This is what happens when I don\’t have a writer\’s group to share with!! I thought EVERYONE visualized the story happening as they wrote. That is definitely how I write AND read. In fact, I am always irritated when I read that a character reached out to another one with their left hand (because I had been visualizing them reaching out with their right hand and now I realize I must reverse the entire scene). And Ms. Saintcrow, your books DO read like screenplays–particularly the fight scenes.

Do writers who visualize usually have a drama background? My background is in theatre, and I have directed extensively. In fact, when I first began writing, drama was my genre. Before I begin creating a directorial prompt-book, I read the play and \

(damn sticky keyboard!)

I visualize what the set looks like, how the characters move and speak, what they wear, what music and sound effects I hear, even how their facial expressions they will make. I am a nasty control-freak of a director.

I write fiction the same way.

If I have to write something? It’s a matter of either experiencing it ‘firsthand’, or having a nice chat with the muses and characters involved. Sit em down with their favorite drinks and snacks, and grill ‘em. Though the first method usually produces better results…

Yep, I visualize as I write. It\’s much different from a film–in close third it\’s more like a 3D ride, where I can hit STOP and turn all around and look at the little details, and in first, it\’s like a shaky-cam shot where I\’m seeing and feeling and running and falling and bleeding with the POV character. (And feeling their fear, lust, adrenaline or what have you, as well.)

I have martial arts training so I always block fight scenes and have been known to get up and move around to make sure that they work before I commit them to paper. I also love describing food because I love to cook and taste/smell are the sensory indicators I\’m most partial to in Real Life. My characters eat a lot…

If I don\’t know something or can\’t see it clearly in my mind in anamorphic widescreen 1080dpi with 7.1 surround sound, chances are the scene will just fail miserably and I\’ll have to go look at photo references or watch a film or TV show with a similar setting to get myself in the groove. I\’m EXTREMELY visual. This is all a very long-winded way of saying I know exactly what you mean.

Oh, and I hear music, too. A character can be driving or listening to their MP3 player, and a song will always come on, and I\’ll either have to A) play it or B) live with it in my head, driving me insane, for days and days. This has led to some very, very odd choices on my playlist (Kenny Rodgers, anyone?)

Before I sit down for a writing session I usually have a nice long pacing session in which I actively visualize (which I find different from just a casual sort of mind picture) and block everything for a scene…I\\\’ll even describe some of it out loud and practice some of the movements the characters are doing in my mind’s eye. I do this before, during if it’s being stubborn, and after to see if it plays well. I never do any of the pacing with music…hell, I rarely write at all with music on in the background….mostly because music can change the mood too easily, even if it has the same tone as what I am writing.

The active visualizing goes something like: what does the sky look like, steel gray? Yes, steel gray…Where are we? On a small town street in the small Midwestern town of Oakdale, the street sign on the corner is blocked by the branches of an overgrown weeping willow and remains unknown. What architecture is common for the street? Victorian ginger bread. There are five of them, two on the south side of the street and three on the north, before the street turns to a gravel and dirt road…there is one empty lot between the two south side houses, overgrown with wheatgrass and bride lace weeds and a rusted paint chipped VW van is leaning sideways because someone stole the blocks on one side in the distant past. What is Mary Jane doing? She is walking down the middle of the street toward the gravel and dirt way. What is she wearing? High wader jeans frayed everywhere they can be frayed and an equally old Soul Coughing concert t-shirt. Her Ked knock-offs are loose around her bare feet and her narrow ankles are exposed between the shoes and the pants, etc. This goes on until I can see it, hear it, feel it, smell it, taste it, touch it.

It’s a pretty anal layering process wherein I add as many concrete details as possible. It’s the only way I can get my characters to seem like they are acting in a detailed, three dimensional world…the depth and detail helps me create a believable world with rules that are seated in the concrete details I have in my head. Anywho, that’s my process.

I don’t visualize in 3-d but sort of ‘feel’ my surroundings and where everyone-thing is while I ‘hear’ conversations and often see things show up on the screen, through my fingers, that I didn’t realize I was writing. It’s fascinating to live in this world because, many don’t.
I like to believe that writers are also very grounded and can exist with ordinary humans. LOL!

You know, I’m as far from a visual person that there is, or so I thought. But my stories are surround sound and very toss you into the VR experience because my other senses are stronger. I feel, taste, hear everything happening to my characters, and let me tell you that can be a little crazy at times :).

But I tried your experiment and it was fascinating because it was like a rusty engine. The square? No problem. A cube? No problem. Colors? Not happening, only in black and white. And when I tried to get it to spin, it moved like an old carousel left out in the rain for 10 years while the property ownership was under debate. Slow and jerky. It went around, but spinning was not in its vocabulary :).

Visualisation is vital, for me; in fact, I can’t imagine writing without being able to watch any given scene unfold in my mind’s eye. It’s like having an internal cinema screen. I not only see what my characters are doing or wearing, or their environment, but I feel what they’re feeling, hearing, smelling, touching. It might be cliched to say they take on a life of their own but they really do.

Like many, I thought everyone could visualize in color and 3D, and that exercise was easy for me. Scenes are very much so in my mind as I write them. Full and complete down to blood on the teeth when a character gets the snot punched out of him. Hmmm…snot. Haven’t used that in a scene.

Don’t mind me. I’m barely drinking my first cup of coffee. Oh, and I have no drama backgrounds whatsoever–expcept the 2nd grade play I starred in as the Christmas Fairy. But that’s another story. :o)

I don\’t do it all the time, but I find myself having to imagine certain scenes as though I\’m watching a film and then describe what I see, otherwise I can\’t describe them at all. Other sensory stuff doesn\’t really come into it unless a scene needs it. I think I\’ve only ever written one story where taste was mentioned.

Hmm. Those slashes are interesting; am I doing something wrong?

A lot of the time I see scenes directly through the eyes of the viewpoint character, although I can stop and look through another character\’s eyes as well. However, most often I can withdraw long enough to see the scene from a short distance away to see the interaction of the characters. I\’ve always compared it to watching a movie unfold behind my eyes.

I visualize everything, all the time. It\’s like a movie with multiple cameras rolling all the time. I tend to view from the first person and everything else requires a little more concentration. I suspect it\’s a common thing for writers, as for a drama background. I played the month of March in a play in first grade, does that count?

Dave, I get the slashes when the verification code doesn\’t work, more slashes means it took more times to get it to work.

The visulization was not a problem. In fact I am shocked that everyone can\’t do it. It certainly doesn\’t feel special. While writing, at first everything unfolds like watching a movie, but the longer time I spend the more \’real\’ it gets. The problem I have with this is getting everything out of my head and onto the page. I can see it so clearly, it all feels so obvious, that I miss typing crucial details.

When i write i almost always do it in 1st person because my visualization tends to be from that angle. I know what “i’m” feeling what “i’m” seeing, and for me it’s a lot like acting out a scene. i mention what i would notice as a person. This typically means that a lot of my visualization is optical and touch, where i, as a person, dont always notice smells. And frequently…i imagine in technicolor/animation. i dont know why that is…but i’d blame saturday morning cartoons as a child

I\’m a reader not a writer and I can\’t visualize at all. Until I read about this on C E Murphy\’s blog, (if I remember correctly she is a writer who doesn\’t visualize - but don\’t hold me to that!) I was wasn\’t aware that anybody could do this. I questioned my family and husband sees pictures only, daughter, mum, sister and niece all see the scences as a film. Dad\’s like me and all but accused them all of making it up. I might not have a picture of the character but I remember descriptions, so if an author changes the hero\’s eye colour etc I notice.

I am not a writer, but am a reader. I also hadn\’t realized that not everyone can do these visualizations. I have also heard that not everyone dreams in technicolor… different brains I guess…

I do see my scenes in my mind’s eye, but I can’t specifically visualize a square. Is there a difference between imagining and visualizing? I can imagine the square, but I can’t see it precisely. Weird.

Hi Lilith, as I read your post all I could do was have the whole thing spinning & moving on the axis. The main thing I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’m told about my writing is how vivid it is & how visual I make it. When I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’m in the act of writing I can taste, smell & touch it (& I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’m writing mermaids). It runs like a film script, to the point I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’ve difficulty some days trying to transpose what I see in my mind\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’s eye to the written/typed word.

Glad to see I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’m not the only one :)

Ooops. Sorry about the weirdness of my apostrophes. Not sure what happened there and I can\’t seem to get in and edit them out. Apologies.