Do you have a movie playing out in your head when writing a story?

[BlackKnightX]

There are many ways to tell a story. For me, my first and natural instinct will always be visualizing or imagining the movie scene in my head and then writing it down—or telling it with an engaging voice. “Watch the movie in my head and tell the story,” that’s the best way to describe how I write.

But I also noticed that some authors write in a way that’s more of an oral storytelling kind of way. Like, you sitting down on a chair, looking straight at your audience, and then telling them a story—recounting your life experience or telling jokes and funny anecdotes like a stand-up comedian.

Some only see texts and think of telling stories as simply relaying information.

There seems to be many ways to tell a story. The different styles and techniques always fascinate me.

What about you? How do you usually write? Do you imagine a movie in your head and weave it into narrative like I do, or are you telling it like oral storytelling? Or maybe you have your own unique styles? Please, broaden my horizon.

 

[Linko]

It depends on the mood, I guess. Sometimes I imagine the entire scene anime style happening in my mind, other times I only feel that I'm not good enough and that the scene will end up being bad.

 

[BlackKnightX]

It depends on the mood, I guess. Sometimes I imagine the entire scene anime style happening in my mind, other times I only feel that I'm not good enough and that the scene will end up being bad.

When I wrote my first story, I also imagined it as an anime as well. Seems like the most obvious thing to do at the time.

 

[PurpleCatGirl]

yeah we see it play out in our head. sometimes we feel less like we're creating a story & more like we're documenting events we've witnessed.

 

[BlackKnightX]

yeah we see it play out in our head. sometimes we feel less like we're creating a story & more like we're documenting events we've witnessed.

I was guilty of this as well. My very first attempt at writing a story ended up being just a boring report of what I saw in my head. Though, with time and more reading, it gets better and more nuanced.

 

[SailusGebel]

Depends on the scene that I'm depicting. I try to act out as my characters as I even replicate some moves\mannerism. I let the story write itself. And sometimes, I do envision the scene as a whole, as a movie, and write it down. But usually, it's a combination of everything I mentioned in different proportions.

 

[PurpleCatGirl]

I was guilty of this as well. My very first attempt at writing a story ended up being just a boring report of what I saw in my head. Though, with time and more reading, it gets better and more nuanced.

yeah we don't just like post stories as a bland report, we turn them into prose. but they start as scenes that play out in our head while we just observe & document the action.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

It's kind of like watching a show but sometimes I'm acting out the entire scene and then writing it all down. If I forgot something then I'm probably never going to remember it again. For some reason though, whether the scene is anime, painted, or live-action is dependent entirely on what kind of scene it is. Action and romance scenes are anime, romance scenes are watercolor or Rennaissance style paintings, and horror or mysteries are live-action.

 

[Bartun]

More than watching a movie, it's more like 4 anime seasons. I try to mix it with "grandpa sitting down in a chair and telling his story" because there are things that you can visualize but can't convey in a meaningful way.

 

[BlackKnightX]

More than watching a movie, it's more like 4 anime seasons. I try to mix it with "grandpa sitting down in a chair and telling his story" because there are things that you can visualize but can't convey in a meaningful way.

That’s how I do it currently. I watch the movie play out in my head and then let the narrative carry the readers along. The narrative voice is very important, in my opinion.

 

[Sabruness]

both, at different times.

 

[Maze_Runner]

There are many ways to tell a story. For me, my first and natural instinct will always be visualizing or imagining the movie scene in my head and then writing it down—or telling it with an engaging voice. “Watch the movie in my head and tell the story,” that’s the best way to describe how I write.

But I also noticed that some authors write in a way that’s more of an oral storytelling kind of way. Like, you sitting down on a chair, looking straight at your audience, and then telling them a story—recounting your life experience or telling jokes and funny anecdotes like a stand-up comedian.

Some only see texts and think of telling stories as simply relaying information.

There seems to be many ways to tell a story. The different styles and techniques always fascinate me.

What about you? How do you usually write? Do you imagine a movie in your head and weave it into narrative like I do, or are you telling it like oral storytelling? Or maybe you have your own unique styles? Please, broaden my horizon.

I imagine my characters looking anime like when planning how they're going to look

 

[NotaNuffian]

Yeah it is always a moving picture.

But then during editing it will be a chore when I am not built for depicting moving pictures. So nowadays I try to imagine it as manga, with freeze frames of important bits that I can leverage from and using vague enough words for the readers (mainly future me) to understand what I am saying but not too much to lock them on one spot in imagination or even have weird sentences jutting out.

 

[Zouly]

I'm not sure how much this has to do with what your talking about, but the movie in your head versus oral storytelling probably has to do with things like aphantasia. There's a great video that explains what that is right here if you don't know (and I personally think it helps you understand individuals better if you know that this is just how some people are).

 

[BlackKnightX]

I'm not sure how much this has to do with what your talking about, but the movie in your head versus oral storytelling probably has to do with things like aphantasia. There's a great video that explains what that is right here if you don't know (and I personally think it helps you understand individuals better if you know that this is just how some people are).

I know what Aphantasia is. People with Aphantasia feel things when they read. They don’t see; they feel. A highly visual story can still be fun for them, though—although they can’t see, they’re still able to grasp the concept and comprehend the story. Or at least that’s what I heard from most people with such a condition. At the end of the day, it all depends on the voice of the storyteller and the readability of the prose, I think.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Yes, and sometimes I play several different version of the movie in my head before I decide which path to take.

 

[DubstheDuke]

Most of the time yes, I think the only time that isn't the case is when I have sections focused more on narration or sections of heavy dialogue where there are just some people sitting and talking, in which case I focus much more on the actual content of the dialogue. That isn't to say I don't have actions weaved in between to balance things out, but when I want to focus on an interaction I usually focus on the content unless the actions have some sort of meaning to them.

 

[Lloyd]

Yes

 

[LilTV1155]

Always

 

[BlackKnightX]

Most of the time yes, I think the only time that isn't the case is when I have sections focused more on narration or sections of heavy dialogue where there are just some people sitting and talking, in which case I focus much more on the actual content of the dialogue. That isn't to say I don't have actions weaved in between to balance things out, but when I want to focus on an interaction I usually focus on the content unless the actions have some sort of meaning to them.

I know what you mean. It’s like a story within a story, I guess. Like, when two guys are just sitting, having some teas, and telling each other stories. You’d be focusing more on the conversations.