Pictures in your head...

Do the visualizations play out like movies, or do you just get small flashes of gestures or specific details?

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Both. I've created stories based on somebody's expression.

katiemac said:

Both. I've created stories based on somebody's expression.

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Me too!

I visualize both, and more often then not they play like movies. Which in my case is a bad thing, because I end up leaving out details. Because I can see my characters playing out their lives in my head I assume everyone else can see it too. I forget that I'm supposed to be the one creating that image for them.

I definitely don't see my work playing out like a movie in my head, but I do think I visualize what's happening through the character's eyes. That means I linger on certain details my characters would notice, but I sometimes have a hard time describing the characters themselves and I have to consciously think about what color my MC's hair is and how tall s/he is.

I visualise everything. I don't have to work at it, it's automatic - I constantly have scenes playing out in my head. I extract my characters and plots from these. Once I have the characters and plots, they show up more frequently, adding to the story. Of course, once I've got a rough outline and a couple of scenes, I have to draw logical outcomes and work out what happens and how things go, but this is again done visually.

I.e. I might have an idea - "it's obvious in this situation that X will tell Y about W" - then I either visualise it then write it, or visualise it as I write it.

I think this kind of thing depends on what kind of thinker you are. Some people usually think visually, others don't. My brain translates pretty much everything into some kind of visual automatically. If you aren't a visual thinker, you'll probably visualise less when writing, but ultimately I don't think it would affect a person's writing very much one way or the other.

I visualize everything I write; actions, gestures, facial expressions. I don't try, I just see it playing in my head like a movie and write it all down.

Though, unlike a movie, if I don't like something, I can change it!

Most of the time that's how it all comes to me, like a video, thankfully with a rewind button so I can back it up and fix the problems.
And I also see dead people.......(suspenseful music here)

I do. I watch my characters in my head like I'm watching a movie - I "hear" and see them speak, move, react, emote. Being the writer and director, I can hit rewind and constantly change the script and their motivations until I'm satisfied.

That's part of what makes writing such a fun ride.

MidnightMuse said:

I do. I watch my characters in my head like I'm watching a movie - I "hear" and see them speak, move, react, emote. Being the writer and director, I can hit rewind and constantly change the script and their motivations until I'm satisfied.

That's part of what makes writing such a fun ride.

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I do this too. My scenes also have a score, because the music that is playing is important to the mood I'm trying to achieve.

However, I don't really visualize my characters' faces. Sometimes I see their expressions and general characteristics--I know what they look like, but that just seems to blur into the background, like an undetailled watercolour, in comparison to the rest of the scene.

When I'm writing dialogue, and I have to have the characters interact, I see how they move, flashes of things. Actually, this happens more that I was previously away in other scenes too, now that you mention it. I think a lot of it is visual.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I almost always see my action scenes like a movie.

I can never see my main character's face. Everyone else's, sure. Maybe it has something to do with writing in the first person.

When I am reading a book, writing my own, or listening to a play on the radio, I have very vivid scenes running through my head the whole of the time..



Elodie

Small flashes of visuals. The whole thing doesn't play in my head like a movie, although sometimes I wish it would.

Like others said, I watch scenes like a movie with a rewind and edit button to get it just right. I don't usually see my characters in great detail--it's like they're usually blurred out--but have more of a feeling of their personalities. I have to remind myself of what they look at times by keeping bios with physical and personality descriptions.

Oddly enough, I've never been able to visualize things very well at all. Every now and then I get a flash of an image or a snippet of a scene, but I can't play an entire story through in my mind.

On the other hand, I'm very sensitive to sound. I may not be able to see what my characters are doing, but I can hear some of the most obscure little details. Luckily I don't write erotica.

~DragonHeart~

Yup. I visualize everything. (except thoughts and emotions, of course)

When I'm writing, I do get occasional clear images in my mind, and sometimes sounds, smells, or tastes, but I can usually count on having a tactile sense of the scene. The POV character's posture and muscle tension, the way her hair brushes her cheek when she turns her head, the texture of the wet grass he's just fallen on.

I think most people favor one sense over the others when writing. Our brains are just hardwired that way.

Tachyon said:

I do this too. My scenes also have a score, because the music that is playing is important to the mood I'm trying to achieve.

However, I don't really visualize my characters' faces. Sometimes I see their expressions and general characteristics--I know what they look like, but that just seems to blur into the background, like an undetailled watercolour, in comparison to the rest of the scene.

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How weird, I didn't notice this until I read your post, but I know exactly what you mean. I write like I'm viewing a movie or a scene in front of me, but I can't quite see my character's faces too well. Although sometimes I have still visuals of their detailed expressions when I'm not writing. The brain is a funny thing.

Pretty much everything I visualize is blurry. I hardly ever get clear images, just out-of-focus scenes overlaid with emotion. I'll see two characters in my mind, for instance, and the chairs they're sitting on, but I don't see any details.

My characters also don't move on their own. I know some people watch what their characters do and base their writing on what they see; I can't do that. My characters are frozen until I tell them what to do. Once I write it down, they'll do whatever I told them to do in my writing.

I do, however, hear bits of dialogue in my head, especially when I'm just starting to plan a story.

for me it's not only visualising, i need to sink into each scene and experience everything, be a fly on the wall -- sound, smell, fear... feeling the emotions of every character in every scene is the key for me, until and unless i manage this, my scene is 'just ok'.

i've been known to laugh or cry for no 'apparent' reason while writing a scene. ...but then, my genre is mostly literary -- so this method may not necessarily apply to other genres.

It's as if I'm walking, talking, breathing, living the scence and telling it through the main character's eyes, or whomever has the stage at that moment. I try to get across what I'm seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, each scene alive with various emotions. I like my reader to feel as if they're watching a movie, yet also feeling the moment.

I've found that if I remain on the outside looking in, my writing lacks depth, but when I become one with the scene, I'm able to paint words more vividly; thus, enabling others to touch the story.

Hope this makes sense.

Angelinity said:

for me it's not only visualising, i need to sink into each scene and experience everything, be a fly on the wall -- sound, smell, fear... feeling the emotions of every character in every scene is the key for me, until and unless i manage this, my scene is 'just ok'.

i've been known to laugh or cry for no 'apparent' reason while writing a scene. ...but then, my genre is mostly literary -- so this method may not necessarily apply to other genres.

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...................and then I read this post. Whew! I'm not alone. Glad to know others will understand 'sinking' into the scene.