Writers See Things Differently

For a long time, I didn't really understand that. My own writing experience has always been an incredibly descriptive one. And I do mean descriptive to a fault. My early years of Mary Sue style self-insert fanfiction contained less story and more details about exactly what kind of dress my elven princess was wearing. Even today, I often catch myself being too heavy handed in my descriptions. So it always surprised me when I spoke with authors who struggled with their descriptions. But how? You write! You write beautifully! How could you say that description doesn't come easily to you?

What I found is that I really do see my story differently from some writers. I fall into a camp of readers and writers who are very visual. When I read, I'm not just reading words on a page. I'm constructing the entire scene into a mental image. If there's a detail that the author hasn't given me, I fill it in myself. And I know that a lot of people do this when they read to varying degrees, but I've gone so far as to be annoyed when a story suddenly throws in directional cues that don't match what I've already created. And the same holds true for my writing. If I'm writing a scene in my main character's bedroom, I know exactly what it looks like. I know where all the doors are and which walls have windows and how the furniture is arranged inside of it. It's not a conscious thing that I sit down and map out, it's just something that I inherently know when I start writing.

A panelist at ConCarolinas this year (and I hate that I forgot to write down who!) said "I see my stories like a movie in my head, and then I just try to write down what's happening." And that spoke to me because nobody else had ever put into words before how I write. But this also means that I'm a writer who gets easily caught up with trying to describe too much. It's often times difficult for me to determine when I've crossed over from setting up the scene to just overwhelming my story with superfluous details. And while it may be easy for me to "paint the picture," I find that I struggle the most with tying all those pictures together into a cohesive plot.

But that's definitely not true for all writers. I know a lot of amazing writers who don't have the same vivid mental imagery that I do - sometimes not when they read or write. And the beauty of writing is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. We're hardwired differently so we write differently. That gives us the opportunity to learn from each other. I know writers who say that they struggle with description but plot and story cohesion come naturally to them. They can see where their story needs to go and a lot of the important points that they need to hit along the way.

"We're hardwired differently so we write differently. That gives us the opportunity to learn from each other." - tweet this!

My advice is to start by figuring out what kind of a writer you are. Are you heavily visual and bogged down with description like I am? Or do you find your descriptions to be a struggle but your plot line is rock solid? Or maybe you struggle and excel in different areas. If you aren't sure, go back and re-read some of your writing or take a minute to think about what frustrates you the most about what you're currently working on. Once you know what comes easily to you and what doesn't, you can start reaching out to other writers to exchange tips or to give you feedback on your work specific to the areas you need help with.

But before you do that, tell me! Do you have an overwhelming mental vision of what you read and write, too, or is that something you have to work for?