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Do you see things or hear things?

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Cathy C

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I see the scene like a sensaround movie in my head, complete with sounds and smells and then I transcribe it down on paper. It's sort of weird.
 

Maze Runner

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Maybe we all lean one way or another, not sure. I know I hear every word on the page, dialogue or narration. The images in my head that I'm trying to recreate through words are vivid, but still I'd say my sense of hearing is a little keener, and that's whether I'm reading or writing. How you go about training yourself to see more vividly, I'm not sure. Maybe start by reading a novel you've never read and force yourself to visualize every moment. Your sense of sight may never catch up, but it might improve.
 

Quentin Nokov

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Mostly I see things play out like a movie. Everything is very vivid and so I describe a lot, but I also hear narrative in my head and when the narrative or the dialog comes I just flow through it, but I tend to see/imagine my stories more than hear them. I enjoy it this way, though. I love seeing my characters interact. I wonder if the different between someone seeing/hearing is based on how much they read versus how much they watch television. I watch stories more than read them and I think that's what lends itself to me seeing my own writing in movie form rather than hearing it like a radio play or like the narrative in many novels.
 

Olga

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I see my scenes, although they move constantly and if I stop to focus on any details, the scene disintegrates. I hear the dialogues, but never the narrative.

I wonder if the different between someone seeing/hearing is based on how much they read versus how much they watch television. I watch stories more than read them and I think that's what lends itself to me seeing my own writing in movie form rather than hearing it like a radio play or like the narrative in many novels.

Right now I probably watch more than I read, but when I was younger, I definitely read more, much more. I still see the images. But when I hear people talk, I see the words as they are written. That's why I can't stand audio books - I don't get to see "the movies". Just the way my brain works.
 

morngnstar

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I was unsure which one for me. I often write dialogue first, which made me think I hear things. But actually, I see things too. It's like watching a movie. But of course what I see isn't in words, so it takes some time to choose the right words to describe what I see. Whereas the dialogue is right there to be transcribed.
 

Orianna2000

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I see things, but then, I'm a very visual person. When I'm working on a sewing project, I often can't figure out how to fix something until I actually pick up the fabric and start pinning it in place. Once I see it, I can do it, no problem.

With writing, it's the same thing. I visualize everything very clearly. It's like watching a movie in my head. Characters, actions, dialogue, description, I see it all, and I transcribe what I see and hear onto the page for the reader.

Different people learn and process things differently. Some are visual, they have to see things to understand. Others are more auditory, they have to hear it verbally explained. Others learn by doing, they can't understand until they dive in and do it for themselves. Perhaps the same styles apply to how you translate your mental imagery into words? If you're a visual person, you'll see the story played out like a film, for example. If you're more of an auditory person, you'll hear the words in your head. Makes sense.
 

ishtar'sgate

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Yes I see things, frequently in a lot of detail. But as far as hearing things it seems to be more that I feel the characters, not hear them speak and in feeling them I know what they'd say. Make any sense? Probably not.:)
 

denial

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most of the time when i write, it is as if an unknown scroll is just unrolling as i write. i write for a while and then i will reread it up to hundreds of times. if i need description etc, i just let that roll out also. perhaps there is a little leaning toward image, but then again i think i also try to listen. but most often it just gets out there and i don't know why or how.
 

Sumi Long

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I'll sometimes hear the character's voices in my head but rarely do I see them or anything. It's more I'll be able to hear their tone or something what I am writing in their voice.
 

Chase

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I'm very visual and see my own characters and scenes and those I read.

Perhaps strange for a deaf person (maybe not so strange for one who used to hear on some level), I "hear" words on the page.

I also "hear" closed captions and subtitles on TV. When I see someone sign or when reading lips, I "sound-out" the individual words to put them into sentences.
 

Euphoric Mania

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I see things in my head very well. Like "surround sound, technicolor, smell-o-vision, movie-theater-screen-wide, pass-the-buttered-popcorn" well. However, it has its disadvantages:

It's either too detailed, which makes it difficult to capture on paper

or

It's detailed enough that I can capture it on paper, but it turns out to be very highly detailed which thus derails it from the rest of the story. It gets very tiresome to write/read.

I'm working on finding the "happy medium". It's hard. XD I developed the detail habit when I started text based roleplay, because you want the other players (who probably don't know what your character looks like) to understand what/who they are playing with.

Detail: great for roleplay. Kills the readers patience in a novel...
 

M.S. Wiggins

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I clicked on the thread wondering if you were asking if anyone hallucinates.

So did I. And because I always want to find the humor in things, my first thought was, I see dead people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSNyiSetZ8Y

So how does it work for you guys when you sit down to write? Do you see pictures or hear words? Or maybe you have figured out a way to use these techniques simultaneously? If so, please share your secret. And is there anything that writers can do to see pictures in their head if they are used to thinking in words and vice versa?

I'll run a 'scene' through my head over and over and over again, and on into . Even after I've written it. For me, the dialogue is the easiest part. The description/narrative of the scene comes from one of the 'overs' or the Nth time of seeing it in my head. Don't sweat it—just 'see' it, then write, then rinse and repeat! :D
 
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Kashmirgirl1976

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Both for me. I see the scene and then I hear the dialogue. I have to say the words as I type for them to make sense.
 

Ravioli

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I'm a very visual person. My mother used to make fun of me for reading comics beyond age 14, or going for illustrated material in general, but it is how I work. I don't do "Blah blah blah", neither in input, nor output. It's my pet peeve about working at a mostly male-staffed shop and they announce that they're gonna "take a shit". And I'm seeing that process. I'm seeing my boss, and that handsome new boss, and ugh..........

So while I do fish for the right words often since English isn't my first language, most of the things I write, I "observe" in my head-movie. Though it's a bit of a pain to imagine things right sometimes: I may forget that the town is paved, not sprinkled over dust roads like some Iranian countryside bumblef*ck village, I may have trouble seeing the MC's features correctly (his appearance is 1:1 based on a person I know, so I hate the cheekbones being off in my imagination), but overall, I visualize it.

But as kuwisdelu wrote, having trouble visualizing it doesn't make it feel less real. After all, I also don't always remember the faces and settings of real events and people 100% correctly. Like, when I admire, respect, or have a crush on a man, then he's very tall in my mind's eye. When I lose that feeling or get disappointed, he shrinks below my height. Only when I have a positive, but kind of neutral/platonic relationship with him, do I remember him my own size.

But that's what makes it fun to me. Movies, inside my head or before my eyes, are more entertaining and emotionally engaging to me than the written word. If I had the patience, I would be drawing comics, not writing.
 

SianaBlackwood

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Sort of yes to both seeing and hearing, but I don't really think of it as a movie. I get a lot more thoughts and feelings than images or sounds.
 

Roxxsmom

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I see more than hear, though I do hear my character's voices in my head sometimes, especially when I'm writing dialog. What I see isn't always super detailed, like a movie, but I see my characters standing, sitting, or walking in the setting, and I see the light reflecting on the wet cobbles, or the rain dripping from the trees, or the fire crackling in the hearth, and maybe copper pots hanging in the rafters of a farmhouse, and the ladder going up to the loft.

Sometimes, though, I look at pictures of old homes and buildings, either restored or paintings, from a similar type of time period and setting, and at the clothes people wore. This can help me hone in on some details, and also, sometimes, establish in my own mind how my setting differs from theirs, or combines elements from different places, times and styles in ways that are (hopefully) plausible.

One thing I'm terrible at imagining are clothes. They're not really my thing. I tend to have a vague, cartoony renaissance-fairey notion of people wearing gowns that aren't too uncofortable, or jackets, jerkins, tunics and breeches with boots or relatively simple shoes, but then I have to really make myself think about how and why people might really dress in my settings.
 
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Aphotic Ink

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Not being able to visualize something very well doesn't make it seem any less real to me.

Stuff can still feel real without me being able to see it visually.

I'm the same way. I get very clear impressions when I'm reading (and sometimes when I'm writing), but that's not the same as clear visual impressions.

For me, it's seeing in the sense of "Oh, now I see what you mean!" not "I've got it! Call in the sketch artist!"

And when I'm writing, sometimes it's impressions of a scene, sometimes it's a clear idea of the right string of words to go with.

Different strokes, different people, different metaphors in the brain?

L&c,
Frances
 

E.F.B.

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I'll run a 'scene' through my head over and over and over again, and on into . Even after I've written it. For me, the dialogue is the easiest part. The description/narrative of the scene comes from one of the 'overs' or the Nth time of seeing it in my head. Don't sweat it—just 'see' it, then write, then rinse and repeat! :D
This^ is me. Dialogue is easy but description/narrative can take multiple tries before I can get right. I hear dialogue but I see places and people and actions. I guess the reason describing the places, people and actions is harder for me than writing the dialogue may be because the dialogue is already in word form, but I have to translate the other stuff from pictures into words. I also sometimes have a problem with some details in the picture being vivid while other details are blurry. Like, sometimes I can see a location vividly, but the characters are blurry and vice versa.

Another odd little thing that happens sometimes is that if a character comes into existence by popping into my head as a picture, their personality always comes with the picture. But, if the character comes into existence as nothing but a faceless personality or clip of dialog, it can take some serious effort for me to work out what they look like.

Of course there are those wonderful instances when everything; the location, the people, the dialog, are all so clear it's like I witnessed the event myself. I love when that happens.:D

You know, maybe there's a connection. I see my dreams as sharply as I see reality.
That's an interesting thought. My dreams *are* a lot like how I see/hear (or don't see/hear) things when I'm writing. Certain details can be clear and some can be blurry. Then there are those dreams that are so vivid that I wake up and have to take a few minutes to realize that it didn't really happen. Unfortunately, the ones that are that vivid tend to be nightmares, but sometimes I have vivid good dreams too.
 

iamvaliance

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I don't think I really hear or physically see the words I'm typing. Most of the time I just see it all in my head like it's a movie. If I'm reading a book and I can't see it in my head like a movie, I stop reading. That's an important factor for me!

But if I'm writing dialogue for anyone besides the MC, (since I usually picture myself as the MC) I hear those characters' voices. Someone tell me that's normal...

Man, we writers are a weird bunch. I love it.
 

blacbird

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Do you like vanilla OR chocolate?
Do you like baseball OR football?
Do you like east OR west?
Do you like cake OR pie?

Stop thinking in terms of dichotomies. If you want to write good stuff, embrace it all. See, hear, feel, smell. You don't need to choose between two.

caw
 
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C.bronco

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When I write fiction, shortly, I am there and in the scene as as omniscient observer. I see it and hear it. Characters surprise me with their actions and choices. Things come together that I didn't plan. Yes, it becomes a movie, and it rolls out as I write.

I love writing.
 
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ash.y

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It is very NON-sensory for me. No movie playing in my head, no pictures, no sounds or smells. It's always something I'm going after by feel. When I write I'm kind of disconnected...like parts of my brain shut down because I am laser focused on an amorphous cloud of ideas. Usually I'm aiming at a feeling more than anything else. A writing trance, kind of, but without the warm fuzzies.

Now that I write this down, it sounds freaking weird...proof that I have been thinking about #TheDress too much. :crazy:
 

Orianna2000

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But if I'm writing dialogue for anyone besides the MC, (since I usually picture myself as the MC) I hear those characters' voices. Someone tell me that's normal...

It's normal, as much as anything connected with writing can be normal, to hear the characters' voices.

However, I would caution you against picturing yourself as the MC, unless you're writing an autobiography. Strictly speaking, there's nothing wrong with picturing yourself as the MC, but the danger is, if you write your MC as yourself, she's going to end up being an Mary Sue (or Marty Stu, if you're a guy). She really needs her own personality, her own likes and dislikes, her own appearance, her own everything. She can't be you in disguise, because readers can tell if your novel is nothing but a wish fulfillment fantasy.

But yeah, hearing your characters' voices in your head as you write is generally normal. It's only if you hear them when you're not writing that you should start to worry. . . . ;)
 
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