Allen Wold, author

Every creative endeavor must have both art and craft. There must be a balance between the two, and that balance must be dynamic. I keep on learning this over and over again.

The word “art” has at least two broad and overlapping meanings. On the one hand, art is the object in a museum, or the performance in a theater. On the other, it is the inspiration, the emotion, the vision, the idea which is the subject of that object or performance. I am using “art” in this second way, as the process, not the product.

I am a writer of fiction, so I will be talking about the creation of fiction, though any kind of writing is creative, from the text on a cereal box, through legal documents, instruction manuals, biographies and histories, novels and stories, and experimental literature. The same can be said of the range of visual arts, from clip art, through cereal box design, technical illustration, advertising, magazine illustration, cover art, and fine art (whatever that is). The artist starts with nothing but an idea, whether her own or one assigned by an employer or the needs of the product, and produces, in the end, something which anybody can perceive in some way. From a mere thought to a finished product.

The craft of writing includes spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, phrase order, paragraphing, and even font type and size, page layout and formatting, and so on. These are the tools you have to use to get your art (your internal vision) out of your head into a form that can be read by an audience.

The art of writing fiction is the ideas, the imagery, the characters, setting, situation, how it begins and how it ends, the flow and arc of story. This is the material you have to work with, to which you apply your craft, in order to produce something that is readable by your audience.

I know from personal experience, though I have a hard time learning from it, that an over-emphasis on the craft, the insistance on the use of formal punctuation and structure in fiction, is a mistake. Non-fiction of all kinds depends on a mastery of the craft, because the object is clarity, the understanding of the information.

In the old days, I used CP/M on my first computer (Control Program for Microcomputers, the basis of DOS), and the manual was full of ideas and information, but there was no craft, no structure, no order in presentation, no clarity, and it was almost impossible to read. All “art,” no craft.

On the other hand, when I came back from England in 1998, I completely rewrote the novel, Stroad’s Cross, which was published last year. I was so obsessed on correct punctuation, correct phrase order, sentence structure, paragraphing and so on, perfect accuracy of description, that it read like a well-written manual of some kind. The art, the story, was completely lost.

It’s the balance that’s important.

Non-fiction must have as much art as craft. A biography of the most interesting person in the world, if written as just a collection of facts in chronological order, will hold no reader’s attention for more than a few pages. I’ve started a few. The information must be correct, and accurate, but it must be presented with an artistic interpretation of that information.

Fiction must have as much craft as art. I have read plenty of first drafts, of which the author is justly proud, which are a jumble of ideas, images, bits of characterization, far too much unnecessary information, not enough style. All that informs the use of crafting the second and third drafts, and as many more as necessary.

There has to be a balance, or the reader’s responses will be, “That’s a wonderful idea, but it’s poorly expressed.” Or, “That’s technically perfect, but it’s boring.”

And that balance is dynamic. There are times when precision is more important, others when vision is more important, and if well “crafted,” the reader will be unaware of any sense of transitions. Even accurate descriptions must be written with art if the reader is to enjoy them. Even vast ideas must be presented in such a way as to be comprehensible. The creator must master both aspects of creation, in order to produce their best work.

I keep on learning that. Over and over and over...