I read an article recently talking about an illustrator who lost the ability to visualize what he was supposed to be drawing–for him, it happened after he went back to work from a three-week bout of COVID.
Going through the article, I learned a new word: aphantasia.
It means the inability to visualize images in your mind.
I found out that most people are able to “see” imagined images.
Now I have heard all my life about the “mind’s eye”–where you can recall how a person looks or imagine a scene in your mind to relax. I’ve read a lot of literature talking about visualization–imagining the outcome you want, and that imagining preparing you for various scenarios, such a public speaking, etc.
I never knew, however, that most people, when closing their eyes and being asked to visualize something, ACTUALLY SEE SOMETHING. This bit of knowledge was surprising because–
All I see are the backs of my eyelids.
I don’t see ANYTHING when I try to visualize. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
Why am I talking about this? Well, it seems that most writers do a bang-up job imagining people, places, and things and are then able to narrate what they see in their mind’s eye, describing their characters, settings, and action.
I have always been told my writing is missing that kind of description. It was something I worked hard to try to do in my writing for graduate school for my MFA, something I tried to learn as a matter of craft.
But now I know it’s a case of my brain, again, being different from other writers’ brains.
I’ve been chewing this insight over for a while.
And right now, I am in a bit of despair about it.
Do I need to give up fiction? And on the hope of succeeding with my fiction? Are readers now so addicted to visual stimuli that if I can’t do this thing, I don’t have a writing future?
What should I do?
Julie Liddell Whitehead 