Current Project: The Space Between (still not sure about the title. Argh!)Status: Making slow, but inexorable progress...
I have a book inside my head.
Except, that's not exactly true.
What I really have in my head are images. I don't claim to have an eidetic memory, but I've always been a visual learner. I remember being able to bring up images of pages of notes in my head during tests in school, like looking at a photograph (not so much as I've gotten older, but that's a post for another day). Still, I've always seen vivid images in my head while reading books, and experienced vivid dreams while asleep. Now it seems the same is true when creating a novel. I suppose that isn't so surprising, since what is writing but a formalized way to play make-believe--and I was always great at "seeing" the wooly mammoth I used to hunt in the backyard when I was a kid.
Some of the images in my head are still-frame photos; snapshots in time of characters or places or things. Others are more like movie clips. Not a complete movie, heck, not even always a complete scene, but lengths of film where there's movement--sometimes action, sometimes dialogue, sometimes just characters moving through a setting. The images are always incredibly rich and detailed, with color and lighting that fit the mood.My challenge? Getting those richly textured visual images out of my head and down on paper into dry, dusty words without losing anything in the process. Sometimes I feel I'm more of a translator than a writer. Only, instead of translating from one language to another and hoping that I've captured the essence of the text, I'm trying to translate from one medium to another and praying I've retained the vividness--the Life--of what I see in my head.
Well. That was a (scary?) look inside my head. What about you? Do you "see" your story? Or is your creative process somewhat different? Inquiring minds want to know!
13 comments:
I see the same thing, Debbie. Scenes, snippets, snapshots of my books/characters as if from a movie. To me it's very natural. And it often surprises me when writers say this, like it's uncommon. Is it uncommon? I thought that's the way it worked. But then again...until I started writing, I thought EVERYONE heard voices in their heads and made up stories while they were driving to and from work.
Hi, Elisabeth! Good to know I'm not alone. :-)
Actually, I sort of expect most writers to say this is how they experience their stories. But if someone has a different experience, I'd love to hear it. Sort of like the different approaches we all take--plotting vs. seat-of-the-pants.
It surprised me, too, the first time I realized that other people didn't have characters and stories in their heads all the time. What do they think about? LOL
LOL, Debbie. I wonder the same thing!! Whenever I catch my hubby staring off into space, I wonder, "What is he thinking about?" I KNOW he's not plotting stories or listening to characters chatting away.
Then again...maybe I don't WANT to know what he's thinking. LOL
Hi, Debbie!
This is interesting. I've envied other writers who say they have entire books play inside their heads like a movie and all they have to do is write down what they see. Though it doesn't sound like you have it that easy, darn it!
I guess I'd never thought much about it, but I have lots of voices in my head or maybe see a snapshot or a short snippet of a story in my head, but generally no lengthy, vivid images. That might be something I could develop so I have storyboards inside my head instead all over my wall.
Interesting!
I'm with you Debbie, although mine are more like old snippets of black and white movies with little of the cinematic full color detail you experience. It's the action I see and also the emotions they engender. Gut wrenching sometimes -- I wrote a short story once where a child is missing and presumed drowned in a lake near his home. Boats are dragging the lake, it's getting dark, his mother is standing on the shore, inconsolable and alone waiting, waiting --- it's the emotion that always seems to add the substance to the flickering images and that directs the form of the action in writing.
What I always wonder about with non artist types is what they do with the things they see. How do they process information? How do they reconcile loss or share joy? What about a wonderful overheard conversation or a glorious sunrise? I'm shaking my head. I don't know how they do it.
Neat post. I like a glimpse inside another writer's head!
Debbie, I don't have scenes play out in pictures. I'll have dialogs between characters play in my head. So more than pictures I have conversations going on in my head between characters. And usually just the hero and heroine. But it will be a whole scene worth of conversation. YEESH! Is that worse than the whole scene? Just voices?
And lots of times those scenes don't even get into the book. They are just the characters and me getting to know each other.
You know when I ask my husband what he's thinking he says, "Nothing." It must be lonely in his head!
Great post, Debbie.
Like you, I'm a vivid dreamer. I see wonderful creations when I dream, like entire solar systems filled with myriads of colored planets and moons and stars. I fly in my dreams, can run fast, and sometimes I slice the heads off of evil creatures with a broadsword. I love dreaming. I also see my stories that I want to write like they are real images in front of me. I totally get what you are saying about having the images of your book inside your head and trying to get them out and onto paper. UGH!
What I think is this... Practice, practice, practice. We just have to practice writing down what we're seeing in our minds and keep writing it until it sounds great, makes sense, and people beg to read more. :)
Like you and Eli have said, I, too, always thought people's brains worked and thought like mine. It was and a total shock to learn the truth. Other people's minds are BORING!!! LOL
Thanks for the "scary" look inside your head. We're pretty much right there with ya, baby! *wink*
Genene, if I could corral the images in my head into a coherent storyboard, I'd be in heaven! :-)
Alice, I love the fact that your images are in black and white. It almost sounds like being inside a Noir film. How appropriate for a suspense writer! :-)
Paty, mostly I get images, but sometimes I just hear the character's voices, too. Man, it can get noisy inside my head at times! LOL
It's reassuring to be in such good company, Piper! :-)
You're right about the practice. The more I write--I won't say the easier it gets, but--I find I don't have to search quite so hard for the right words.
I'm more like Paty--I just hear voices but they are LOUD. I get the dialogue and then I have to piece the rest together--where are they having this conversation, etc. Sometimes, it plays like a movie in my head, but more often it's like an audio book :)
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