Can you "see" your charactors?

[Mike Martyn]

When I'm writing, I can see my characters and their surroundings very clearly in my mind's eye, so to speak. I'm new to writing and I'm curious if this is common. I've always had a very visual memory. I can mentally walk around in the house I grew up in for example. It's perhaps one of the few benefits of being dyslexic! That's what I attribute it to anyway.

Now if I could only get it all written down!

[BradyH1861]

Yes, I can "see" my characters and their surrounding as well. I'm a fairly visual person too I guess.


Brady H.

[Susan Gable]

My characters themselves are sometimes a little fuzzy - I can "see" what they're doing, and I can hear them, but seeing them - I generally "cheat." When I have a character in mind, I search catalogs and modeling websites until I find a picture of "them." Then I print it out and post it on my wall near my computer. I am a visual person, and just having the picture in "reality" instead of just in my mind's eye, helps a lot.

I sometimes search for pictures of houses, furniture and clothes, too. :)

Susan G.
--------
www.susangable.com (http://www.susangable.com)

[pdr]

Can I see my characters? Oh yes! problem is they're so real when I'm in the first throes of writing that I can't see the real people around me.

[Azure Skye]

Yep, I see them and their surroundings. I guess I've always been a visual thinker and reader.

[Trapped in amber]

Sometimes I see my characters and the action very clearly, at other times I can only see glimpses of them. Generally, their clarity improves the longer I've worked with them, although occasionally I have a clear idea of what a character looks like right from the start. By the time I've finished the first draft I know them very well, and I go back through my writing to make sure the reader knows what they look like.

I use images more when I'm working on a setting. Sometimes my minds-eye needs a little help:rolleyes:

[Denis Castellan]

When I want to 'picture' a scene, I usually use actors (De Niro, Cruise, H.Ford, Julia Roberts and such) and it kind of works pretty well.

But I've been trying lately to picture an old lady in her home and the only image I could come up with was Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire... didn't help very much :D

[three seven]

I'm a visualite too, so I see all of my characters quite clearly. Some of them reveal themselves through meditation (don't laugh) and others I see very literally, on account of their being based on real people.

The only exception EVER, strangely, is the psycho in my WIP, who doesn't seem to have a face. But that actually suits the story just fine (you know like in Witches of Eastwick where no one can remember his name?)

[azbikergirl]

Definitely. I've been working so long on my novel that I have a sense that I'm missing something in my life -- that I should be meeting them face to face, and it's not happening! Aaaargh!

From time to time I see an actor who I think could play this or that character, but their mouth isn't quite right, or their eyes are too squinty/not squinty enough, etc. None of them look much like anyone I've ever seen before. In fact, I bought a computer program called Faces that's used by police departments to sketch suspects and whatnot. I've used it to create my characters' likenesses, but even that doesn't give me exactly what I see in my mind's eye.

[Mistook]

I see them too, and many of them I've drawn.

I see the story too, like a movie, or maybe a comic book in my head. I think of my writing as a way to record that movie so that it plays the same in other people's heads.

[E.G. Gammon]

Because my novel series in development was intended to be a network soap opera for the first 7 years of its development, I obviously had a clear picture of what characters, homes, businesses, and the surroundings would look like. I knew SO well, I have some of the surroundings sketched out (which I intended to use if it ever got on the air), but now that it's not something visual like that anymore, I can work from those drawings and the pictures in my head, to bring to life my vision as best I can, in novel format. Great topic!

[Coco82]

I totally see them, and hear them as well.

[Anatole Ghio]

I see dead people!

- Anatole

P.S. I see characters too!!!

[TashaGoddard]

I was actually thinking about this yesterday and wondering why I don't see them. I tend to know who they are mentally, psychologically and even historically (i.e. background), but it's not until I'm far into the book (third or half-way through) that I can get images of them. This is actually causing some problems at the moment, because I do need to have a fairly strong visual image of some of the characters, for some specific scenes that are written from another POV. Perhaps I should use Susan G's method and find some images of my characters.

[maestrowork]

I can see and hear them like real people. When they're doing things, it's like memories to me (or at least, movie images).

[John Ravenscroft]

Yup, I see them too.

I once told a radio interviewer that I sometimes watch my characters walking around on my desk. (Booze helps!)

I'm sure she thought I was insane, but it's true.

I interview my characters, too.

Who are my characters and why have we chosen each other?


In my head, I've spent the past month running auditions. Different characters have been stepping out of the novel-mist, jumping up and down, squatting on my computer keyboard, kicking papers off my desk. Some have been shy, some brash, some downright disgusting. There are one or two particularly stroppy individuals you wouldn't want to bump into in a dark alley - but over a few cans of Guinness my potential characters and I have had some preliminary getting-to-know-you conversations. In the process I've discovered things about them - and also things about myself. It's an interesting business, this story-growing. Psychologically, I mean. When you go stomping about inside your own subconscious, you find yourself turning over all kinds of internal stones.

[Jamesaritchie]

Sure. If I couldn't see them, I doubt I could write about them. When I write, there's a movie playing in my mind. I see all the characters, all teh surroundings, and all the action, just as I do when I'm reading a novel.

This does not, however, mean I describe the characters in intimate detail.

[Puddle Jumper]

I'll sometimes cheat too. I'll pretend to be a casting director and I will search the internet or magazines for images of people I think most closely represent who I have in mind. It helps me to be focused if I can see who I'm writing about. But even without that, I have no problem visualizing things in my head and can often see a thought as clear as I can see the real world. I'll just sit or lay back and focus on it and watch my idea unfold in my head as clearly as if I was watching a movie. :)

[CACTUSWENDY]

:banana: OH....I EVEN DREAM THE DARN STORY......SIGH....AND FOR GOOD MEASURE I HAVE PICKED OUT THE MOVIE STAR THAT WOULD PLAY THE LEAD. Andy Garcia---in case you were wondering. (hey ...it's my dream.....) and since I am female...and the lead is male....it does get a little confusing sometimes.....(my shrink would have a field day with that one...if I had a shrink....)
AND now that i have several 'stories' floating around in the old brain....it's getting real interesting.
When something like writting involves so much of your thinking morning, noon and night...it's not surprising. I use to wonder what kind of mind King and Lucas had. As they appeared to live in a world that would not be what i would want in my brain 24/7. I always figured drugs had to be the problem....and...you know the rest on that. Again.....just my opinion....

[Nateskate]

Yes, for the most part I see them, although sometimes vaguely. In fact, when I write, sometimes I feel like an actor in character. I can feel their emotions.

[katiemac]

Yes, I see them. But usually their faces aren't quite complete.

If I get stuck, I just sit back and think about the scene, and everything plays out like a movie, down to every last movement, and then I can write it down afterward. Problem being, sometimes things are so exact I realize all these specialized movements and expressions and head tilts and things are bogging down the story, and I have to massacre that perfect image.

[susannah]

I like Susan's idea of "searching" for characters... oftentimes, I pick kind of obscure or minor actors as a starting place (ones that look more like someone you would see on the street, as opposed to automatically recognizable people) and then make modifications as I get to know them better.


My character quirk is probably that if I leave a piece of writing alone for a long time, I'm sometimes drawn back to it out of obligation to the characters.... as if they've just been hanging out, waiting for me to come back and finish their lives. Weird, eh? What can I say.

[HConn]

Like Katie, I see incomplete images of my characters. I see them as comic book drawings without much detail for most of them.

The more detailed my image, the less empathetic I expect teh character to be. The less detailed, the more empathetic.

Has anyone read the chapter on icons in Understanding Comics? (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006097625X/103-0394229-3912668?v=glance)

[Susan Gable]

Nate, I can feel them, too. More than once I have sat here at my computer, weeping because my character is sad - and I honestly think that translates in my books because I have readers tell me all the time that I made them laugh and cry when they read my book. I think it's because I was feeling it so powerfully with my character that I was able to translate that to the page so the reader could feel it, too.

And here's an important tip: Never, EVER tell the "Muggles" about the people/voices in your head.

LOL. They don't get it.:scared:

For me, a lot of it is like watching my own private tv station. :D

Susan G.
--------
www.susangable.com (http://www.susangable.com)

[black winged fighter]

For me, it varies from character to character. Sometimes I see them as completely as if they were standing beside me. Sometimes they are in fixed posistions, like the people on movie posters.
I find, however, that my best visualization occurs late at night.

[scullars]

I usually search the internet for pics of unknown models, then I include them at the top of my novel's page as I'm typing so that I can refer to certain facial characteristics. It's a good "cheat."

[arkady]

I've encountered an interesting side effect to this business of trying to visualize your characters. One of the hats I wear is Digital Art Specialist, and as a project, I've been illustrating scenes from my own books. In the process, I often discover that some things that worked in my imagination don't look at all right when they're put into visual images. Hey, that castle's courtyard can't be the size I envisioned it! Wait a minute, that ship has to be at least four times bigger than I thought it was to accomodate all those passengers! If the saddle is as tall as I described it, the rider would fall off!

Amazing how many little discrepancies like that pop up when you get your word-oriented imagination into an image.

[Elizabeth]

I'm not very visual in my own head, as 'twere, so I have a hard time visualizing without a picture. Luckily, my boyfriend can usually whip one up for me, which is kind of fun. :)

I usually have a hard time visualizing other writers' characters, too.

[Ali B]

Yes, I can "see" my characters and their surrounding as well. I'm a fairly visual person too I guess.


Brady H.

I can most of the time. If I can't then I know that the book is going to suck and I might as well not write it.:Hammer: :Hammer: :Hammer:

Every now and then I invision my character before my story.

[SRHowen]

LOL

Yup, the characters and their surroundings are many times more real while I write than the "real" world.

Shawn

[Liam Jackson]

I tend to visualize very sketchy physical traits, until near the middle of the book. Something seems to gel at that point, and the characters become highly detailed. I have no idea why this happens. Only once have I finished a piece without a clear image of all the main characters. Odd now that I think on it.

[JanaLanier]

I see my characters, I hear their conversations, and sometimes I even get a whiff of their scent.

Like others have said, I visualize the entire scene like it's a movie unreeling in front of me.

[WerenCole]

Ah yes, all of us who practice this craft with any zeal will definetly start having odd, unworldly relationships with out characters. I am not a very efficient writer while drunk, so I tend to stay away from that, thus my characters do not appear on my desk and romp around in such a fashion. . . but they do romp around in my head. In terms of looking for people on the internet or magazines who fit my character profile, I am not such a fan of this because my characters are inherently people I know. . . girls friends and ex's, friends and childhood companions. . . my characters are loosely based off these people or myself. . . so I think, "What would Greg Do?" Then I picture my friend Greg and think about what his course of action would be, then set it up with a little more flair and gusto than Greg's actual reaction would be. It is good to copy real life to a certain extent, but we are trying to entertain people here, not retell our boring childhood memories. (Unless those memories are horribly entertaining in the first place.)

Ah, so it is, and so it shall remain, mas o menos. . .

Weren