, Cindy. I’ll put it the pile of books waiting to be read. I usually read about five or six middle grade and YA books a week, but manage to squeeze in one book for grown-ups (I’m still not one on the inside) every month.
Wendy L Macdonald
What a score, Wendy. Old books–like old friends–are treasures. Recently I’ve started carving out more white space by taking a break from my computer, phone, and social media for part of each weekend. I had no idea what I was missing; it’s wonderful.
Yes, oh yes, I love classics. I purchased an incomplete set of 30 Waverley Novels at a garage sale a few years ago. The date listed inside is 1895. I enjoy decorating with old books. By that, I mean, I place them on shelves with items that match the color of the covers.
This summer I’ve been purging my home of anything I don’t need or love. Each time a section of my house is “whitened,” I breathe a sigh of relief.
But there’s always room for another book.
Blessings ~ Wendy Mac
classics
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Yes, Wendy Mac…always room for another book.
And another dog.
Blessings!
Wendy L Macdonald
Amen, Andrew. And at the risk of sounding crazy–the same goes for cats. Pun intended. 🙂
Blessings to you and Barbara, dear friend.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Not crazy at all, Wendy Mac. Got room for more cats, too. The light over this door will never go out.
Blessings back, from all of us! 🙂
Shirlee Abbott
Nope. I have to get rid of a book to add a book (the perils of down-sizing!)
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Shirlee, do what I do. Get rid of furniture, open up space for stacks of books. Jesus sat on the floor, yeah?
Wendy Lawton
I agree, Wendy Mac. Besides book lined walls are the perfect insulation. It’s my excuse for wall-to-wall bookshelves in nearly every room– 9 to 10 inches of extra insulation.
Kathy Sheldon Davis
I love the line “. . . book lined walls are the perfect insulation,” Wendy. My next bookshelf is coming to me from my parents’ estate, a shoulder-high revolving rack that will fit in the corner beside my favorite chair. I sometimes get concerned about the weight bearing beams under my floor, but adding a few more bookshelves wouldn’t hurt, right?
I’ve already received my grandmother’s Bible with the cracks that look like someone tried to rip it down the middle (like a strong man tearing a phone book in two). She liked preaching to her neighbors so she must have made one mad at some point.
Thanks for offering to share one of your CLASSICS.
Julia Kovach
White space….it’s like well-placed art on a gallery wall; it allows the art it’s presence, and the viewer room to breathe. (Classics)
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Julie, that’s a superb analogy! I used to paint, and when I was fortunate enough to have a one-dude-show, I always used the white space of empty wall to accentuate the impact of each painting.
* Didn’t sell any (neo-Hudson-River-School was decidedly out of fashion) but I sure had fun.
Wendy Lawton
Perfectly said, Julia!
Amanda Dykes
Oh, that Chesterton quote! That’s one that I’ll be inscribing in my “keeper-quote” notebook. Thank you for sharing your heart on this, Wendy. White space is something that’s been steadily sneaking in over the past several years as I hit capacity a few years back and found myself floundering. For starters, the most simple things helped: getting rid of the diaper pail in our then-baby’s nursery, and instead taking each diaper straight out to the garbage can. Stepping outside a few moments at a time throughout the day, in that season, filled both body and soul with fresh air and strength to continue. Planting a garden this year and tending our vegetables has given me white space each evening. Ironically I call it the “Chesterton garden”, as when preparing the soil in the springtime, I was listening to an essay by Chesterton. Sure, it takes more time than going to buy vegetables at the store… but it feeds the soul, too. Setting everything else aside and crawling into a pillow fort with my kids has been the most splendid white space. Or sipping my tea on the front porch to watch the sunset, instead of in front of a t.v. show as I had been accustomed to in the past. That nightly sky-display is now my favorite “show”. Slowing down, paring down, hunkering down, kneeling down– these are the things that lift us up.
Jerusha Agen
I love this idea of building in life white space, Wendy. I enjoy white space in my reading, too, and tend to write stories with lots of it. I tend to think of my preference for white space as a negative sign that I’m not intellectual enough, but I like your positive spin on it instead. And as for white space in life, yes! We definitely need more of that. I hope you’re able to build in more white space reading time into yours. (And I love that you collect old classics from pastors’ libraries! What a treasure those must be. I love reading literary classics myself.)
Cindy Payne
I once told myself, “If I’m too busy to watch a flock of geese flying overhead, then I’m TOO busy.” I create white space by watching geese, picking ripe tomatoes, brushing my horse. I still blow bubbles with the grandkids and watch sitcoms with my husband. The simple joys of life make up my white space. Curling up with a good book is still one of my favorites. And I love the Classics.
Damon J. Gray
This is a great quote. I may need to add that one to my wall.
Susan Sage
Love the analogy of our lives needing white space. This kind of comparison is easy to remember…even on days when there are no white spaces on the calendar!
Rainbow Friends
Great site keep posting more!