When you’re writing, what do you see in your mind’s eye?
I think I have two perspectives while I write. When I’m writing a scene, it’s like a helicopter view. I’m above the scene and seeing things from an elevated position. But what I’m seeing is what the characters are doing. I’m not necessarily seeing other things that are there or nearby. My attention is focused entirely on the characters.
When I’m writing dialogue, I’m standing in the middle of the people talking. But the weird thing is that I don’t actually see their faces. I’m looking at their chests or torsos. And I’m pretty close up. Again, this means that I’m not really seeing the environment they are in while they talk.
I wonder if this is why I struggle so much with description and providing details of the environment when I write.
For a few years, I attended a monthly writing workshop led by Zoe Kiethley. A lot of her exercises were designed to get the writer outside of that narrowly-focused perspective and see and hear and smell and touch other elements of the scenes in which our stories take place.
Unfortunately, she is no longer offering those workshops and I feel like that has significantly and adversely affected my story telling. I really need to get back to seeing the big picture as I write a story. To take the time to focus on the details that may not be apparent, but can help establish the context and environment the characters are in.
So … what do you see when you’re writing?
Writers Supporting Writers 
Hovering, director like, sight through characters eyes, fade back to scene, valley, sea, planet. Zoom in to hands working at a campfire, spitting a fish, gazing through the flames.
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When I write in first person, I see and feel whatever the character sees and feels. When in third, I am somewhere above, seeing everything.
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Hovering, director like … that’s how I feel while I’m writing.
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I often write in first person, so I see what that character sees. Sometimes I zoom out for a better look at the surroundings. When I write dialogue, unless there’s a lot of action at the same time, it’s as though I’m transcribing what the characters say. Sometimes I go back and insert a few actions, as per advice to avoid “talking heads” (but really, if the heads are saying interesting stuff it’s not really necessary).
The hardest thing for me is to figure out how the different parts of buildings or places relate to one another so I can refer to them in such a way that readers don’t get confused.
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Down there with the characters normally. They let me get into their heads and hearts, and allow me to watch and listen.
Meanwhile I wonder how the heck I’m going to get whatever they are doing into the general plot.
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Describe less is my way. Yes, do the basics and give enough to inform but then let the reader do the rest and then the story becomes as much theirs as it was yours.
I always remember a review from one particular reader who described some things he thought I’d written but I hadn’t, he had simply does what the human mind does best and had seen it all through his own imagination and had enjoyed the story more for doing that.
A whole page to describe a knife and fork is pointless and boring for the readers.
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Absolutely. I firmly believe in leaving a lot of the details to the reader’s imagination.
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Oddly, I haven’t got a clue as to what I see when I write. I just put the words down in a way that feels right to me. Sometimes it’s all internal speculation on the character’s part. Sometimes the visual context is important and I describe the scene … Just whatever feels right and necessary.
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It’s always a strong character image creeping into my mind that starts me off writing. Dixon Cragg appeared as an old man in a spacesuit. The face in the helmet is of actor David Jason of only fools and horses. Probably explains the humour in the book.
“what the heck…?” I asked myself.
As usual I ignored it, letting my subconscious sort it out. Sure enough six months later the story was demanding attention. Last Flight for Craggy eventually emerged and was foisted upon an unsuspecting world. Fourteen years later it is still being read and generally liked.
In my latest venture I must have been in a bad mood as I saw the Earth blowing up. Half way through that one and I’m getting back into writing zone to finish it.
If ever you “see” an image like that, pay attention, let it fester awhile and go for it. Works for me.
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Love this description.
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I can’t construct a clear picture of anything in my mind. I can’t really “see” anything I write, be it characters or setting. So for most of my characters I just give a couple general attributes to them when I introduce them, and leave it at that. I sometimes include the clothes they’re wearing, if I think it is important. I also don’t see the scenes I write. I know what should be there and pick out concrete things to describe and leave it up to the reader to fill in all the blanks.
I dislike writing, and reading, extended action scenes because I can’t picture them. I avoid them when I’m writing, and skim read them when I’m reading.
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It honestly amazes me that you can write so vividly with that being the case. I don’t know how you do it. :O
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I find that there is a difference between knowing what something looks like, and seeing it as an image. I know what I want and/or should be in a setting or scene, so it’s just a matter of assembling suggestive elements of that scene, piece by piece. I never get more than an impression of any scene. The thing is that you don’t miss what you’ve never known, so I’m comfortable with the way that works.
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I picture what I’m writing like it’s a scene in a movie. I basically picture everything, although I describe almost none of it.
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I see so little.
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I can only wonder what it’s like… Well, I actually have an idea, since I know that I can see scenes in my dreams – I just can’t see them when I wake up. Weird.
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I have probably been affected by watching too many movies. Almost any passage I can think of has been written as if I were watching a movie. Sometimes this is like a dialog scene where the environ has been established by a wider shot, then proceeds to a back and forth, occasionally back to the environ as people move (classic 3-camera). Sometimes it’s a scenery shot from a person’s point of view then flips back to focus on the person.
It’s hard for me to think of anything I’ve written which wasn’t like watching a movie in my mind.
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Me, too, with the movie aspect. I write in first person and the picture in my mind is like watching a movie. I simply write what I see in my “movie.”
I was worried there for a while that this was a freaky thing, but I felt better when I found other writers did this as well.
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