Aphantasia

Though I do not say outright that the protagonist of my Cully Beach novels, Ted ‘Shaper’ Carrol, has aphantasia, I do hint at it. When called upon to describe a suspect he saw, he needs to recall the face in words he memorized at the time, rather than actually visualizing the man’s appearance. That, he can not accurately do.

But, if he describes the man to himself when he sees him, that can also be accurate (and may even help bring up some visual memories later). Ted is basically making a sketch from words when he remembers someone. An actual artistic sketch would work as well, should one have the time for it.

Aphantasia, of course, is not an either/or thing; people can and do have it to varying degrees. I’m not at all good at visualizing myself (which is surprisingly common among artists — they see what is before them rather than some previous mental construct). That can probably be seen in the relatively sparse descriptive language in my fiction. And I do tend to skim over over writers’ descriptions, as I don’t really visualize much from their words.

And I do not describe a ‘movie in my head,’ as some writers (quite a few actually) say. I’ve never seen a movie in my head. More like vague sketches. Words come first for me; I build my descriptions or scenes from them. Which is also the way to write poetry (or songs), at least for me. The words lead me along until I discover what they are about.