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What We Do

White Space Black Art offers writing, editing and literary coaching services to creative and corporate clientele. Writer, editor and WSBA founder Kim Harkness works one on one with clients seeking help with their writing projects – whether you are just beginning or looking to fine tune a finished piece – call for a quote and we’ll work out what needs to be done to help you see it through to completion.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Services

Tell us what you need and we’ll get to work so you can stare down the blank page, begin working on your dream project, or polish up existing work. Sliding scale rates apply for not-for-profit organizations and Canadian newcomers.

Editing

Editing

Just WHAT are you trying to say? Clarity in writing isn't a given - it's a hard won battle that requires a great deal of effort, thought and careful dissection. A professional editor can help you define and purify your prose, refine your ideas, and turn over-complicated text into comprehensive, fluid and polished writing. Turn your business ideas into compelling stories, or transform your creative writing into a polished piece ready for publication with editing services from White Space Black Art.

Literary Coaching

Literary Coaching

Sometimes you need to bounce ideas off of someone or maybe you need help finding the spark that sets everything in place. Maybe you’re stuck, blocked, or have lost the true essence of your story through the revision process. White Space Black Art can help. Let's brainstorm, discover new ideas, filter out the noise that's preventing you from finding your groove and refine that draft to your complete satisfaction. Writing is hard. And mostly solitary. Make the writing process enjoyable by sharing your ideas and work with a compassionate listener, fellow writer and editor who will keep you on track, accountable and inspired.

Writing

Writing

Writing is hard work. Let us make it easier for you. Original creative work, copy writing, ghost writing and web communications - White Space Black Art produces written content that is riveting, convincing, even sexy.

"Conquering the fear of the blank page - one word at a time."

white space black art

From the Blog

…and while I write he draws sunflowers: Post-pardonne moi #3

March 7, 2018

Tonight I held my son wrapped in a towel after the bath. I held him there tightly so he couldn’t see the tears welling up in my eyes. We have just come back from seeing Papa, Papa who is away for 6 weeks working out of town and we at the 3-week mark, going to visit. But not all goes according as planned and we found ourselves watching TV and convalescing on the beds in a hotel room – with a boy too sick and fevery to wander the streets after breakfast. And the departure, ever bittersweet, left me heavy with the burden of a working mom, celebrating two days of not planning dinners and making a lunch and yet the break, the lounging in bed while my son twirled my hair, cold facecloth compress on his head was hardly a break at all.

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Trapped: release the subconscious from suffering

June 7, 2017

On Sunday I woke in the night from a disturbed sleep. I had been hovering in the in-between state for a while – that space between dreams and being awake, conscious that if I just opened my eyes, the thoughts that were haunting me, would end. We’d heard the news, of shameless attacks on humanity in London the night before, but we didn’t have all the details, mostly b/c the intelligence that goes into finding the culprits were looking to solve whodunit. But also, in this house, I turn the radio down when the news comes on.

My anxiety over world events is one thing, but I’m cautious of what my four year old will hear and digest and ruminate on. All in due time, I think. I was/do/attempt to hold a space for the spirit of childhood. To create gardens and tell stories and build towers while counting to 50 or higher, to learn in a warm (and by that I mean humbled, safe, not sheltered) space as much as possible. We see it all, he’ll know it all to well, soon enough. In due time.

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Post Pardonne-Moi #2

September 14, 2016

Tonight I sat and cried on my living room floor. I had a case of post-pardonne-moi. My three-year old crawled into my lap and offered me a hug asking, “What’s wrong mommy? What happened?” I couldn’t tell him that it wasn’t one thing in particular, that the accumulation of the grind of the day, of driving across town to and from his daycare and my work, that sometimes I felt soulless these days and that the mail that I had just opened, a rather large bill, just put me over the edge. He’s three, I’m the adult, I should be able to keep these emotions at bay. I can self-talk or vent with anyone else about any of the things, but not with him, a child.

Sometimes I wonder if this is a form of post-partum. Waves of sadness, of listlessness, of running on absolute empty, in my otherwise happy day. Days where I long for hours without a schedule, to not think about food, to not plan a meal, because I feel like I am constantly in motion, or as a good friend, a mom of two said, I’m always working, but I’m getting nothing done.

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Running Into Words

May 4, 2016

I read Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running over the winter and thought it would jumpstart my writing and running. Both had been on hold, or rather, been left to the Weekend Warrior category of things – once a week, twice if I was truly dedicated and focused and actually got of bed in the opaque black, drank dark coffee and got out the door or down to work. It’s May though, time of so much change. It’s not pitch black at 5:30am, through closed windows you can still hear birds happily announcing the sun’s arrival. It really does magic for the soul. I signed up for a run a while back, on the suggestion of a friend, who, like me, looks ahead and plans and sets goals that, in February offer excitement on the promise of spending time outdoors without down-filled jackets and heavy winter boots. In February, May seemed far away and a 5km run for Mental Heath seemed like something that wouldn’t require too much effort. It’s days away now, and though both writing and running occur on a more regular basis, neither take up the time I hoped they would. It’s in these times, the challenging times of editing, of getting out the door and running when it feels like you are stuck in mud, that matter. Every half an hour makes a difference. This Saturday, when I run 5km, I will not focus on the time it takes, I will run, and do what I tell myself when drafting something for the first time, stop focusing on the end, just let it be, let it run, free.

 

For anyone in the Chatham, Ontario area looking to run or walk the Run for Mental Health 2016 go here:

https://raceroster.com/events/2016/7618/run-for-mental-health-2016

Photo credit: http://blog.theclymb.com/tips/6-tips-transition-road-running-10k-trail-run/

Upcoming Writing Workshop

April 30, 2016

Join writer/editor Kim Harkness and writing mentor/agent Sam Hiyate for 3 hours on 3 Saturdays on the idyllic setting of the camp-like environment of Muggs Island, off Centre Island, home of the Island Yacht Club. We will: look at your piece with new eyes, taking you through a series of questions and exercises that will inspire you to get your piece ready to publish. What you’ll need: A story idea you’ve been pondering, a first draft or a piece that you just can’t complete.

For more information & to register:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/d/canada–toronto/childs-play%3Aunleashing-the-story-on-the-page/?mode=search

Kim Harkness is the founder of White Space Black Art, a writing and editing and mentoring service that produces well-crafted stories and communications. Kim holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She has edited fiction and non-fiction works throughout North America, working closely with independent authors. She has been a ghostwriter for an array of topics and has created non-fiction book proposals with Madison Press Books, and edited Sex for Busy People for Elwin Street Press, UK. She is a regular contributor to UpParentingCreek, and is the Story Editor of BeSpoke a quarterly published by CAFTCAD (The Canadian Alliance of Film Technicians in Costume Arts and Design). Her novel Cravings is forthcoming in the fall 2016 from Foreverland Press in the United States.

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A Letter to Mrs. Ghomeshi

February 9, 2016

Dear Mrs. Ghomeshi,

We’ve never met, but I saw your picture the other day of you walking into Old City Hall where your son stands trial and I thought I’d say hello.

How are you?

Exhausted no doubt. I don’t really know your son, beyond some Art Gallery dinner we shared a table at. Of course I knew his voice from Q when he was host, and I think I actually saw him on stage in the Moxy Fruvous days one time in Halifax when I was in undergrad. None of that matters.

What matters is that as a mother, I really wonder how you are.

Mother to Mother

 Are you’re taking care of yourself? Is there someone you confide in? Are in your therapy?

I really don’t know what I would do in this situation. If my son were accused and standing trail, would I stand behind him, no matter what? What kind of a mother would I be if I didn’t?

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WRITERS – let’s break the solitude…

The Bloomsbury Group, The Algonquin Round Table…writers throughout history have benefited from consultation with their peers. The works that came out of the aforementioned writers groups were ground breaking, giving birth to cultural movements that CHANGED history. Doesn’t that sound good? Let’s talk about our ideas, consult with one another on projects in utero, and see if we can push ourselves to achieve greatness. Have something you want to share? Work on? Send it our way and we can meet to discuss it, virtually or in person. With your permission, if you desire and when it’s ready, we can post it to the White Space Black Art blog.








    About

    Kim Harkness is a writer and editor living in Toronto. She works one-on-one with you to write, edit or coach you through your literary needs. Kim provides a second set of eyes and clarity to your work – whether it’s creative or communications based. She writes novels, short stories and essays and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles. She leads workshops with writers of all levels from the seasoned, aspiring, and those that want to but think they can’t. White Space Black Art invites you to explore the wonder and fear of the ‘blank page.’ All writing begins with a leap into the unknown, a surrender to the abyss of endless white space. In this realm – between nothingness and something(ness) – creativity flourishes unfettered and uninhibited. White Space Black Art wants to stare down any fear you may have of the blank page, one word at a time…

    “We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories…”

    -Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

    "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

    Maya Angelou

    Contact

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