Visualizing your scenes

Ms.Write · Feb 12, 2007

This may be a silly question, but I wonder how many of you visualize your scenes BEFORE you sit down to write? Or does everything come to you once you have hands on keyboard (or pen on paper)?

I find I need to think about a scene and visualize at least the start of it before I can sit down and write.

You?

johnrobison · Feb 12, 2007

I remember or imagine the scene, and then I write is as I sit at the keyboard. I don't make an outline first or anything. I do think about what I'm going to write before I sit down, though.

I don't write fiction - I only write non-fiction.

maestrowork · Feb 12, 2007

It always plays like a movie in my head. No exceptions.

MajorDrums · Feb 12, 2007

maestrowork said:
It always plays like a movie in my head. No exceptions.

Same here.

Penguin Queen · Feb 12, 2007

Interesting question. Ive never really thought about this.
I think I do visualise a scene before I start writing it, but not through any conscious effort. I need to have it there in my head to start me off, but it's nothing like seeing a film in my head. It's very odd. It's seeing and not seeing. Hmmmmmmmm. Like seeing but not with my eyes. Like seeing something you read, I suppose. It's not at all like watching a film.

And then it becomes clearer the more I write it. I think I see it through the eyes of the characters. I'm not there. They are.

Robyn · Feb 12, 2007

i'm the same way.. it plays out like a movie in my mind... same when i'm reading

My-Immortal · Feb 12, 2007

maestrowork said:
It always plays like a movie in my head. No exceptions.

Same here. The book plays out like a movie, beginning, middle and end. I don't necessarily plot out the book - rather, I jot down notes to help remember all the scenes and in what order they should appear. Usually my first draft is simply getting the basic idea of the scenes on paper and out of my head. The second draft adds a lot of color and detail. (Sometimes I think I love rewriting more than writing - LOL) Of course, sometimes while I'm playing the movie in my head the story changes and I have to adjust other scenes but that's okay. It keeps it interesting.

Good luck with your writing.

loquax · Feb 12, 2007

I write it first, then go back and read it. If it plays like a movie, I know I've done well. If it doesn't, I change it so it does.

Penguin Queen · Feb 12, 2007

loquax said:
I write it first, then go back and read it. If it plays like a movie, I know I've done well. If it doesn't, I change it so it does.

Yes, I think that's what I do too.

Writer14 · Feb 12, 2007

When its dialogue i try to listen and get a feeling of 'would they really say this' and stuff. But when it's scenes and everything I normally go by things that I dream or just visualize them.

blacbird · Feb 12, 2007

maestrowork said:
It always plays like a movie in my head. No exceptions.

Me too. I often act out scenes where physical movement is required, to understand how they work and avoid writing something impossible or ridiculous.

caw

jdparadise · Feb 12, 2007

I -wish- I could see things ahead of time. I'm in awe and envy of those who can. Everything for me is painstaking. The words come naturally, but painting the pictures . . . gah, that's hard stuff for me.

Things that help:

Drawing on my theater background and limited martial arts training to visualize blocking and combat.

Really -looking- at the world around to help visualize scenery, and really -listening- to the world to help tune in the audio. New York City is just horns . . . or is it? It's the hiss of tires, newspaper rustling in the air as it whips past, the low hum of voices and the calls of the handbag vendors, the whirr of the bus engine starting up . . . all stuff that has analogs in any time or space. The city is all big rectangles . . . or is it? The sidewalks in their different colors, the concrete faces and fluted decorations on the corners, the faded green overpass crossing 32nd street . . . the hundred wigs in the window of the wig store, the summer puddles in front of the suitcase store where the old Chinese guy strews water and brushes the sidewalk clean with a dirty, broken straw broom . . .

Not to mention smells (good grief, the smells, both good and bad...) and the claws of the wind that rips the breath from your lungs as you turn from 32nd onto 7th . . .

I can't visualize for crap, no. If you're like me, I feel bad for you

. But you -can- compensate by being observant, and by mapping what you experience into some analog in your writing.

brianm · Feb 12, 2007

I visualize it like a movie, and if possible, act it out and say the dialogue aloud. My dog is convinced I'm nuts. He's right.

eaglelady11 · Feb 12, 2007

I talk to myself in the characters. yes, I look psychotic, but it works. the words come to me.

MidnightMuse · Feb 12, 2007

Without exception, my scenes, chapters and stories (even down to sentence delivery) play out in my head like a movie. I play it over and over, moving the characters around in different ways as I try out various sentences and ways of describing what's taking place, until I have the perfect scene, then I just transcribe what I 'saw'.

jdparadise · Feb 12, 2007

MidnightMuse said:
Without exception, my scenes, chapters and stories (even down to sentence delivery) play out in my head like a movie. I play it over and over, moving the characters around in different ways as I try out various sentences and ways of describing what's taking place, until I have the perfect scene, then I just transcribe what I 'saw'.

:: hates MidnightMuse, in the gentlest of ways ::

Such a frickin' effort for me...

scarletpeaches · Feb 12, 2007

Personally, I find it easy to play scenes out in my mind. If you can dream, you're capable of visualisation.

The Scip · Feb 12, 2007

My story plays out like a movie in my head, I can always see exactly what I am writing. For that reason i can never have music on when i write, it gets in the way of what I'm trying to write.

TrainofThought · Feb 12, 2007

When I first wrote my story, I never visualized the scenes allowing imagination and a pen to work on their own. The revisions were where I visualized the characters, action, scene and dialogue and how it would flow into the next chapter.

The Lady · Feb 12, 2007

blacbird said:
Me too. I often act out scenes where physical movement is required, to understand how they work and avoid writing something impossible or ridiculous.

caw

This was meant to include Maestroworks quote too where he says it plays like a movie.

Yes, to all the above. I see it all. Sometimes I catch myself making their movements. The only extra thing then is the voices. That would be their thoughts. When they're sad I cry along with them. But I'm ok as soon as I leave that scene.

MidnightMuse · Feb 12, 2007

jdparadise said:
:: hates MidnightMuse, in the gentlest of ways ::

Such a frickin' effort for me...

Try "casting" your MC(s) with someone who's face and body most resemble them, study body language, and apply it as a daydream of sorts. That's what does it for me, anyway. :Shrug:

I'm addicted to people watching, and study their movements, especially when I find one who has a special way about them.

jdparadise · Feb 12, 2007

MidnightMuse said:
Try "casting" your MC(s) with someone who's face and body most resemble them, study body language, and apply it as a daydream of sorts. That's what does it for me, anyway. I'm addicted to people watching, and study their movements, especially when I find one who has a special way about them.

Oh, I've done the same thing (people watching), for theater stuff. But still . . . I also can't do it when -reading- without an effort. I suspect it's something mildly defective in Ye Olde Cranium; it's always been this way for me as far back as I can remember, and it continually blows my friends' minds that it has been. For me, the language and auditory centers of the brain seem to be dominant, with the visual (output, not input) much less so unless I specifically focus and make a determined effort. Alas...

Ms.Write · Feb 12, 2007

Interesting how many writers run the scene through like a movie beforehand! I think it's best to see it clearly so that actions and behaviour we describe are credible.

I also have to FEEL myself in the scene, which means be in character, then see everything through her eyes.

jdparadise:
Your descriptions were excellent! You're right, we need to be careful observers of the world around us, it is so rich, isn't it?

Simon Woodhouse · Feb 12, 2007

I picture key scenes when I'm at the planning stage. These are the ones that make me want to write the book in the first place

When I'm writing, I try to get right in there and 'feel' the scenes. I look through the POV character's eyes, rather than seeing them externally, as if they're a character on the screen. If they're being chased, all I can see is what's in front of them, and all I can hear are the footsteps behind. If they glance over their shoulder, I get a brief glimpse of who's pursuing them.

The Scip · Feb 12, 2007

Simon Woodhouse said:
I picture keys scenes when I'm at the planning stage. These are the ones that make me want to write the book in the first place

Simon that's how i got the idea for my book, it started with just one scene and just kind of grew from there. I built my whole book around what has turned out to be about a 5 or 6 page scene.

Visualizing your scenes

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