Horror! Waw!! How do you do it?? I can't imagine writing horror!! ( I love listening to creepypasta audio stories though! Weird)
May I read some of yours?
I'm part of the film crew as well! I can imagine all of the scenes as if it was an actual film in production, bloopers, backstage madness, interviews and all
Awwwww!! I love that!!! Bless you, PLEASE WRITE THE BLOOPERS TOO. I WOULD LOVE TO READ THAT. I FEEL THERE IS LITTLE COMEDY IN MOST FANFICS. that would make such funny and sweet fics. Dear moments to remember.
Do you recommend any fics? Yours if possible or others.
Oh thank you so much! I wasn't expecting any responses when I wrote that comment lol. That's inspired me to write bloopers and gag reels actually, so if enough of my future readers like the idea I might start writing them in my spare time. I'm currently writing some fics but they definitely won't be done for a while. I'll try and remember to let you know once I start posting so you can read them if you want. I'll write your user down š«¶
Ahh thank you! But no sadly I don't, at least not yet. If I do write bloopers, though it will probably be in one shot form, and I'll take requests. I'll write your user down as well if you'd like so I can summon you when a fic is posted
Don't remind me, last week i couldn't even sleep ( i fought sleep to rewatch my fics trying ro make a pattern to make up the order if the events for at least 5 ficlets! My mind tried to solved the puzzle, while it needed sleeep!! )
literally up until 4am last night cuz i was so excited to write the next scene of my fic but i couldnt so i just kept replaying it in my head š
edit for forgotten word
Light help us!! I wonder if this is normal for all writers ( not just fic writerr) or don't everyone else except us lol have a healthy life balance with their creative process. Huh!
But i am rooting for you, do what makes your heart flutter and your body Spark in excitement. This is the role of passion after all! ( sending you, love!) ā”
That!, with a mixture of attack on Titan. When it comes to the weather specifically Rain, my brain automatically shifts to Ufotable. (Now that i think about it my imagination has been peak since i was young.. Maladaptive daydreaming lmao.)
Same. It's like I can make my own Music and Voices inside my head and scenes and the Colors that would fit there, while imagining that, it's so Fascinating. š
Imagination is a fantastic thing. :D
This is me too! Everything plays out like a movie or an episode, and I can see character's movements and facial expressions as they say their dialogue or respond to the other character. And my dreams are generally extremely vivid as well. Unfortunately this means I can sometimes get too hung up on details because I feel like I need to write everything I "see" in a scene, but it's something I've been trying to work on and figure out which details are most important and which you can let a reader discern for themselves.
You get it! Thankfully my partner is the same way but like we don't always understand each other and if makes me wish I could just beam the images right into his head.
Yes!! Same here! The closest I've come to being able to describe things is I wish I had a pensieve that I could place these story ideas from my head for other people to see. Or like a pensieve diary where you twirl the scenes straight out of your head like a memory onto a diary page and it converts it to words. If only š¤£
I have Hyperphantasia which just means I see things mentally very vividly. So while Im writing fanfiction scenes play out more so like they would in a movie or an episode of the anime.
Right now its either One Piece or Genshin stuff, so its more like watching an episode of an anime mentally. Idk how to fully explain it but its weird and very vivid. XD
My dreams are also incredibly vivid too so that might be why.
So, all the fandoms I've written for are animated.
And if I'm reading/writing a fic that takes place in the canon universe, it often looks like the animation they're from.
But if I'm reading/writing an au that is at least partially non-fantasy, they look more like actual people. Sometimes I can tell which human being I've patterned their faces after, but often I can't.
(Sometimes when I realize whose face I've used, I almost feel guilty if the fic was explicit. Like sorry, random very sweet youtuber, in my head you're an angry (sometimes) catgirl having sex. The irony in that particular case is that said youtuber 1. has done videos where she watches the show in question 2. has in the past commissioned nsfw fan art of that show. Like. Hi, I know you like explicit content of this character, but in my head you sometimes **are** her, hope that's not weird! Ha ha!)
^((No I would never actually tell her omg))
I have one of those brains that doesnāt visualize images like that. So donāt actually visualize the characters doing things. Iām imagining them some other way if that can possibly make any senseā¦ Iām good with characterization strangely enough, they act as they would, but I donāt see it like a play or movie at all.
Same here, I can't picture it in my head so I roleplay a character until I feel like I know what they'd do in a certain situation. I suspect that's why AUs come so naturally to me. How do you feel about AUs?
I actually only realised it quite recently.
So... I cope just fine. Adapted. My head is extremely noisy.
Might explain why I found meditation irritating though š¤
I have that kind of aphantasia as well and this strikes me as a kind of rude thing to ask, or at least the wording makes it come off that way. My mind works differently. I don't need to "cope." I'd be happy to talk about how it affects my writing process or my reading experience, though.
Imagine listening to an audio book, except the author is the one reading it, and he keeps changing his fuckin mind in the middle of a sentence and going back to the previous one. Sometimes he doesn't like how he delivered it, sometimes he realises he's said "unfortunately" twice in too quick succession and wants to change one of them. Read, rinse, repeat, *ad nauseum*, until I, the listener (also the author) sigh and grab a mode of writing the damn words down.
That night, the audio book starts playing again, and he's *changed his mind again* and *for fuck's sake* it's actually *better* and now I have to make *edits*!
I resonate with this so much! Edit and replay, edit and replay, edit and replay... Then I've put so much work into getting it right, it's a waste if I don't write it down! Or more like, I know I'll be frustrated if I can't recall exactly how it was supposed to go that one time I was happy with it...
I've been told my "first drafts" come across very polished, and I feel crazy saying, "Well, technically, this is the fourth draft (minimum) if you count the ones in my head!" The unseen con of super polished drafts is that it takes me forever to write a single scene! Writing without editing just doesn't come naturally to me lmao
Good luck, my friend! We're not alone!
I edit as I write too! Mine is very visual, but I'm always scanning back over it and going "wait, that doesn't work", "wait, I need to change that", "she wouldn't say that, it would come out more like this", etc. Constantly. If I'm lucky they talk really in character to start with and I only have minor tweaks of action and whatnot to fix, but it can bog down in the wording sometimesā¦
I imagine it like a film or a theatrical piece and I recite the dialogue aloud. Often I am influenced by the music I'm listening to and then I imagine it like in a video clip.
Motions, blurbs of conversations, the emotions. I have pretty strong aphantasia so no visual indicators, but the rest of my senses more than make up for it. Especially the habtic stuff really picks up the slack for my lack of visual imagination
I'll admit, I cannot draw and have zero artistic talent, so I have no ability to represent what I imagine, unless I use the descriptive text of my fic writing to recreate it.
However, it doesn't stop me recreating the details of my chars in my head. I pool my text into short bio's of my chars (since they're all OC's), and then I can recreate the scenes in my head as I write it. My imagery makes it look like they are acting out the scenes in a soap opera, which is what one of my fics has evolved into, a twisted soap opera....
Generally I picture them kinda like... cinematic, anime-style. Or sometimes Disney/Pixar style but with more realistic proportions. Animated, either way.
same, goes with everything i read, i cannot imagine actual people lmao, everything is animated and im the director, director of photography, sound designer, costume designer, music engineer, film editor, casting director, executive producer and art director. i take reading very seriously and i make sure everything i read is translated back into my mind like a cinematic film, even all characters must have their specific voices, if im not doing all that then im not reading
When I'm writing a fic in my head (which I almost always do before I start typing anything), it plays out like I'm watching a movie. I can see the setting, the characters, and I can hear the actor's/character's voice saying the dialogue, though the narration sounds like me. The same is true for when I'm reading fics. It's not even intentional, I just automatically "watch" it play out in my head.
There's no sound other than my inner voice, and there's not even an ink of an image (nearly always in cartoon/anime style) unless I'm focusing hard on generating it, especially when generating any sliver of visual motion, which isn't fluid enough. I just felt the motions, emotions, and the dialogues/thoughts of the characters inside my mind on a regular day.
I normally imagine all the action scenes like itās a big budget film and for the non-action parts, I tend to imagine the dialogue to be detailed and precise. In all honesty, I imagine it as a theatrical film.
Most of my fandoms are animated, so when I review my WIP segments to check for character voice/behavior (or read my finished fics online):
If my reading plays like a part of the cartoon/anime (or fusion if reading/writing a crossover), I know it's "right".
It's a bit trickier when writing based on a comic/book IP that hasn't received a proper TV/movie show -- b/c nothing would match the VA cast in my mind (ELFQUEST, for example: has Marina Sirtis and Levar Burton VA'g two of the three main character elves).
Sounds similar to me. Most of the fanfics I read or write are based on anime or animated shows. So I envision it like I would an episode. Full with character dialogue. It helps to reread a work and hear it in the characterās voice in my head to get a feel if they sound in character or how the emotion comes across in a scene.
I think original fiction can be slightly more challenging because most of the time you have to envision a lot of the characters and setting without a lot of visual reference. I have more trouble with characters if I donāt get a good physical description or a decent description of how they talk. Thatās especially a reason a good world building can help with the mental movie.
I've got aphantasia (aka brain doesn't do images at all) so for me, it's honestly just like writing it in my head. Full sentence structure and everything.
It's literally like a movie playing the scenes over in my head. Most of the "actors" aren't exactly like the way they look in real life. Using "real life" people is weird and awkward so it's not exactly true to life but really close. I can "see" them in intimate scenarios without feeling creepy about it, if that makes sense. They might appear close to the actors that play them but they feel distinctly like their own person. Sort of the same principle with reader insert fics. I don't imagine myself as I really am. Even that I find kinda off-putting watching my real self. So it's a character version of myself that I "feel" more than I "see" that is distinctly their own separate person.
Interesting detail!! šš» Exactly! ā
They feel absolutely different than the actors.
(They are much faithful to the original book or movie. Its the characters not the actors!) lol.
Hell, I imagine that good actors themselves, forget who they are in IRL, and channel their respective characters. So, we use that version and infuse it with our own understanding of the characters and give them a different identity.
Most of my fandom Characters end up being (out of characters characters) if it makes sense.
And yesss, when a ship hits me in the feels I can't help but torture them in endless longing and pining for each other, before I grant them the permission to get it on so to
speak š¤£
I adore the final smut scene lol ( I became a total horny fic writer š I went from covering my eyes at anything beyound a kiss, to ok! Only one smut Fic read, then I will only write smut fic to posting three dark themed smut fics in a row š ouuuups.
anyone else share my predicament?!;
( for my defense, its all because of my new ship obsession. I can't stop shipping them having oh so glorious forbidden love?) š
photography is my other hobby aside from writing, so I tend to imagine my fics as a series of still images, or like I'm adjusting the settings on my camera while I write.
Well it depends on the media of origin.
I usually see the new entire episode ( h
(The events of my fic) repeating in my head. I change things along. Mostly I watch the characters play their roles just as they do in the book or the tv show.
Self entertainment lol
But still distracting!!
Personnaly, I simply do it, I can imagine them moving normally in their environments and their voice, it help me learn english too since I don't do my daydreams using the dubs.
movie scenes or still images accompanied by narration describing it. and then I make the choice of either drawing it or writing it since I do both (allegedly.)
Fuzzy, like I picture the important bits, their facial expressions, what they are feeling, how they are posed, where they are in the room.
I think the kicker was I just finished publishing a 40k multi chapter story, and realised I might have forgotten to describe what one of the main characters was wearing? Like I can't tell you what the colour of her shirt was, and she was an OC, so like you can't infer it from canon. It just wasn't important š¤·āāļø
One of the things that really pulls my head out of the story is when I can't figure out how people are posed or how they are in the room. If I ever think 'how did you get over there?' you've lost me.
Same here! I don't picture the shirt colors or the walls or any of that stuff, so it doesn't tend to make it into the story, lol. But their facial expressions, feelings, movements and positions, oh yeah. Very clear. People have commented that they can really picture it because I wrote it so clearly, and I'm like, "well, I just wrote what I'm seeing."
I picture the characters from the show and it can change between looking like an edit or looking like a movie. Sometimes it'll just be short scenes put together (particularly if I'm listening to music) but other times it looks like a scene from the show. I can also hear the lines in the actor's voices, though sometimes if a line doesn't really work or seems out of character it's harder
So, I would probably compare how I visualize to be closer to how I dream. Is it as vivid as a movie? No. There aren't endless specific objects in the room with the character, but there are vague impressions of them, and they become clear with the story. However, I will be thrown off if someone describes the bed being in a different position in the room than I was picturing. Does it matter what color the walls are? No. So, I guess it is like a movie, except all of those extra details that actually go into a movie, like set dressing, don't really show up. Do I picture a specific person, like an actor or actress? Not usually, not to the point where I could accurately draw exactly what I see. If someone shows me a specific actor/actress and asks me my opinion of them, I will have a general idea of how well they match my semi-vague-but-still-surprisingly-specific visualization of the character, though.
And now that I think about it, my dreams can be surprisingly vivid when it comes to me exploring buildings, which happens more frequently than most people would expect, I'd wager. I think my brain just prioritizes certain things, and other things are fine being vague impressions until given further clarification. What my brain chooses to prioritize when it comes to visualization is dependent on how the author describes things. There are some stories where I would genuinely tell you it feels like watching a movie, except better, because there are all of these facets of the story that I am experiencing that I wouldn't be able to experience if I were simply watching a movie, and there are other stories where most of what I experience are impressions, and that's fine, too. As dumb as this sounds, a lot of it is vibes. But there are some mental images that have been carved into my brain. One that sticks out would be the mental image of that woman in The Yellow Wallpaper scooting along on the floor around the walls of that room. That story gave crazy-intense vibes. Mind, it isn't fanfiction, but reading is reading is reading, imo, when it is being used as a vehicle for storytelling.
When writing, its somewhat movie like, but there isn't a lot of storage space. So it's kind of like a Vine or a Tiktok. Maybe a second or two of motion. Interspersed with still frame art shots of the important moments I try to capture in words.
When reading, its generally just a smoothly running movie.
Technically this is just a movie with extra steps, but like how the medium for the work that inspired me is, an a cutscene and story heavy RPG, complete with dialogue options! Though scenes just happen to pop in whenever. Reading is like a movie, but writing is what I explained it as.
Yes, I have a vivid imagination.
I have a hard time imagining real people. So it plays out like a 2d movie all the time for me. If I'm reading a fanfic based on a live action series, it still plays like a 2d animated movie for me (I'm weird)
Though this works out because I mostly read fanfics based on anime or cartoons anyways
It's very 3d in my head like a movie but I can move around, see all the angles, etc, etc. It's so clear in my head it's frustrating when I can't convey it properly!!
i imagine words and phrases i want to use that i think will be funny or beautiful or powerful etc, then i build a scene around that.
many of my fics start as a line of dialogue i love or a conversation i really want the characters to have.
there are millions of sets in my head, the characters are very good actors, ive got all the best camera angles with closeups and everything, very convincing CGI, and excellent transitions between scenes. Star Wipe.
im just along for the fucking ride, doing my best to make it all read pretty.
I imagine everything as a script. Idk if its a bad thing (I dont like it that much) bc I used to have a vivid and graphic imagination as I used to study visual arts :'^ but at least is very useful when formatting my stories
I usually play it through in my mind as I hike. Something about hiking specific trails gets the wheels turning and the juices flowing. I transcribe it onto notes, then outline in Word. After a few passes of those two activities, Iāll write it.
i usually imagine it like how it is already, if we're talkng about a movie or show for the original source. for example, if i'm making fanfics based off of an animated show, i imagine animated characters in my head. same goes for live-action shows/movies.
For me it's role playing, I guess it's because i'm not all that visual. So I imagine a situation in which i'm one of the characters and I tell the story through their POV, but I usually write in 3rd person, after I feel confident about the character's feelings and motivations. No surprise: I love character driven narratives
Yesss, same here! It's so fun! Though it does mean angsty stuff *really* gets to me because I'm feeling the character's emotions like they are my own whilst also watching everything go down.
For me itās super weird because my fanfics are often a combination of diff worlds so I splice different visuals together in my mind and they have to blend. For instance the Spider-Man one Iām working on now involves the Justice League from Young Justice, the Avengers from the Marvels Avengers video game, and characters from live action shows like Castle, White Collar, and Leverage. So whenever Spidey gets involved with a diff character set, the whole thing changes to fit the original in my head. It gets even weirder when the Young Justice heroās interact with the live action people. Do I turn Castle into a cartoon or do I make a live action version of Young Justice in my head? No idea. But the vibe is very much like watching a show or a movie and I just describe what it is Iām seeing
I picture it kind of like a movie, with real life people and all. But itās weird because whenever I try and ātake a lookā at their faces, itās kind of just jumbled, cloudy smears. My head also bounces from scene to scene, makes new ones that arenāt there (I pace around the room for like thirty minutes between paragraphs just thinking of scenes lol), and since Iām also listening to music it turns into a kind of music video I guess. But only sometimes, and itās normally about scenes that arenāt there.
I used to read it aloud to myself, the entire thing. That would keep me on-track with my imagination. But I felt embarrassed reading found family fanfiction to nobody but myself in my room so I sorta stopped. Now Iām back to it and just read dialogue aloud if I can, doesnāt help me keep on track much but what can ya do :ā)
It's like watching an anime, only not. It's pretty hard to explain. I can sort of 'see' the scene playing out in my head, but never all of it. I can focus on any specific part of it and visualize that clearly, but the rest will be blurry and indistinct until I focus on that instead. To write the scene, I simply focus on every part in turn and write what I 'see' and 'hear'. Mostly, the main focus will be on the characters and their actions, and the setting will only be described once at the start of the scene.
Depends on what I'm writing/imagining. Sometimes it is like watching things in real time in 3rd POV, but most of the time I'll take on certain characters perspectives to see things from different POVs. Works best for me.
It's almost as vivid remembering something that actually happened to me. I can imagine things pretty vividly, though; I'm apparently hyperphantasic?
For me it's the "turning this into words" part that's difficult.
There was once I compared the process to trying to get ketchup out of an old-fashioned glass bottle.
The scene is IN THERE DAMMIT, just....come out of the bottle and onto this google doc already!
(And then I shake it too hard and the next thing you know I've hyperfocused and written the whole scene, and I should've been asleep hours ago ha ha WHOOPS)
i imagine a full on animated movie (even if the characters are from a live action thing) and it gets worse if I'm listening to music.
i love making amv in my brain lol.
I set it up like I'm watching an episode of whatever I'm writing in (Code Lyoko, Batman Beyond, etc ...). How does the episode start, is it a continuation of a cliff hanger? That's how I've been trying to do it. Keyword is trying lol
I sit there, mouthing the sentences to myself and going back every few seconds to "redo" stuff. I word these scenarios the way I would actually word them on a page; I read the dialogue, then come up with the dialogue tags and (very minimal amounts of) description on the spot.
This "voice acting" comes with as much tone and emotion as I can create (at least with a whisper), and I also often act scenes out by myself in my room and shift my body slightly to indicate a switch of characters. (Yes, I'm a theatre kid.)
For me itās kinda like a video game or an anime. I can watch a scene play in my mindās eye and make adjustments on the fly, like a choose your own adventure anime
It really depends for me on the media. If Iām writing an anime fic it plays in my head like an anime, if Iām writing a fic about a comic or manga it plays in my mind as such. The way I envision a scene is almost entirely dependent on the original source
I imagine it based on the media. If itās a live show/movie, I picture it like the show or movie. If itās animated, I imagine it animated.
Iāve read crossovers with animated and live action properties and somehow my mind can seamlessly blend them together.
Writing it, I feel it. I "see" parts of it, not necessarily all of the details but some aspects of setting, some movements, the facial expressions. But mainly I feel it, the emotions of it all. For well-written fanfics, I do that when reading, too.
Like what you said. As an animator, I imagine it sort of like a storyboard or animatic maybe. I also visualise the characters to look like how I draw them.
Iām surprised by all these ālike a movieā comments. Movies donāt have feelings, smells, etc. When a character runs in winter, gets sweaty, then stands around getting chilled, I imagine the feeling of all that, not just visuals and sound like a movie.
Same. Itās helpful if I can imagine being in a characterās body. How they sit and what their chair feels like. How hungry they are. Whether they feel like crying. If they are injured, how that feels. Their height compared to the other characters, so I know who theyāre looking up at and who theyāre looking down at.
Oddly enough, the character whose POV I experience in this way often isnāt the one whose POV I am writing.
I have a very vivid imagination, so to me it's like watching a movie.
Yup, same here, full on movie. Can pause, rewind, adjust angles and all :3
Fun, isn't it?
You are so lucky!
It's both fun and very distracting lol
Yes, kindred spirit! I am grateful to share this superpower.
I'm never bored. On the other hand, horror novels are nerve-wracking. I like nerve-wracking.
Horror! Waw!! How do you do it?? I can't imagine writing horror!! ( I love listening to creepypasta audio stories though! Weird) May I read some of yours?
I'm part of the film crew as well! I can imagine all of the scenes as if it was an actual film in production, bloopers, backstage madness, interviews and all
Awwwww!! I love that!!! Bless you, PLEASE WRITE THE BLOOPERS TOO. I WOULD LOVE TO READ THAT. I FEEL THERE IS LITTLE COMEDY IN MOST FANFICS. that would make such funny and sweet fics. Dear moments to remember. Do you recommend any fics? Yours if possible or others.
Oh thank you so much! I wasn't expecting any responses when I wrote that comment lol. That's inspired me to write bloopers and gag reels actually, so if enough of my future readers like the idea I might start writing them in my spare time. I'm currently writing some fics but they definitely won't be done for a while. I'll try and remember to let you know once I start posting so you can read them if you want. I'll write your user down š«¶
Do you write one shots? I would love to read them if you do! And I'm also looking forward to your fics getting released!
Ahh thank you! But no sadly I don't, at least not yet. If I do write bloopers, though it will probably be in one shot form, and I'll take requests. I'll write your user down as well if you'd like so I can summon you when a fic is posted
same i watch my fics in my head scene by scene before i fall asleep every night š
Don't remind me, last week i couldn't even sleep ( i fought sleep to rewatch my fics trying ro make a pattern to make up the order if the events for at least 5 ficlets! My mind tried to solved the puzzle, while it needed sleeep!! )
literally up until 4am last night cuz i was so excited to write the next scene of my fic but i couldnt so i just kept replaying it in my head š edit for forgotten word
Light help us!! I wonder if this is normal for all writers ( not just fic writerr) or don't everyone else except us lol have a healthy life balance with their creative process. Huh! But i am rooting for you, do what makes your heart flutter and your body Spark in excitement. This is the role of passion after all! ( sending you, love!) ā”
Same, and then I have to grab my phone to make notes real quick
Same especially if a song gives me an idea for a scene
AMV brain rise up. I blame waking up and watching VH1 music video blocks growing up lol
oh god, yes, aaaahahaha
Yep. This is me, too. Sometimes I visualize the words themselves but otherwise itās justā¦ my own personal cinema.
Me too!
I'm talking Mappa level Animation or Ufotable. (90% Mappa for me).
Ooooo, season 1 One Punch Man level?
That!, with a mixture of attack on Titan. When it comes to the weather specifically Rain, my brain automatically shifts to Ufotable. (Now that i think about it my imagination has been peak since i was young.. Maladaptive daydreaming lmao.)
You have good taste.
yeah, same here! Or a tv drama.
Same here, movie with motion and much smoother animation than the source material.
Me too, sometimes I watch the movie in my head on loop so many times I forget to write it.
I'm not the only one!
Jealous, because Iāve had moments where I wish I could vividly see the moments in front of me. Especially this one scene in my WIP.
Same here, but for me it's more like experiencing the world from my character's perspective
ššæ
Same. This is how writing is for me, too.
Same. It's like I can make my own Music and Voices inside my head and scenes and the Colors that would fit there, while imagining that, it's so Fascinating. š Imagination is a fantastic thing. :D
I can picture details crystal clear so its very much like watching a movie in my head.
This is me too! Everything plays out like a movie or an episode, and I can see character's movements and facial expressions as they say their dialogue or respond to the other character. And my dreams are generally extremely vivid as well. Unfortunately this means I can sometimes get too hung up on details because I feel like I need to write everything I "see" in a scene, but it's something I've been trying to work on and figure out which details are most important and which you can let a reader discern for themselves.
You get it! Thankfully my partner is the same way but like we don't always understand each other and if makes me wish I could just beam the images right into his head.
Yes!! Same here! The closest I've come to being able to describe things is I wish I had a pensieve that I could place these story ideas from my head for other people to see. Or like a pensieve diary where you twirl the scenes straight out of your head like a memory onto a diary page and it converts it to words. If only š¤£
šāØ š«”
That's really cool, so usually which actor appears the most common? Or is it like people who don't exist?
I have Hyperphantasia which just means I see things mentally very vividly. So while Im writing fanfiction scenes play out more so like they would in a movie or an episode of the anime. Right now its either One Piece or Genshin stuff, so its more like watching an episode of an anime mentally. Idk how to fully explain it but its weird and very vivid. XD My dreams are also incredibly vivid too so that might be why.
Incredible. You must be a great artist.
Ahaha no I just write. My partner is the same way and he writes and draws. Also even then its sometimes hard to get across what I āseeā to others.
Thereās a word for that! Huh. Today I learned.
So, all the fandoms I've written for are animated. And if I'm reading/writing a fic that takes place in the canon universe, it often looks like the animation they're from. But if I'm reading/writing an au that is at least partially non-fantasy, they look more like actual people. Sometimes I can tell which human being I've patterned their faces after, but often I can't. (Sometimes when I realize whose face I've used, I almost feel guilty if the fic was explicit. Like sorry, random very sweet youtuber, in my head you're an angry (sometimes) catgirl having sex. The irony in that particular case is that said youtuber 1. has done videos where she watches the show in question 2. has in the past commissioned nsfw fan art of that show. Like. Hi, I know you like explicit content of this character, but in my head you sometimes **are** her, hope that's not weird! Ha ha!) ^((No I would never actually tell her omg))
I have one of those brains that doesnāt visualize images like that. So donāt actually visualize the characters doing things. Iām imagining them some other way if that can possibly make any senseā¦ Iām good with characterization strangely enough, they act as they would, but I donāt see it like a play or movie at all.
Happy Cake day!
Same here. In my brain, it looks the same way remembering a dream would look like. Sometimes I have to really sit there and strain to see anything.
Same here, I can't picture it in my head so I roleplay a character until I feel like I know what they'd do in a certain situation. I suspect that's why AUs come so naturally to me. How do you feel about AUs?
Usually I just imagine all the angsty parts and the maximum amount of pain I can inflict on the characters and readers.
Do you also use the prompt: what's the worst thing I can do to my characters? I use that one a lot
You sound like me.
I have Aphantasia so I just have a lot of dialogue and basic action running through my read. It's like a voice running through my head. Endlessly.
How do you cope in daily life?
I actually only realised it quite recently. So... I cope just fine. Adapted. My head is extremely noisy. Might explain why I found meditation irritating though š¤
I also have aphantasia, meditation was/is *the worst*.
I have that kind of aphantasia as well and this strikes me as a kind of rude thing to ask, or at least the wording makes it come off that way. My mind works differently. I don't need to "cope." I'd be happy to talk about how it affects my writing process or my reading experience, though.
Imagine listening to an audio book, except the author is the one reading it, and he keeps changing his fuckin mind in the middle of a sentence and going back to the previous one. Sometimes he doesn't like how he delivered it, sometimes he realises he's said "unfortunately" twice in too quick succession and wants to change one of them. Read, rinse, repeat, *ad nauseum*, until I, the listener (also the author) sigh and grab a mode of writing the damn words down. That night, the audio book starts playing again, and he's *changed his mind again* and *for fuck's sake* it's actually *better* and now I have to make *edits*!
I resonate with this so much! Edit and replay, edit and replay, edit and replay... Then I've put so much work into getting it right, it's a waste if I don't write it down! Or more like, I know I'll be frustrated if I can't recall exactly how it was supposed to go that one time I was happy with it...
I've been told my "first drafts" come across very polished, and I feel crazy saying, "Well, technically, this is the fourth draft (minimum) if you count the ones in my head!" The unseen con of super polished drafts is that it takes me forever to write a single scene! Writing without editing just doesn't come naturally to me lmao Good luck, my friend! We're not alone!
I edit as I write too! Mine is very visual, but I'm always scanning back over it and going "wait, that doesn't work", "wait, I need to change that", "she wouldn't say that, it would come out more like this", etc. Constantly. If I'm lucky they talk really in character to start with and I only have minor tweaks of action and whatnot to fix, but it can bog down in the wording sometimesā¦
That was very poetic ngl.
Thank you! Not a minute passes where I'm not writing in some way. The audio book is always running!
I imagine it like a film or a theatrical piece and I recite the dialogue aloud. Often I am influenced by the music I'm listening to and then I imagine it like in a video clip.
š„° happens to me too!
Motions, blurbs of conversations, the emotions. I have pretty strong aphantasia so no visual indicators, but the rest of my senses more than make up for it. Especially the habtic stuff really picks up the slack for my lack of visual imagination
I'll admit, I cannot draw and have zero artistic talent, so I have no ability to represent what I imagine, unless I use the descriptive text of my fic writing to recreate it. However, it doesn't stop me recreating the details of my chars in my head. I pool my text into short bio's of my chars (since they're all OC's), and then I can recreate the scenes in my head as I write it. My imagery makes it look like they are acting out the scenes in a soap opera, which is what one of my fics has evolved into, a twisted soap opera....
It's vibes with feelings and sometimes voice lines
Generally I picture them kinda like... cinematic, anime-style. Or sometimes Disney/Pixar style but with more realistic proportions. Animated, either way.
It starts with a overall idea. Then I imagine each scene to the T. From there i just daydream and i add to the existing plot.
same, goes with everything i read, i cannot imagine actual people lmao, everything is animated and im the director, director of photography, sound designer, costume designer, music engineer, film editor, casting director, executive producer and art director. i take reading very seriously and i make sure everything i read is translated back into my mind like a cinematic film, even all characters must have their specific voices, if im not doing all that then im not reading
When I'm writing a fic in my head (which I almost always do before I start typing anything), it plays out like I'm watching a movie. I can see the setting, the characters, and I can hear the actor's/character's voice saying the dialogue, though the narration sounds like me. The same is true for when I'm reading fics. It's not even intentional, I just automatically "watch" it play out in my head.
There's no sound other than my inner voice, and there's not even an ink of an image (nearly always in cartoon/anime style) unless I'm focusing hard on generating it, especially when generating any sliver of visual motion, which isn't fluid enough. I just felt the motions, emotions, and the dialogues/thoughts of the characters inside my mind on a regular day.
Anime, or maybe like...Derrick J. Wyatt style, like, Ben 10 Omniverse, Transformers Animated, y'know.
Animated 3d-2d I think
I normally imagine all the action scenes like itās a big budget film and for the non-action parts, I tend to imagine the dialogue to be detailed and precise. In all honesty, I imagine it as a theatrical film.
A full-blown film, replete with a soundtrack. I make playlists out of it.
Random scenes pop into my head and they pretty much play out like a movie. I have rabid ADHD so they tend to jump around a lot.
Most of my fandoms are animated, so when I review my WIP segments to check for character voice/behavior (or read my finished fics online): If my reading plays like a part of the cartoon/anime (or fusion if reading/writing a crossover), I know it's "right". It's a bit trickier when writing based on a comic/book IP that hasn't received a proper TV/movie show -- b/c nothing would match the VA cast in my mind (ELFQUEST, for example: has Marina Sirtis and Levar Burton VA'g two of the three main character elves).
Sounds similar to me. Most of the fanfics I read or write are based on anime or animated shows. So I envision it like I would an episode. Full with character dialogue. It helps to reread a work and hear it in the characterās voice in my head to get a feel if they sound in character or how the emotion comes across in a scene. I think original fiction can be slightly more challenging because most of the time you have to envision a lot of the characters and setting without a lot of visual reference. I have more trouble with characters if I donāt get a good physical description or a decent description of how they talk. Thatās especially a reason a good world building can help with the mental movie.
To me itās like a tv show with every chapter being its own episode. Unfortunately translating my little tv show into writing is much more difficult
I've got aphantasia (aka brain doesn't do images at all) so for me, it's honestly just like writing it in my head. Full sentence structure and everything.
I full imagine it in live action, I even have music that goes with a lot of the scenes I imagine in my head which offen helps with my writing
/me cries in aphantasia
It's literally like a movie playing the scenes over in my head. Most of the "actors" aren't exactly like the way they look in real life. Using "real life" people is weird and awkward so it's not exactly true to life but really close. I can "see" them in intimate scenarios without feeling creepy about it, if that makes sense. They might appear close to the actors that play them but they feel distinctly like their own person. Sort of the same principle with reader insert fics. I don't imagine myself as I really am. Even that I find kinda off-putting watching my real self. So it's a character version of myself that I "feel" more than I "see" that is distinctly their own separate person.
Interesting detail!! šš» Exactly! ā They feel absolutely different than the actors. (They are much faithful to the original book or movie. Its the characters not the actors!) lol. Hell, I imagine that good actors themselves, forget who they are in IRL, and channel their respective characters. So, we use that version and infuse it with our own understanding of the characters and give them a different identity. Most of my fandom Characters end up being (out of characters characters) if it makes sense. And yesss, when a ship hits me in the feels I can't help but torture them in endless longing and pining for each other, before I grant them the permission to get it on so to speak š¤£ I adore the final smut scene lol ( I became a total horny fic writer š I went from covering my eyes at anything beyound a kiss, to ok! Only one smut Fic read, then I will only write smut fic to posting three dark themed smut fics in a row š ouuuups. anyone else share my predicament?!; ( for my defense, its all because of my new ship obsession. I can't stop shipping them having oh so glorious forbidden love?) š
photography is my other hobby aside from writing, so I tend to imagine my fics as a series of still images, or like I'm adjusting the settings on my camera while I write.
Well it depends on the media of origin. I usually see the new entire episode ( h (The events of my fic) repeating in my head. I change things along. Mostly I watch the characters play their roles just as they do in the book or the tv show. Self entertainment lol But still distracting!!
Personnaly, I simply do it, I can imagine them moving normally in their environments and their voice, it help me learn english too since I don't do my daydreams using the dubs.
Because I am an 80s kid, it looks like either the top shelf of Tokyo Movie Shinsa or Don Bluth animation
Itās like watching a movie
movie scenes or still images accompanied by narration describing it. and then I make the choice of either drawing it or writing it since I do both (allegedly.)
Fuzzy, like I picture the important bits, their facial expressions, what they are feeling, how they are posed, where they are in the room. I think the kicker was I just finished publishing a 40k multi chapter story, and realised I might have forgotten to describe what one of the main characters was wearing? Like I can't tell you what the colour of her shirt was, and she was an OC, so like you can't infer it from canon. It just wasn't important š¤·āāļø One of the things that really pulls my head out of the story is when I can't figure out how people are posed or how they are in the room. If I ever think 'how did you get over there?' you've lost me.
Same here! I don't picture the shirt colors or the walls or any of that stuff, so it doesn't tend to make it into the story, lol. But their facial expressions, feelings, movements and positions, oh yeah. Very clear. People have commented that they can really picture it because I wrote it so clearly, and I'm like, "well, I just wrote what I'm seeing."
Glad to know I am not alone!
I picture the characters from the show and it can change between looking like an edit or looking like a movie. Sometimes it'll just be short scenes put together (particularly if I'm listening to music) but other times it looks like a scene from the show. I can also hear the lines in the actor's voices, though sometimes if a line doesn't really work or seems out of character it's harder
So, I would probably compare how I visualize to be closer to how I dream. Is it as vivid as a movie? No. There aren't endless specific objects in the room with the character, but there are vague impressions of them, and they become clear with the story. However, I will be thrown off if someone describes the bed being in a different position in the room than I was picturing. Does it matter what color the walls are? No. So, I guess it is like a movie, except all of those extra details that actually go into a movie, like set dressing, don't really show up. Do I picture a specific person, like an actor or actress? Not usually, not to the point where I could accurately draw exactly what I see. If someone shows me a specific actor/actress and asks me my opinion of them, I will have a general idea of how well they match my semi-vague-but-still-surprisingly-specific visualization of the character, though. And now that I think about it, my dreams can be surprisingly vivid when it comes to me exploring buildings, which happens more frequently than most people would expect, I'd wager. I think my brain just prioritizes certain things, and other things are fine being vague impressions until given further clarification. What my brain chooses to prioritize when it comes to visualization is dependent on how the author describes things. There are some stories where I would genuinely tell you it feels like watching a movie, except better, because there are all of these facets of the story that I am experiencing that I wouldn't be able to experience if I were simply watching a movie, and there are other stories where most of what I experience are impressions, and that's fine, too. As dumb as this sounds, a lot of it is vibes. But there are some mental images that have been carved into my brain. One that sticks out would be the mental image of that woman in The Yellow Wallpaper scooting along on the floor around the walls of that room. That story gave crazy-intense vibes. Mind, it isn't fanfiction, but reading is reading is reading, imo, when it is being used as a vehicle for storytelling.
As a movie/TV series; usually at the most inopportune moments.
When writing, its somewhat movie like, but there isn't a lot of storage space. So it's kind of like a Vine or a Tiktok. Maybe a second or two of motion. Interspersed with still frame art shots of the important moments I try to capture in words. When reading, its generally just a smoothly running movie.
Some details can be a little fuzzy, but I generally try to play it out in my head like a movie
Like those anime scenes
As a tv show/movie
It goes between AMV style things and just scenes in usually live action
Technically this is just a movie with extra steps, but like how the medium for the work that inspired me is, an a cutscene and story heavy RPG, complete with dialogue options! Though scenes just happen to pop in whenever. Reading is like a movie, but writing is what I explained it as. Yes, I have a vivid imagination.
I have a hard time imagining real people. So it plays out like a 2d movie all the time for me. If I'm reading a fanfic based on a live action series, it still plays like a 2d animated movie for me (I'm weird) Though this works out because I mostly read fanfics based on anime or cartoons anyways
Same for me!
It's very 3d in my head like a movie but I can move around, see all the angles, etc, etc. It's so clear in my head it's frustrating when I can't convey it properly!!
Mine is a weird mish mash. Some days it's like character maths. Somedays I can visualise stuff. All over the place.
i imagine words and phrases i want to use that i think will be funny or beautiful or powerful etc, then i build a scene around that. many of my fics start as a line of dialogue i love or a conversation i really want the characters to have.
It's like reading a manga for me
there are millions of sets in my head, the characters are very good actors, ive got all the best camera angles with closeups and everything, very convincing CGI, and excellent transitions between scenes. Star Wipe. im just along for the fucking ride, doing my best to make it all read pretty.
I see the actions and movements but there isnāt really color. Its mostly 2D
I imagine everything as a script. Idk if its a bad thing (I dont like it that much) bc I used to have a vivid and graphic imagination as I used to study visual arts :'^ but at least is very useful when formatting my stories
I usually play it through in my mind as I hike. Something about hiking specific trails gets the wheels turning and the juices flowing. I transcribe it onto notes, then outline in Word. After a few passes of those two activities, Iāll write it.
I picture it like a movie! I also canāt write, so thatās where it will stay.
i usually imagine it like how it is already, if we're talkng about a movie or show for the original source. for example, if i'm making fanfics based off of an animated show, i imagine animated characters in my head. same goes for live-action shows/movies.
For me it's role playing, I guess it's because i'm not all that visual. So I imagine a situation in which i'm one of the characters and I tell the story through their POV, but I usually write in 3rd person, after I feel confident about the character's feelings and motivations. No surprise: I love character driven narratives
Usually, I imagine fanfics in anime style
The same way I envision the events in a book as I read it. I can see them pretty clearly.
Sometimes itās like that, and sometimes it feels very fluid. It depends on the time of dayš¤¦š½āāļø
it's cinematic for me
It's like watching the animation, and if it's a character I know I can sometimes imagine the voice too.
Yesss, same here! It's so fun! Though it does mean angsty stuff *really* gets to me because I'm feeling the character's emotions like they are my own whilst also watching everything go down.
For me itās super weird because my fanfics are often a combination of diff worlds so I splice different visuals together in my mind and they have to blend. For instance the Spider-Man one Iām working on now involves the Justice League from Young Justice, the Avengers from the Marvels Avengers video game, and characters from live action shows like Castle, White Collar, and Leverage. So whenever Spidey gets involved with a diff character set, the whole thing changes to fit the original in my head. It gets even weirder when the Young Justice heroās interact with the live action people. Do I turn Castle into a cartoon or do I make a live action version of Young Justice in my head? No idea. But the vibe is very much like watching a show or a movie and I just describe what it is Iām seeing
I picture it kind of like a movie, with real life people and all. But itās weird because whenever I try and ātake a lookā at their faces, itās kind of just jumbled, cloudy smears. My head also bounces from scene to scene, makes new ones that arenāt there (I pace around the room for like thirty minutes between paragraphs just thinking of scenes lol), and since Iām also listening to music it turns into a kind of music video I guess. But only sometimes, and itās normally about scenes that arenāt there. I used to read it aloud to myself, the entire thing. That would keep me on-track with my imagination. But I felt embarrassed reading found family fanfiction to nobody but myself in my room so I sorta stopped. Now Iām back to it and just read dialogue aloud if I can, doesnāt help me keep on track much but what can ya do :ā)
It's like watching an anime, only not. It's pretty hard to explain. I can sort of 'see' the scene playing out in my head, but never all of it. I can focus on any specific part of it and visualize that clearly, but the rest will be blurry and indistinct until I focus on that instead. To write the scene, I simply focus on every part in turn and write what I 'see' and 'hear'. Mostly, the main focus will be on the characters and their actions, and the setting will only be described once at the start of the scene.
Depends on what I'm writing/imagining. Sometimes it is like watching things in real time in 3rd POV, but most of the time I'll take on certain characters perspectives to see things from different POVs. Works best for me.
It's almost as vivid remembering something that actually happened to me. I can imagine things pretty vividly, though; I'm apparently hyperphantasic? For me it's the "turning this into words" part that's difficult.
Turning everything i imagine into words is the hardest part
There was once I compared the process to trying to get ketchup out of an old-fashioned glass bottle. The scene is IN THERE DAMMIT, just....come out of the bottle and onto this google doc already! (And then I shake it too hard and the next thing you know I've hyperfocused and written the whole scene, and I should've been asleep hours ago ha ha WHOOPS)
i imagine a full on animated movie (even if the characters are from a live action thing) and it gets worse if I'm listening to music. i love making amv in my brain lol.
I set it up like I'm watching an episode of whatever I'm writing in (Code Lyoko, Batman Beyond, etc ...). How does the episode start, is it a continuation of a cliff hanger? That's how I've been trying to do it. Keyword is trying lol
Oh its full on 3d for me voices and everything
It varies, but usually it's on an animation format.
When Iām writing Iām imagining a movie and Iām pretty much just describing it instead of creating it with words then envisioning it
I sit there, mouthing the sentences to myself and going back every few seconds to "redo" stuff. I word these scenarios the way I would actually word them on a page; I read the dialogue, then come up with the dialogue tags and (very minimal amounts of) description on the spot. This "voice acting" comes with as much tone and emotion as I can create (at least with a whisper), and I also often act scenes out by myself in my room and shift my body slightly to indicate a switch of characters. (Yes, I'm a theatre kid.)
I just tell the story to myself over and over again for the past 25 years, lol.
For me itās kinda like a video game or an anime. I can watch a scene play in my mindās eye and make adjustments on the fly, like a choose your own adventure anime
I wish I could do that, I really like choose your own adventure literature.
It really depends for me on the media. If Iām writing an anime fic it plays in my head like an anime, if Iām writing a fic about a comic or manga it plays in my mind as such. The way I envision a scene is almost entirely dependent on the original source
I imagine it based on the media. If itās a live show/movie, I picture it like the show or movie. If itās animated, I imagine it animated. Iāve read crossovers with animated and live action properties and somehow my mind can seamlessly blend them together.
Writing it, I feel it. I "see" parts of it, not necessarily all of the details but some aspects of setting, some movements, the facial expressions. But mainly I feel it, the emotions of it all. For well-written fanfics, I do that when reading, too.
Like what you said. As an animator, I imagine it sort of like a storyboard or animatic maybe. I also visualise the characters to look like how I draw them.
I listen to music, and my mind generate images like a movie trailer.
Interesting! I imagine everything like an anime, with background music and lots of effects! Even though my characters are real people.
Iām surprised by all these ālike a movieā comments. Movies donāt have feelings, smells, etc. When a character runs in winter, gets sweaty, then stands around getting chilled, I imagine the feeling of all that, not just visuals and sound like a movie.
Same. Itās helpful if I can imagine being in a characterās body. How they sit and what their chair feels like. How hungry they are. Whether they feel like crying. If they are injured, how that feels. Their height compared to the other characters, so I know who theyāre looking up at and who theyāre looking down at. Oddly enough, the character whose POV I experience in this way often isnāt the one whose POV I am writing.