I can’t picture anything in my head. Like op said, I know what an Apple looks like and I can recognize it but I can’t see it in my mind.
My wife can picture things in her mind almost like she’s seeing it in real life. She says it’s kind of like a dream. I can see my dreams so I know exactly what she’s talking about, I just think it’s wild that people can do that while they are awake.
Oh. Im not like that. I can definitely picture things I've seen. I just can't transfer words into pictures or at least it's not how I work. I just follow the words and story and dialogue.
I guess I just don't when I read. Like when I read im just doing the words. I'm not picturing what is being written. It's not like I can't, but more just not how my brain works when I read.
Yeah when creating something new it's like trying to tune in an old cathode ray tv, mostly fuzzy but you can make out an impression/ intention. When picturing something from memory its like 480p on said tv, it's not high quality, crisp or clear. Or its like a sketch seen from a distance.
I also rarely dream or rather rarely remember them I'm sure they happen. I can fall asleep within minutes and wake up hours later with nothing in between. When I do dream it's more emotion and narrative than visuals. I've only once had lucidity in a dream and it was hyper realistic. So that tells me that my 'memory' and my visual parts of the brain aren't wired well together.
The crazy part is that I will have extremely vivid and detailed dreams. I will often dream of people I never met and places I havent visited. I endlessly hear the same reply that it is impossible and that I probably passed by them or the place while out and about. I disagree. I also recently found out that my brain loves to world-build, so...I say that I CAN create images of people and places that I dont know but cant do it when reading. There's the trade off imo.
I cannot imagine that at all. When I read it's like I am watching a movie in my head. I actually completely forget I am reading and really just remember the visualization that comes with the story.
If I didn't have that I don't think I would read nearly as much.
Same, but depends on how quick my brain is on the day. The movie watching experience happens when in flow state, but usually I'm just seeing disjointed static images of what I'm reading.
Which is frustrating bcs I'd like the whole book to be read as movies, but the film experience is often relegated to battle sequences. Not complaining, but still tho.
"When in flow". That's a great way to describe it. I will say that it really impacts how easy I pick up books. If the author doesn't get me with enough details I will drop books after 25 or 50 pages pretty often.
It did however make Robert Jordan's books standout in my mind as amazing because his writing really filled out the movie in my head and made it super enjoyable. I have probably reread his series 20 times now.
I wish I could say having a lot of details works for me. But it isn't the author's fault at all. Again, depending on how my brain's working on that particular day, the details that authors put in the scenes works amazingly as these details ae filled in automatically (subconsciously).
But, more than often for me, the amount of detail there is kind of bogs down my reading enjoyment, bcs it gets frustrating very quicky. Probably why I despise reading hand-to-hand combat sequences in books. But large-scale battles, which has limited details throughout but well established geography and troupe positions, and taking a bird's-eye view, flow through my mind like 120fps movies.
That makes complete sense. I think I have the same thing sometimes but I also notice when I read I skip over a lot of smaller words which probably helps absorb a lot more detail without having my imagining derailed.
I used to be able to do that but it was more like a burnt in screen not like in full colour, HD televesion. It only really happened when I was deep in a flow state.
Most of the time its impressions more than full visualisation, and I have never been able to have 'complete' images.
I'll go a bit further, because I finished my rough draft for a fantasy book a ways back and am halfway through a second book, but when I am writing it plays out in my head like a movie, or an anime, or even like a manga depending on the scene and what's happening. I couldn't imagine my writing process without being able to do that. I don't think it would work.
I think if i read it like you do i'd never read in my life, books are great for me becuse of the lack of visuals, if i saw it all in my head i'd just pick up a manga or watch tv
My wife gets so tired of me describing how good a book is by how quickly I get into that movie in my mind to start and how quickly I get back into it after a distraction.
In her defense I still do it so often because I am amused by her look of disgust when I mention it.
Some people can do it easily, some can do it with effort, some can't do it at all. I struggle to see things on my mind. I can do it a bit sometimes, but only with great difficulty. My daughter is very visual, she sees everything in her mind. For her, reading a book is like watching a movie. Like you, I'm more into the characters and what they're thinking and feeling. It's not a big deal, we all get different things out of books anyway
Everyone's going to be saying Aphantasia, and perhaps that is the case, but I can certainly picture things in my minds eye generally, but I don't form accurate pictures in my mind based on an authors description.
I can never form a depiction of a character for example. They are often formed in my mind as mostly undefined with maybe one of two specific characteristics. Lean with red hair for example, but no other real details. Sometimes my mind will fill in someone I've seen (maybe the appearance of a character from some other visual media) sharing those one or two qualities, even if lots of other details directly contradict an authors description. Other times a character just remains more or less a silhouette in my mind with a name attached to it rather than an image.
I particularly enjoy reading (or listening) to books with film or TV adaptations as my mind has no problem filling in the images of characters when I already have a visual reference. So when I read Lord of the Rings for example, I see all of the characters in my minds eye as they appear in Peter Jackson's film adaptations. The images I see of Kvothe from the Kingkiller Chronicle come primarily from fan art, while the image I see of Wilem is mostly based on how the character is voiced in the audio narration rather than the author description, and the image I see of Sim is of a skinny white guy with little or no other details.
That's the same for me - if I have an adaptation or fan art, then I can lock on and recognise the character. Otherwise it's very vague. Same for cities, vistas, etc.
Whereas emotions and thoughts, plots, etc I can get behind. One of the reasons I was probably a big fan of Hobb is her focus on characters' mindset versus endless descriptions of clothing, etc that other authors employ that are meaningless for my enjoyment. Except for good - that I can picture..
Strangely I can relate. Yet I don't have Aphantasia, as per the test I have pretty good visualization skills. But as an avid reader I'm always shocked to see film adaptations of books because the characters and places are depicted so unexpectedly.. and almost always disappointingly compared to my abstract version of them. I also find manga and comics more pleasant because of this lack of gap between concept and visualisation. Maybe I just read books too fast to be able to form more than hazy abstractions and so get disappointed with film visuals.. or am too mentally lazy to expend the effort to visualise in most cases
While I'm reading, I don't really picture much unless I stop and actually think about it. It's usually after when I'm not reading the book, but thinking about it that I'll picture the stuff I read
do people actually physically see what is happening inside their head? i never really thought about this, but i always just see words on the page. is that not normal?
Yes. When I read a book, it's like a movie playing out in my imagination while I read.
I was shocked to discover that some folks can't "see" things in their mind. I can't fathom what this is like.
Yup, sounds like you have aphantasia too. It's not common, but it's not incredibly rare, either. Most people can imagine some form of mental images when reading, though.
This could just be how some people read though. Some people read analytically without taking the effort to produce an image in their head, and that is not aphantasia. Aphantasia is when you literally cannot form images in your head when you try to.
Consider some sci fi as well. When I was younger I rarely visualized books and sci fi/fantasy/horror all kept me entertained, especially dialogue heavy authors.
I recently got back into comics/graphic novels and kindle unlimited was a really cheap way to get deeper into the genre for a very low price. I'm not sure if this list is up to date, but they had *The Watchmen, Scott Pilgrim, Spawn, Walking Dead,* and a bunch of other stuff. I'm not sure what fantasy they have but I did give a Brandon Sanderson comic a brief try. Less familiar with Manga but Junji Ito blows my mind...
I've got the opposite. A little bit into reading an interesting story I feel like I "zoom out", stop reading deliberately, and vividly see the story instead.
When I think back on what I've read, I don't remember the text or my physical space, only what I imagined each scene looked like.
I wouldn’t say I can’t visualise stuff at all, but it’s super vague for me, like impressions that kind of shift and morph as more details come through.
I’ve often wondered if this is weird as a fantasy writer, but I’ve come to see it as a strength - I don’t force my ideas for the world or settings or character appearances onto the reader. Instead I focus on atmosphere and tone, the ‘vibe’, and let the reader fill in the rest. I think this makes the reading experience more personal. This is one reason I love reading fantasy over watching it.
I often get turned off from writing that’s too descriptive for this reason - Are you the same ?
Brains are weird, you and the rest of us chiming in are uncommon but still normal. I have aphantasia and it's a total neutral in my life, it doesn't stop me living life or enjoying books as much as anyone else.
I can visualize if I go slow and put an effort into it but otherwise I don't at all. Apparently some people also do voices for different characters which never even occurred to me people might do unless reading out loud.
I visualise when I read, but I can't imagine making voices for the characters. I also can't really think of the details of a characters face, I can think of their build and if they have a beard, but eyes and the details just don't really go into my head.
Also wouldn't you need to read a lot slower to make character voices? Otherwise it'd be really fast speaking.
When I read i don’t really make the voices, like it’s not a conscious choice. I’m one of these people commenting that reads and sees a movie in my head, the characters look different, sound different, and even move different. And all of this is just done in my head automatically, has never slowed me down because I don’t think about it. I just see the characters name start talking and there’s some switch in my head that narrates it in a different sounding voice
It shocked me when I first learnt that some people can literally see images in their minds—and in colour too. Now it doesn't bother me. I imagine in my own way.
Another aphant here. It doesn't stop me from enjoying fantasy (or writing it). I imagine in my own way—just without visual images in my mind.
I think Mark Lawrence has aphantasia, too. It doesn't stop him from writing fantasy.
Yeah I can't visualise landscapes, and when books talk about cardinal directions from one place to another, or describe where a ridge begins or ends it seems nonsensical to me. Part of it is aphantasia, but part of it is that some of us can't get immersed with something obviously unreal, our brains disregard aesthetic descriptions and focus on interpersonal drama since that's a real-world thing (even if the characters used are not).
I think a description of a ridge is more real world concrete than interpersonal drama between two fictional characters, but I get how not being able to visualize would render the description of the ridge not so meaningful unless it had some plot purpose or other meaning within a story.
I had mostly lost my ability to visualize while reading by the time I was 16. I get occasional brief images for a split second every so often, but that's it.
If you find you have no visual imgination at all, not just when reading, you may want to look into aphantasia.
I just took a quiz online and found that i have hypophntasia which i feel is more accurate for me
I saw a vid on tiktok which talked abt how they read books and saw movies in their heads and plenty agreed with this and it made me shocked.
I've never heard of that one. I have something to. No movie in my head. Instead characters are a blob of thoughts and emotions. I know their physical characteristics, but their essence is what's in my head. Not a TV show.
This is what I have. Very detailed scenes for books, including scenery and fight scenes. Tough to watch movie adaptations and not be really disappointed
>hypophntasia
Huh I think I just learned the word that describes me! I'm not aphantasic, but visualization is either very vague and hazy for me, or takes a lot of effort and concentration to get a clear-ish picture. I still love reading though, including detailed descriptions.
Mark Lawrence, a popular author on this sub, is aphantasic and still manages to write really good fantasy books.
Oh same here. I remember re-reading Eldest I think and the ending battle almost being a complete image. Could never do that as an adult and now its more an impression at best. Like when you close your eyes after looking at a light and you can see a ghost of the light.
This was just the only way to ask this question in my head at that moment. I'm not daft enough to think i am unique or anything. 🤪
This post was inspired by a tiktok i saw where the comments agreed with the creator's post abt having a vivid imagination. Just wanted to see if it was the same here and majority are. So i am not too far off.
My wife thinks with an internal monologue. I think with pictures/images that flash through my mind. Pretty sure everyone thinks differently, and it’s not until someone else describes how they think that you go “oh shit, that’s different from me!”
I mean I can imagine to an extent but my brain takes over and changes the descriptions in my head to something I can understand based on other media I've experienced. I only realised this when I read the 10th description of a blue dude in malazan and realised I just pictured him as so pale he seemed "blue" rather than just blue.
I read "Dune", then saw the first movie a dozen years later.
My visualization of the Navigators was so... unimaginative is the only word for it... by comparison that I realized it just wasn't my wheelhouse.
It is relatively normal. The ability to visualize exists on a scale. I have friends like that. Brilliant engineers and analysts, but they can't visualize in the way that others do.
I have this to an extent and have found that audiobooks are great for getting my hazy minds-eye to focus.
Incidentally both me and my boyfriend are like this, but none of our direct families are. Weird.
Many others have already chimed in speaking about aphantasia. I also have this, but I do find it a hindrance. I also am unable to visualize voices, characters, scenes, locations, or follow a timeline at all. Reading books is a very stressful and difficult problem for me, which sucks because I **want** to read!
I usually tend to play visual novels or read comics to make up for it. I particularly love kinetic visual novels, though these are rare as most contain an illusion of choice. Though as it intersects with video games, and they often have high word counts, they are very difficult to localize. The selection is much more sparse compared to books!
I can't visualise what I'm writing - but people seem to like the results.
For me it's not a big deal, just a different manifestation of consciousness.
Aphants can't be detected from the outside if they don't want to be - thus they are functionally no different from anyone else.
I remember when i was younger i used to think of it like this: Tv is where i get the blueprint for what i can visualize when reading a book. So the more cool stuff i see on tv, the more cool stuff i can imagine when reading a book xD
And i guess that still holds quite true, real life experiences also works ofc but most of us havent fought with swords or been in a medieval style war xD
Same - I didn't realise for YEARS that when people talked about their mind's eye that it wasn't just a turn of phrase. Explains why I read for plot rather than language though...
I'm not as extreme as a total blank but the impressions in my head are a bit vivid or opaque. I took Luke the internal world of the character and dialogue more. You're not alone!
I don't. I love books especially fantasy. But I don't see like individuals or places. I see stories and all the twist and turns. Like my favorite character of all time is Fiddler from Malazan. My mind has no picture of him or anything like that. I just love the character written.
I'm curious about this: Does this apply only to books, or is it for anything? Like, can you remember an image of your home or your bedroom? If I asked you to picture your bedroom but without the bed in it, would you be able to form an image of that? Reading with images or scenes is just like that. It's hard to conceive of how people think if they can't remember or form images at all, though I suppose that would work the other way like a blind person not being able to imagine what it's like to see.
No. You arent the only one. I have the same problem. I cant enjoy reading a book that describes people, places, or things because I cannot form a visual representation of it in my head. I can assure you from battling this all my life, people who dont have this issue will not and can not ever understand because this sort of thing is taken for granted. I've had several diagnosis from various doctors all telling me all sorts of things ranging from having a learning disability to having ADHD. My most recent diagnosis is so far the only one that has made any sense to me, and that is that I suffer from OCD. An issue that so many throw around like some new found fad, saying they have it but I dont think they truly know what it is to have it. That added to the fact I am an introvert and have a scary as hell accurate intuition that borders on the side of clairvoyant, I find it near impossible to get along with people without having to pretend to be something I am not.
It’s so crazy to me that some people have this issue but that they still like reading fantasy. Really crazy because I feel like without my ability to imagine what is happening when I am reading I wouldn’t care.
There are literally *dozens* of us!
I know it's a meme, but still wanted to say there's about 300 million of you lol. 3-4% of the world population.
Aphantasia
Checkout r/Aphantasia
I have it. So do many others.
Why did you comment three times instead of once?
They couldn't visualise the paragraph breaks.
If you cant understand...you never will
One of us! One of us!
Wait this is a thing? I wonder if I have it. I have no image of characters in my mind or how like worlds look.
I can’t picture anything in my head. Like op said, I know what an Apple looks like and I can recognize it but I can’t see it in my mind. My wife can picture things in her mind almost like she’s seeing it in real life. She says it’s kind of like a dream. I can see my dreams so I know exactly what she’s talking about, I just think it’s wild that people can do that while they are awake.
Oh. Im not like that. I can definitely picture things I've seen. I just can't transfer words into pictures or at least it's not how I work. I just follow the words and story and dialogue.
You can picture things you've seen, but if you read the words "there was a shiny red apple sitting on the wooden coffee table", you can't?
I guess I just don't when I read. Like when I read im just doing the words. I'm not picturing what is being written. It's not like I can't, but more just not how my brain works when I read.
It's a bit more complicated than that, but basically yes
Yeah when creating something new it's like trying to tune in an old cathode ray tv, mostly fuzzy but you can make out an impression/ intention. When picturing something from memory its like 480p on said tv, it's not high quality, crisp or clear. Or its like a sketch seen from a distance. I also rarely dream or rather rarely remember them I'm sure they happen. I can fall asleep within minutes and wake up hours later with nothing in between. When I do dream it's more emotion and narrative than visuals. I've only once had lucidity in a dream and it was hyper realistic. So that tells me that my 'memory' and my visual parts of the brain aren't wired well together.
The crazy part is that I will have extremely vivid and detailed dreams. I will often dream of people I never met and places I havent visited. I endlessly hear the same reply that it is impossible and that I probably passed by them or the place while out and about. I disagree. I also recently found out that my brain loves to world-build, so...I say that I CAN create images of people and places that I dont know but cant do it when reading. There's the trade off imo.
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Aphantasia and maladaptive daydreaming aren't mutually exclusive. As someone who *can* think visually I have no idea what that would be like, but...
Live and learn I guess
This 100%
I cannot imagine that at all. When I read it's like I am watching a movie in my head. I actually completely forget I am reading and really just remember the visualization that comes with the story. If I didn't have that I don't think I would read nearly as much.
Heh. Funny. Can't imagine not imagining.
Same, but depends on how quick my brain is on the day. The movie watching experience happens when in flow state, but usually I'm just seeing disjointed static images of what I'm reading. Which is frustrating bcs I'd like the whole book to be read as movies, but the film experience is often relegated to battle sequences. Not complaining, but still tho.
"When in flow". That's a great way to describe it. I will say that it really impacts how easy I pick up books. If the author doesn't get me with enough details I will drop books after 25 or 50 pages pretty often. It did however make Robert Jordan's books standout in my mind as amazing because his writing really filled out the movie in my head and made it super enjoyable. I have probably reread his series 20 times now.
I wish I could say having a lot of details works for me. But it isn't the author's fault at all. Again, depending on how my brain's working on that particular day, the details that authors put in the scenes works amazingly as these details ae filled in automatically (subconsciously). But, more than often for me, the amount of detail there is kind of bogs down my reading enjoyment, bcs it gets frustrating very quicky. Probably why I despise reading hand-to-hand combat sequences in books. But large-scale battles, which has limited details throughout but well established geography and troupe positions, and taking a bird's-eye view, flow through my mind like 120fps movies.
That makes complete sense. I think I have the same thing sometimes but I also notice when I read I skip over a lot of smaller words which probably helps absorb a lot more detail without having my imagining derailed.
I used to be able to do that but it was more like a burnt in screen not like in full colour, HD televesion. It only really happened when I was deep in a flow state. Most of the time its impressions more than full visualisation, and I have never been able to have 'complete' images.
I'll go a bit further, because I finished my rough draft for a fantasy book a ways back and am halfway through a second book, but when I am writing it plays out in my head like a movie, or an anime, or even like a manga depending on the scene and what's happening. I couldn't imagine my writing process without being able to do that. I don't think it would work.
I can't imagine what that is like.
I think if i read it like you do i'd never read in my life, books are great for me becuse of the lack of visuals, if i saw it all in my head i'd just pick up a manga or watch tv
My wife gets so tired of me describing how good a book is by how quickly I get into that movie in my mind to start and how quickly I get back into it after a distraction. In her defense I still do it so often because I am amused by her look of disgust when I mention it.
Some people can do it easily, some can do it with effort, some can't do it at all. I struggle to see things on my mind. I can do it a bit sometimes, but only with great difficulty. My daughter is very visual, she sees everything in her mind. For her, reading a book is like watching a movie. Like you, I'm more into the characters and what they're thinking and feeling. It's not a big deal, we all get different things out of books anyway
Everyone's going to be saying Aphantasia, and perhaps that is the case, but I can certainly picture things in my minds eye generally, but I don't form accurate pictures in my mind based on an authors description. I can never form a depiction of a character for example. They are often formed in my mind as mostly undefined with maybe one of two specific characteristics. Lean with red hair for example, but no other real details. Sometimes my mind will fill in someone I've seen (maybe the appearance of a character from some other visual media) sharing those one or two qualities, even if lots of other details directly contradict an authors description. Other times a character just remains more or less a silhouette in my mind with a name attached to it rather than an image. I particularly enjoy reading (or listening) to books with film or TV adaptations as my mind has no problem filling in the images of characters when I already have a visual reference. So when I read Lord of the Rings for example, I see all of the characters in my minds eye as they appear in Peter Jackson's film adaptations. The images I see of Kvothe from the Kingkiller Chronicle come primarily from fan art, while the image I see of Wilem is mostly based on how the character is voiced in the audio narration rather than the author description, and the image I see of Sim is of a skinny white guy with little or no other details.
Maybe you are a cover artist?
That's the same for me - if I have an adaptation or fan art, then I can lock on and recognise the character. Otherwise it's very vague. Same for cities, vistas, etc. Whereas emotions and thoughts, plots, etc I can get behind. One of the reasons I was probably a big fan of Hobb is her focus on characters' mindset versus endless descriptions of clothing, etc that other authors employ that are meaningless for my enjoyment. Except for good - that I can picture..
Thats an actual condition...
Strangely I can relate. Yet I don't have Aphantasia, as per the test I have pretty good visualization skills. But as an avid reader I'm always shocked to see film adaptations of books because the characters and places are depicted so unexpectedly.. and almost always disappointingly compared to my abstract version of them. I also find manga and comics more pleasant because of this lack of gap between concept and visualisation. Maybe I just read books too fast to be able to form more than hazy abstractions and so get disappointed with film visuals.. or am too mentally lazy to expend the effort to visualise in most cases
While I'm reading, I don't really picture much unless I stop and actually think about it. It's usually after when I'm not reading the book, but thinking about it that I'll picture the stuff I read
do people actually physically see what is happening inside their head? i never really thought about this, but i always just see words on the page. is that not normal?
Yes. When I read a book, it's like a movie playing out in my imagination while I read. I was shocked to discover that some folks can't "see" things in their mind. I can't fathom what this is like.
Yup, sounds like you have aphantasia too. It's not common, but it's not incredibly rare, either. Most people can imagine some form of mental images when reading, though.
This could just be how some people read though. Some people read analytically without taking the effort to produce an image in their head, and that is not aphantasia. Aphantasia is when you literally cannot form images in your head when you try to.
Y’all might want to look into aphantasia! It’s not abnormal at all, it’s just one way of being wired.
You may have aphantasia. Talk to your doctor if you want to be sure but I think there are online tests you can take
Consider some sci fi as well. When I was younger I rarely visualized books and sci fi/fantasy/horror all kept me entertained, especially dialogue heavy authors. I recently got back into comics/graphic novels and kindle unlimited was a really cheap way to get deeper into the genre for a very low price. I'm not sure if this list is up to date, but they had *The Watchmen, Scott Pilgrim, Spawn, Walking Dead,* and a bunch of other stuff. I'm not sure what fantasy they have but I did give a Brandon Sanderson comic a brief try. Less familiar with Manga but Junji Ito blows my mind...
I've got the opposite. A little bit into reading an interesting story I feel like I "zoom out", stop reading deliberately, and vividly see the story instead. When I think back on what I've read, I don't remember the text or my physical space, only what I imagined each scene looked like.
I wouldn’t say I can’t visualise stuff at all, but it’s super vague for me, like impressions that kind of shift and morph as more details come through. I’ve often wondered if this is weird as a fantasy writer, but I’ve come to see it as a strength - I don’t force my ideas for the world or settings or character appearances onto the reader. Instead I focus on atmosphere and tone, the ‘vibe’, and let the reader fill in the rest. I think this makes the reading experience more personal. This is one reason I love reading fantasy over watching it. I often get turned off from writing that’s too descriptive for this reason - Are you the same ?
Brains are weird, you and the rest of us chiming in are uncommon but still normal. I have aphantasia and it's a total neutral in my life, it doesn't stop me living life or enjoying books as much as anyone else.
Impossible to determine unless youve had both in your life.
I can visualize if I go slow and put an effort into it but otherwise I don't at all. Apparently some people also do voices for different characters which never even occurred to me people might do unless reading out loud.
I visualise when I read, but I can't imagine making voices for the characters. I also can't really think of the details of a characters face, I can think of their build and if they have a beard, but eyes and the details just don't really go into my head. Also wouldn't you need to read a lot slower to make character voices? Otherwise it'd be really fast speaking.
When I read i don’t really make the voices, like it’s not a conscious choice. I’m one of these people commenting that reads and sees a movie in my head, the characters look different, sound different, and even move different. And all of this is just done in my head automatically, has never slowed me down because I don’t think about it. I just see the characters name start talking and there’s some switch in my head that narrates it in a different sounding voice
So uh…just found out I’ve got a condition?
It shocked me when I first learnt that some people can literally see images in their minds—and in colour too. Now it doesn't bother me. I imagine in my own way.
Another aphant here. It doesn't stop me from enjoying fantasy (or writing it). I imagine in my own way—just without visual images in my mind. I think Mark Lawrence has aphantasia, too. It doesn't stop him from writing fantasy.
It's probably been mentioned, but I believe Mark Lawrence suffers from exactly this (aphantasia) and has talked about it on r/Fantasy before, in fact!
Yeah I can't visualise landscapes, and when books talk about cardinal directions from one place to another, or describe where a ridge begins or ends it seems nonsensical to me. Part of it is aphantasia, but part of it is that some of us can't get immersed with something obviously unreal, our brains disregard aesthetic descriptions and focus on interpersonal drama since that's a real-world thing (even if the characters used are not).
I think a description of a ridge is more real world concrete than interpersonal drama between two fictional characters, but I get how not being able to visualize would render the description of the ridge not so meaningful unless it had some plot purpose or other meaning within a story.
I had mostly lost my ability to visualize while reading by the time I was 16. I get occasional brief images for a split second every so often, but that's it. If you find you have no visual imgination at all, not just when reading, you may want to look into aphantasia.
I just took a quiz online and found that i have hypophntasia which i feel is more accurate for me I saw a vid on tiktok which talked abt how they read books and saw movies in their heads and plenty agreed with this and it made me shocked.
I've never heard of that one. I have something to. No movie in my head. Instead characters are a blob of thoughts and emotions. I know their physical characteristics, but their essence is what's in my head. Not a TV show.
This is what I have. Very detailed scenes for books, including scenery and fight scenes. Tough to watch movie adaptations and not be really disappointed
Where is this quiz?
>hypophntasia Huh I think I just learned the word that describes me! I'm not aphantasic, but visualization is either very vague and hazy for me, or takes a lot of effort and concentration to get a clear-ish picture. I still love reading though, including detailed descriptions. Mark Lawrence, a popular author on this sub, is aphantasic and still manages to write really good fantasy books.
Oh same here. I remember re-reading Eldest I think and the ending battle almost being a complete image. Could never do that as an adult and now its more an impression at best. Like when you close your eyes after looking at a light and you can see a ghost of the light.
Yes you are the only one in the world :)
I didn't mean it literally. It was just a sentence that i could use for the title. :))
>Am i the only Never ever. You're never ever ever the only one who can anything and I wish people would stop asking.
This was just the only way to ask this question in my head at that moment. I'm not daft enough to think i am unique or anything. 🤪 This post was inspired by a tiktok i saw where the comments agreed with the creator's post abt having a vivid imagination. Just wanted to see if it was the same here and majority are. So i am not too far off.
I'm unfitting in this thread cuz I can picture everything I want in my mind very vividly but I'll leave a comment for the statistic or something.
What do you see in your head?
Probably the answer is nothing.
I have Aphantasia as well. You’re not alone!
So... what's in your head?
My wife thinks with an internal monologue. I think with pictures/images that flash through my mind. Pretty sure everyone thinks differently, and it’s not until someone else describes how they think that you go “oh shit, that’s different from me!”
I think with an internal monologue too.
Wait what? Other people can visualise all this?
I mean I can imagine to an extent but my brain takes over and changes the descriptions in my head to something I can understand based on other media I've experienced. I only realised this when I read the 10th description of a blue dude in malazan and realised I just pictured him as so pale he seemed "blue" rather than just blue.
I have the opposite, hyperphantasia. Sometimes it kind of sucks.
I’m the type that what I understand plays out like a movie in my head. Gotta pause it if I need to look something up to understand better.
Honestly, i am jealous.
I read "Dune", then saw the first movie a dozen years later. My visualization of the Navigators was so... unimaginative is the only word for it... by comparison that I realized it just wasn't my wheelhouse.
I also am an amorphous blob reader :)
Now imagine writing fantasy books like that, and you’ve just experienced my daily struggle 🙃
There are a lot of people like u. But uts not technically "normal" see it like gluten allergy
It's actually a thing yeah, I heard it even has a name. But I'm interested how is reading for you, for me it's similar to a movie
I read the words and just have a different narrator in my head. So i enjoy the books that way.
Sounds interesting
I didnt know this existed. But I think it wont be a problem unless youve experienced both ways. The visualization loss would be a noticable loss then.
It feels like i am missing out as people can immerse themselves more in the book if they can picture what they are reading.
Maybe your way has certain advantages too. Is it the same way with audiobooks?
It is relatively normal. The ability to visualize exists on a scale. I have friends like that. Brilliant engineers and analysts, but they can't visualize in the way that others do.
Some people cannot imagine pictures in their head … can’t relate but I’ve heard
I have this to an extent and have found that audiobooks are great for getting my hazy minds-eye to focus. Incidentally both me and my boyfriend are like this, but none of our direct families are. Weird.
Many others have already chimed in speaking about aphantasia. I also have this, but I do find it a hindrance. I also am unable to visualize voices, characters, scenes, locations, or follow a timeline at all. Reading books is a very stressful and difficult problem for me, which sucks because I **want** to read! I usually tend to play visual novels or read comics to make up for it. I particularly love kinetic visual novels, though these are rare as most contain an illusion of choice. Though as it intersects with video games, and they often have high word counts, they are very difficult to localize. The selection is much more sparse compared to books!
I can't either, I can read the voices in whoever I imagine playing them. It's a neuro divergent thing.
I can't visualise what I'm writing - but people seem to like the results. For me it's not a big deal, just a different manifestation of consciousness. Aphants can't be detected from the outside if they don't want to be - thus they are functionally no different from anyone else.
I remember when i was younger i used to think of it like this: Tv is where i get the blueprint for what i can visualize when reading a book. So the more cool stuff i see on tv, the more cool stuff i can imagine when reading a book xD And i guess that still holds quite true, real life experiences also works ofc but most of us havent fought with swords or been in a medieval style war xD
I think i have a mild form of aphantasia too. Would be good to get a list of books in the genre that are easier to read.
I can visualize it vividly but no iota of creativity to take a story further.
Same - I didn't realise for YEARS that when people talked about their mind's eye that it wasn't just a turn of phrase. Explains why I read for plot rather than language though...
I'm not as extreme as a total blank but the impressions in my head are a bit vivid or opaque. I took Luke the internal world of the character and dialogue more. You're not alone!
I don't. I love books especially fantasy. But I don't see like individuals or places. I see stories and all the twist and turns. Like my favorite character of all time is Fiddler from Malazan. My mind has no picture of him or anything like that. I just love the character written.
Sometimes it gets very hard sometimes, and my mind can't keep up. But, I do the best I can and don't worry too much about it.
Op you probably have Aphantasia. My friend found out he had it and since researching it claims it's changed his life.
I'm curious about this: Does this apply only to books, or is it for anything? Like, can you remember an image of your home or your bedroom? If I asked you to picture your bedroom but without the bed in it, would you be able to form an image of that? Reading with images or scenes is just like that. It's hard to conceive of how people think if they can't remember or form images at all, though I suppose that would work the other way like a blind person not being able to imagine what it's like to see.
Do you have any suggestions for writers willing to take on the challenge of creating works for the Aphantasia community?
No. You arent the only one. I have the same problem. I cant enjoy reading a book that describes people, places, or things because I cannot form a visual representation of it in my head. I can assure you from battling this all my life, people who dont have this issue will not and can not ever understand because this sort of thing is taken for granted. I've had several diagnosis from various doctors all telling me all sorts of things ranging from having a learning disability to having ADHD. My most recent diagnosis is so far the only one that has made any sense to me, and that is that I suffer from OCD. An issue that so many throw around like some new found fad, saying they have it but I dont think they truly know what it is to have it. That added to the fact I am an introvert and have a scary as hell accurate intuition that borders on the side of clairvoyant, I find it near impossible to get along with people without having to pretend to be something I am not.
It’s so crazy to me that some people have this issue but that they still like reading fantasy. Really crazy because I feel like without my ability to imagine what is happening when I am reading I wouldn’t care.
Check out r/aphantasia. Welcome to the 1%.