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Can you all see me? Can you all... hear me.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason Byrne
  • Start date Start date

When you read, do you "see" and "hear" what is described therein?

  • Both see and hear what is described

    Votes: 11 84.6%

  • See only

    Votes: 2 15.4%

  • Hear only

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Neither see nor hear; it's just words on a page

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    13
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J

Jason Byrne

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MontanaMan65 said:
Writers have to be crazy. They listen to the voices inside their head.
Click to expand...

MontanaMan's post got me to thinking: I've talked to some people who have said — myself included here — that when they read or write, they "see" and "hear" what is described in the words upon the page. Other people have told me they neither see nor hear anything, and cannot fathom what I'm talking about; it's just words written on a piece of paper, however well-written it might be.

I wonder — how many of you see and hear the "movie," when you're reading and/or writing? How many see only the words before you? For my part, when I read I almost see what is described more tangibly than the book in front of me, though not with my eyes. I hear each character's voice differently, though not with my ears.
 
When I read, I see the words on the page and hear my own inner voice reading them,
I can sometimes imagine what the characters look like and the scenery around them, I even give them voices according to the writers description.
When I write, everything plays out in my mind, like a movie and I try to capture the image for the reader, I need to work on my own descriptive voice though.
 
Same with me! When I read, I "feel" I am there; "hearing" the voices of the characters, "seeing" what is described. I can get totally immersed if it something well written. It does make me a "slow reader", but I get a lot out of it. If something I read doesn't immerse me, then I tend to not like it as well. I have read some books that are just "words on a page" (try reading a book on programming... saying it's dull is understating it!) and I get less from it. Maybe I'm just "strange", but as a writer, I'll have entire conversations with my characters (in my head, of course).
 
As a visual learner I definitely see it like a movie. My auditory senses are not always up to standard unfortunately that's why when someone explains something to me I have to imagine it or if I am introduced to someone I will ask for the spelling to etch it in my memory.
 
Jennifer Stone said:
When I read, I see the words on the page and hear my own inner voice reading them,
I can sometimes imagine what the characters look like and the scenery around them, I even give them voices according to the writers description.
When I write, everything plays out in my mind, like a movie and I try to capture the image for the reader, I need to work on my own descriptive voice though.
Click to expand...
Do you compile songs from movies to make a "soundtrack" of your book? That's something I do, as well — pick a song that's just right for a scene, and play it while I'm writing it, so my movie has a score!
 
MontanaMan65 said:
Same with me! When I read, I "feel" I am there; "hearing" the voices of the characters, "seeing" what is described. I can get totally immersed if it something well written. It does make me a "slow reader", but I get a lot out of it. If something I read doesn't immerse me, then I tend to not like it as well. I have read some books that are just "words on a page" (try reading a book on programming... saying it's dull is understating it!) and I get less from it. Maybe I'm just "strange", but as a writer, I'll have entire conversations with my characters (in my head, of course).
Click to expand...
Yep — it takes me for ever to read too, but what a ride.
 
Jason Byrne said:
Do you compile songs from movies to make a "soundtrack" of your book? That's something I do, as well — pick a song that's just right for a scene, and play it while I'm writing it, so my movie has a score!
Click to expand...

Not in that sense, sometimes I listen to music as I write but it's more for background noise or to create atmosphere, like heavy metal for a battle scene. I can't usually pick out what's going to happen until my fingers start their journey, unless it's a scene I planned on putting there from the beginning. In my second book, there's a murder, and I refrained from writing it until I had the right frame of mind, for fear of rushing and ruining the scene. I listened to some 80's power ballads for that one!
 
Jason Byrne said:
Yep — it takes me for ever to read too, but what a ride.
Click to expand...
Yup! Many years ago, when Star Wars came out (the first episode IV), I was writing something on my typewriter and had the Star Wars album playing. I found it hard to read unless I was playing the same soundtrack. To me, that seems... excessive, so I try not to do that anymore.
 
Jennifer Stone said:
Not in that sense, sometimes I listen to music as I write but it's more for background noise or to create atmosphere, like heavy metal for a battle scene. I can't usually pick out what's going to happen until my fingers start their journey, unless it's a scene I planned on putting there from the beginning. In my second book, there's a murder, and I refrained from writing it until I had the right frame of mind, for fear of rushing and ruining the scene. I listened to some 80's power ballads for that one!
Click to expand...
EXACTLY! I'm so glad to hear it.
 
I'll find that
MontanaMan65 said:
Yup! Many years ago, when Star Wars came out (the first episode IV), I was writing something on my typewriter and had the Star Wars album playing. I found it hard to read unless I was playing the same soundtrack. To me, that seems... excessive, so I try not to do that anymore.
Click to expand...
I'll find that listening to a particular album will suddenly immerse me in the point of the story I was writing when I listened to it. Snow Patrol's Up to Now does that every time. The song replays the movie of that part of the book, even if I'm in the car driving to work or something.
 
The reason I said writers are "crazy" is that in Psychiatric circles, hearing "voices" is not a good thing. Besides, my characters are the only ones who understand me (lol). I even have a patch on my vest... "Are the voices in my head bothering you?"
 
MontanaMan65 said:
The reason I said writers are "crazy" is that in Psychiatric circles, hearing "voices" is not a good thing. Besides, my characters are the only ones who understand me (lol). I even have a patch on my vest... "Are the voices in my head bothering you?"
Click to expand...
At least we don't do what the voices tell us to — we just draw strength from them.
 
MontanaMan65 said:
The reason I said writers are "crazy" is that in Psychiatric circles, hearing "voices" is not a good thing. Besides, my characters are the only ones who understand me (lol). I even have a patch on my vest... "Are the voices in my head bothering you?"
Click to expand...

At least we commit the ramblings in our heads to paper/screen, instead of out 'there' in the real world.
 
Yeah, all the violent acts we portray are on paper only. I think it comes from the isolation writers tend to have (Stephen King used to write late at night after everyone else in the house went to bed). Isolation can make you "crazy", too.
 
As per the patch I mentioned, if someone is hearing the voices inside my head, they have a lot more "issues" than I do :)
 
It's when my characters start writing their own dialogue that I know they are 'real'. Sometimes I toss something into the mix and almost duck as I know a tirade or cutting sarcasm will be coming back.
 
Once in a while you'll miss the mark, and you almost get a feeling that they're like, "Dude, I would never say that."
 
When I read I see the words and hear my own voice reading them. If i am reading something that I get engrossed in, my voice fades away and I see it like a movie in my head. When I write, I always see it like a movie in my head.
 
...which is partly why I wrote a movie. Not an easy place to break into as a newbie, I found.
 
Last edited:
Or you find yourself talking with the voice of one of them.

Sometimes, Tyler would talk for me. I fell down some stairs.
"I fell down some stairs."
 
lol... I have to chuckle... this thread has turned into quite the conversation!

I hear my characters all the time... and they have their own 'sound' of their voice. It's not my voice trying to speak for them...
Do you "see" landscapes that you create? I "hear" the winds and "feel" the dampness in the air before a rain... as I'm writing it. Also "see" the trees and other landscape features.
 
Don't know if any of you have read Stephen King's "Gunslinger" series, but in one of them, the characters come to see him... so I know it happens more than some will admit to.
 
AliG said:
It's brilliant- only on a writers forum would voices inside your head be usual; encouraged even.
Click to expand...
For me, how can I make something believable to a reader if I can't see and hear the characters, as if they are real?
 
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