Do You Visualize?

[savagelilies]

I've always thought visualization was an important part of writing; that is, that when you write, you need to clearly visualize your scenes, settings, characters, etc. like a movie is playing in your head.

But as I've been wading through various threads on this forum, I've been discovering that not all writers visualize. Which is interesting, since I thought everyone visualized like I do! Should've realized sooner that not everyone writers (and reads, for that matter) like I do. Heh. I think it's because I find visualization so central to both writing and reading that I have a hard time imagining not visualizing, so I just found it odd to come across writers that don't. No two writers are the same, huh? (I guess it also has to do with how much description we do or do not like to write/read, since some like more, and some like less.)

I, personally, need to visualize when when I write--I can't write if I can't visualize the scene. Yes, I am procrastinating writing because I'm having a hard time envisioning this character I'm writing about.

How about you? Do you visualize or not?

 

[Kerosene]

not all writers visualize.

Ahh... Alright... That's odd.


Yes I do visualize. I see the scene in my head as if I was watching television. Then I dictate as I watch it.

Maybe it's just me, but I can't think of a way to write without visualizing something. Even right now, I'm envisioning that I'm speaking about this comment.

 

[savagelilies]

Well, that's what I thought... but some people don't visualize at all, apparently. I don't know how everyone else works, that's why I'm asking.

 

[rwm4768]

I visualize. I couldn't imagine writing without it. Visual detail and description comes pretty easily. I have to make an effort to incorporate the other senses.

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

I guess I visualize. I never thought about it. I just did it. But now that I am thinking about it, yeah, the scene plays out in my head and I pretty much just transcribe what's going on.

 

[Kerosene]

*Jots down research "Mind's eye" in the psych department of college*

This subject interests me to no end. God, I need to look more into this.


If anyone can say "I do not visualize as I write (fiction)", please do so. I'd like to see your side.

 

[NeuroFizz]

This one I do, mostly because I like to come to the keyboard prepared to write. That means I've thought through all aspects of the immediate scene, including who will be in it, what the characters will be doing, how they will be doing it, what will be said, and so on. The scene rarely plays out exactly as initially visualized, but it takes that trajectory with new snippets of scene development, sometimes with me getting up and pacing while returning to the think-it-through visualizing stage. I have a hard time keeping my butt in the chair for more than about twenty minutes before I have to get up and pace, and think through the next part of the scene. Then it's back in the chair for more writing.

 

[NeuroFizz]

*Jots down research "Mind's eye" in the psych department of college*

This subject interests me to no end. God, I need to look more into this.


If anyone can say "I do not visualize as I write (fiction)", please do so. I'd like to see your side.

There are musicians who can create "on the fly" so We shouldn't be surprised if there are writers who are capable of doing the same. Sometimes stream of consciousness writing can be beautiful and impressive. It's something all writers should try for fun or exercise or maybe even for real. Many of the more descriptive aspects of my writing make me think "where the hell did that come from" which means not all of my wriring is visualized.

 

[savagelilies]

There are musicians who can create "on the fly" so We shouldn't be surprised if there are writers who are capable of doing the same. Sometimes stream of consciousness writing can be beautiful and impressive. It's something all writers should try for fun or exercise or maybe even for real. Many of the more descriptive aspects of my writing make me think "where the hell did that come from" which means not all of my wriring is visualized.

I write like this. I only know the bare bones of a scene before starting it (ie two characters are going to take a walk in the gardens and talk.) Everything that ends up spilling onto the page is something I visualize as I write. Honestly, I feel like I'm just following my characters around, jotting down what they're seeing, saying, and feeling as they do these things. I don't plan scenes ahead of time, save for a snippet of dialogue here or there. I guess the writing comes from my subconscious, otherwise, I have no idea where it comes from...

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

Well, I don't PRE-visualize. I don't have the scene play out in my head several times to see which I like best. I write on the fly, transcribing the movie as it plays out then. What's going to happen in the movie is a big surprise to me. I never know what a scene will be, what the characters will say, or how it will end, until I'm actually writing it down.

 

[rainbowsandunicorns]

hmmm, i never really thought about that. I kind of zone out when i write, sometimes i'm not even sure what i wrote or where the heck it came from. Now that i think about it, i do sort of see it as i write it.

 

[Kerosene]

There are musicians who can create "on the fly" so We shouldn't be surprised if there are writers who are capable of doing the same.

Well, actually that's where this diverts from.

A experienced writer can form a sentence without thinking it. A inexperienced on will make a mistake.
That's just experience. We learned it after practice.

Musicians don't "visualize" as we do, but they more-or-less can hear what they want to play. I can understand where the methodology of writing music on the fly. But the difference is the experience they have.

A simple music beat is: 1-1-22 1-1-22 1-1-22

Writing would be: Subject and their actions.

So there is a automated system that we use.

But a musician is led by that beat. They can fill in the gaps how much they want, but the do know what they want to create. They find what to place in the song, but there is already a established method and system that they are using to even think up a song. The "Song of the Soul" is a good example of how a musician just knows what they want to play and fills in the blanks.

Then, that's where everything differs. Musicians have a beat, like a heartbeat leading what they do. Writers have tools to manufacture what they wish.

A heartbeat will lead a musician through a song. But a writer must build from scrap. There are no "guidelines" for writers to plant their "notes" or words into the story and make it right. We do write each word at a time, but we still know what we wish to write.

About music and a system, David Cope created a program that can make beautiful music. And that's where everything unravels. His program can make music, but no program alive can write.


Oh god, two of my great loves clashing... This isn't good...

 

[Kerosene]

Well, I don't PRE-visualize. I don't have the scene play out in my head several times to see which I like best. I write on the fly, transcribing the movie as it plays out then. What's going to happen in the movie is a big surprise to me. I never know what a scene will be, what the characters will say, or how it will end, until I'm actually writing it down.

But you do have the concept of the scene in place. Character 1 needs to do...

Even I will get to a end of a scene and I'm astonished of what I've written and thought of. A couple days ago, I wrote a scene out of nowhere that added leagues of depth to my story. I had to sit back and think of what I had written down.

 

[JoNightshade]

I'm almost totally visual in all of my thinking, not just writing. I don't typically think in words, although to some extent the "translation" of thought/idea/visual into words is automated with experience. If I'm tired or stressed or distracted in any way my brain stops stringing words together correctly. I'll drop words from sentences or swap them around. I can clearly conceive of concepts but not the words for particular concepts. Sometimes I have a concept and am searching for a word and discover there IS no specific word for what I want to describe.

Anyway, that aside, I both pre-visualize and do it on the fly when I'm writing. Generally most of my key scenes get visualized over and over, either to fine-tune the detail or to play out several possible scenarios until I get one that works the best. Then the "in-between" scenes get written up on the fly. If I'm really not sure which way I want to take a plot I'll just start writing and see where my mind takes me. I may go back and fiddle with the details and the dialogue in a scene but for the most part the action doesn't change.

 

[AnnieColleen]

I might be the oddball here. (Might, because there seem to be a couple of different definitions in use here.)

Seeing a movie in my head, nope. I think in words, not pictures. Visuals only really get involved when I'm stuck on a point and have to figure out locations or logistics, but that's more storyboard or stage blocking than movie. Occasionally I'll get a snapshot or a second or two of movement that captures the feel of a scene, but not actually watching the scene play out.

I do generally work out what's going to happen ahead of time. (That's where the images usually come in, not when I'm drafting.) In-the-moment inspiration tends to be word-based, dialogue that comes to life or a narrative voice that's suddenly a strong personality. Any impromptu imagery, I can usually expect to cut or rewrite on the next read-through.

 

[JoNightshade]

Annie - just curious, but what kind of fiction do you write?

My guess is that word-based folks are more concerned with the "poetry" or the feel and sound of what they're writing, and might tend toward more literary stuff rather than action-y stories like thrillers or mysteries.

I'm currently writing mainstream/women's fiction, but my writing tends to be very terse and sparse, kind of minimalist. I place more importance on the big picture and the overall feel.

 

[Kerosene]

I'm currently writing mainstream/women's fiction, but my writing tends to be very terse and sparse, kind of minimalist Objective, my good man!. I place more importance on the big picture and the overall feel.

I completely agree. I value story and character over my writing any day. 'Guess that's what the internal scenery comes from then over what my words account for.

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

But you do have the concept of the scene in place. Character 1 needs to do...

Not really. I hate to use the cliche that the scene writes itself, that the characters tell ME what they're doing, what they're saying, but it's true. My mind, when I sit down to write is a blank slate, and yet, as soon as my pen touches the paper, the projectionist somewhere turns on the film, and as the movie runs, I write.

 

[GeorgeJames]

One reason I don't use a 'Story Board' outline when I'm writing is visualisation. I see a scene, write it and that often leads to other events, plots that I would not have thought of if rigidly sticking to story board. Lateral vision while within the visualisation (looking around while you are there) can often formulate further scenes that should occur as a natural progression. It's then a matter of choice of whether you wish to include the new discovery. There are so many events that are in that environment. The Forrest becomes much more than the trees.

Regards

GJ

 

[AnnieColleen]

Annie - just curious, but what kind of fiction do you write?

My guess is that word-based folks are more concerned with the "poetry" or the feel and sound of what they're writing, and might tend toward more literary stuff rather than action-y stories like thrillers or mysteries.

Mostly fantasy. I don't know that I'd call it literary, but the feel and sound of the writing is important. I can let that go to a certain degree in drafting, but if the words bog down too much, that's generally a sign that I'm missing something on a deeper level. Pre-planning in note format seems to work best for me -- having the character logic and actions and emotional layers already in place before I start trying to string words together.

 

[Kerosene]

Not really. I hate to use the cliche that the scene writes itself, that the characters tell ME what they're doing, what they're saying, but it's true. My mind, when I sit down to write is a blank slate, and yet, as soon as my pen touches the paper, the projectionist somewhere turns on the film, and as the movie runs, I write.

So you're driven by character motivation and you're watching their actions as they move towards their goals. (Place two fighting cocks in a cage).

I guess that would be a break-off example of a concept.


I jump into a scene with the characters and a "thought" of what I want it to end like. If I make it, so be it. If I don't, I roll with the change. But what startles me, is the in-between parts. I'll start out and write something in that completely changes the story.

I was 87K into my book 1, WIP and threw in a concept into the story elements. That completely changed the story and I wrote two extra books off that concept. That was just the middle part that I wasn't expecting within that scene.

 

[_Sian_]

I have never read something and seen it visually. Not characters, not anything. So the same generally happens when I'm writing.

I might be the oddball here. (Might, because there seem to be a couple of different definitions in use here.)

Seeing a movie in my head, nope. I think in words, not pictures. Visuals only really get involved when I'm stuck on a point and have to figure out locations or logistics, but that's more storyboard or stage blocking than movie.

This is me. I've never visuallised anything in my life - it's all words and experiances. I know what happens, I emphasise with what's happening to the characters, but I don't see it.

I still experience it though, if the writing is good enough. Not visually, but viscerally. If someone writes a good action scene, for example, I'll have the whole heart racing, blood pressure up, jittery thing going on. I don't see it happening - I just experience it as if I was there.

I think it has a lot to do with how I think and learn. When I think it's all words - if I visualise anything, I visualise the word written in my inner eye. Also, I can't learn by writing things out or by looking at diagrams. I have to get up and talk it out, and hear what I'm trying to understand. Or explain it to myself out loud. Doesn't work for me in images.

When I'm making stories up, it's the same. If I get to an difficult bit, I will stand up, pace, and talk it out.

I never actually realised people visualised what they read until I read someone else describing their process. I'd never done it.

All this makes description a b*tch. Because, yeah, when I read I don't have an image of the characters or anything in my head. I don't follow the characters as they run around and do stuff. I just... empathise and react with them. (Actually, that sounds about right. Sorry about the waffling. Never actually had to describe it before.) Same when I'm writing. I don't get a mental image of what my characters are doing. I smell things, hear things and experience their emotions and reactions, but never get images.

So it makes it difficult to know how much to describe when I am describing things visually. A lot of beginning writers have trouble with over-writing. My problem has always been underwriting. It's a balancing act - I normally write my scene, including what's important to me, and then go and write a list of what's there visually. Then I go and try and incorporate it. Normally I focus on atmosphere and symbolism, because it's more idea based and less just visual, but it still presents an image.

Makes for fast first drafts, but the second takes forever.

Hope that helps your curiosity

 

[Chasing the Horizon]

I pre-visualize important scenes, and see everything like a complex movie (complete with thoughts and feelings and other senses like smell) while I'm writing. So I guess I can't help you understand the people who don't visualize.

Took me forever to learn to put my images accurately into words.

Oh, an exception: one of my WIPs has journal entries from the main characters, and instead of seeing these scenes play out, I hear them, as if the character was sitting beside me dictating to me. I have apparently been demoted to secretary for the voices in my head . . .

ETA: I've recently written a number of scenes which revolve around the observations of facial expressions and body language (because the characters can't/won't say what they're thinking and feeling). I'm guessing this would be REALLY difficult for someone who didn't visualize, since it's all about seeing what the characters are doing in great detail.

 

[leahzero]

My guess is that word-based folks are more concerned with the "poetry" or the feel and sound of what they're writing, and might tend toward more literary stuff rather than action-y stories like thrillers or mysteries.

I dunno, that's definitely not the case for me. I'm highly visual, work in design, etc., and I always do the movie-in-my-head while I write. I find it next to impossible to write without visualization.

But my writing also skews heavily toward the poetic/literary. The sound and rhythm of words, the meticulous crafting of similes and metaphors, all that litfic hoo-ha is absurdly important to me.

So I wouldn't frame visual-minded writers and literary writers as opposites. They can and do overlap.

 

[_Sian_]

My guess is that word-based folks are more concerned with the "poetry" or the feel and sound of what they're writing, and might tend toward more literary stuff rather than action-y stories like thrillers or mysteries.

I do get more hung up on rhythm than I think most would, but I write fantasy and sci-fi, so *shrug*