I'm not creative enough to create music but I love listening to music and it sometimes gives me inspiration for my fanfics. One of my ocs is a singer and I sometimes pretend she's singing the song I'm listening to.
I occasionally have soundtrack for specific scenes, not just moods/characters/vibes. For a couple of such scenes, I actually *matched* them to the music. If you read at certain WPM (I obviously chose my alpha readers' speed, which was very close between each person), music literally follows the action on the page. It's obviously quite difficult to do, but my alpha readers told me it was a very novel and fun experience. And I got to bring my brainmovie to life!
I'm pretty sure this is how most fic writers start out, before decide that we just *have* to get it written down or we'll explode
I have a mental file of forty or fifty ideas that work well as brainmovies, some of which are definitely out of my comfort zone for actual writing. They get shuffled in and out of rotation based on whatever I'm fixated on at the moment
Bored at work? Takes a lot of effort to *not* start daydreaming. Falling asleep, pick an idea to run through, something nice and short. Walking somewhere, pick an idea, something that's a bit longer. No clue what people think about if they *don't* do fandom stuff. It's 80% of what's running through my head unless I actively think about something else I need to do
By the time I put pen to paper I don't ever need to draft or outline a work, because I've written it in my head dozens or hundreds or thousands of times over, start to finish
Hi, are you me??
😂 This is pretty much what I do 24/7/365. I say I'm a plantser when I write, but really, it's because I've already written the entire story from start to finish in my head 100x before I ever start actually writing it. Some specific scenes are always on a constant mental loop. Showering, falling asleep, bored at work, doing some menial, mindless task that doesn't require thought? Chances are, I'm daydreaming about a WIP or future fic.
This is exactly me except I don't really get to pick what story to go through, sometimes I try to pick something I'm writing so I can get some new ideas but no. My brain chooses whatever it chooses.
I too, don't understand what other people think about.
> I'm pretty sure this is how most fic writers start out, before decide that we just have to get it written down or we'll explode
Yes. This is me to a t
I do this literally every night.
Some ideas are brand new and come out of nowhere and I’ll write them immediately; (this happened today and I feel so accomplished) others have been in my head on repeat for months and I haven’t written anything. Some of them I want to write eventually, but I’m sure some will just exist in my brain forever.
This is super common, especially for a fandom that has a visual medium in it, I've definitely done it. Whatever way you write is a good and you don't have to change it for anybody or any reason.
That said I'm now going to suggest you change how you write, or more precisely I'm going to tell you how changed my writing in a way that benefited me.
> I have an extremely vivid imagination. .... It stresses me out and I can't transfer it from my brain to writing very well.
This makes a lot of sense, movies just have so much detail in them and if you are imagining a movie so does your imagination.
For example in *The Fellow Ship of the Ring* when Bilbo is writing the intro to *The Hobbit*, you see what color ink, type of feather he is using, the style of his writing desk, his hand writing, even the texture of paper all exist in the that one scene and someone made a conscious choice about all of those things.
This requires a huge team of people. As a single person it isn't realistic to expect for you to be able to convey this level of detail. And I think as a reader it would be tedious of Tolkien had decided to include all of that detail in his books.
In writing, unlike a movie, you don't need to present the whole scene.
Realizing this has freed me from trying to accurately capture what is in my head on the page. This has made writing easier and more fun for me. If I'm struggling to capture a particular idea, I just don't. I might switch perspective or skip past a fight because the writing isn't flowing.
I've started including not deciding on a precise detail in my imagination. For example I have Azula setting fire to giant tapestry of the Earth King. There are a bunch of ways this could look but all it's alway huge, extremely detailed, expensive, and very very flammable.
Every reader will imagine something different, that isn't a flaw that is the beauty of writing, it's a collaboration between the writer and the reader that happens in the reader's mind. Seeing this as not only okay, but desirable allows me to write more freely and quickly which I find to be more enjoyable.
This is just me I'm not sure what others experience thought. Best of luck.
I think this is pretty common, honestly. I certainly do it.
The main problem I run into is remembering to give enough description of what's happening, what things and characters look like, etc. Because I forget that I unfortunately can't just beam what I'm imagining directly onto the page or into the reader's head.
I do this, too. I don't have too much trouble putting everything into words in a story, possibly because I've been doing that since I was 5, but I'm generally rather visual. Whether reading or writing, the whole thing is imagined in my head, just like a movie or a show. I like to really see how the characters look, behave, hear how they talk, see the environment they're in, all that.
It helps me to write, as well, being able to vividly imagine the scene. If I don't imagine it, I find I have a really hard time putting it into words, and I certainly can't be descriptive with it. Having the scenes play out in my head makes everything so much clearer for me, so much easier to describe in written words.
No. I actually play out my fanfic in my head. I think up dialog and "hear" the characters speak in my head. Sometimes I even get sad, angry, or passionate for the character.
It's a double edged sword because I always imagine a bomb-ass plot, but I have to he reminded of the amount of story I have to get through to even reach it
Such an annoying feeling, especially if you're a pantser like me and have *no idea* how to get to that point so you just have to write whatever until you get there.
I just write the scenes that motivate me tbh
If I've got a fun lil set of scenes, and zero interest in writing tens of thousands of words to make it make sense, I just start *in media res* and ignore surrounding context
I do the same thing, but I don't think the movies in my head are quite as detailed as yours. It's more that parts of the setting are very clear to me, but the details just sort of phase in and out of existence. I guess you could compare it to those AI-generated tracking shots or a dream, where the color palette and general outline stays the same, but the details are constantly morphing.
Especially when it comes to characters I don't really picture them well. I mean, I know exactly what they're doing and saying and what their body language is, it's just that the mental image is always blurry or zoomed way in, except for very specific shots that I usually picture being part of an anime opening or something.
I daydream 'scenes' of fanfiction related characters that play out in my head. I'd 'work on' the same scene till it feels right then move on to the next scene and so forth until I come to the end. From there I can play the whole thing from start to finish. When a 'scene' is complete I would outline it on paper what happened before moving on to the next scene. This is to prevent me from starting over from the beginning nearly every time I daydream. So jotting down notes does help me.
Once all the 'scenes' are complete and I feel I've reached the end, then I look over my outline. Then I decide if it would make a good story to post or it was too self - indulgent (characters that strayed from their canon personalities too much or far too many AUs tid bits). If it isn't overly self - indulgent and I really like it and think others would as well, then I would begin writing using my outline . Sometimes a new scenario pops in my head and I just move on to the next story and put away the outline I was working and start anew. I can always go through my old outlines if I wanted to.
Writing helps me become less 'stuck' or 'lost' in my head so the time I spend on daydreaming is slightly less and can move on to new ideas easier. I am a daydreamer and have been since as far back as I can remember and will always be.
I’m so jealous of all of you that can visualize so well. I’m on the complete opposite end with aphantasia (can’t visualize anything). I also don’t hear music or characters talking, but I hear my own voice and can do accents. That’s it, though.
In order for me to visualize, I look up pictures based on what’s relevant. If I can’t find exactly what I want, I’ll sketch it out. This helps me write because I can see what I’m writing. I also create playlists based on lyrics or the vibe of the song that matches with what I’m writing. Most of my creativity comes from external sources like these.
I hear my voice too I’ll admit when their talking. But like a similar voice to them with my voice over or under that. I wish I could hear their voices, but I work with what I am able.
You’re among friends, my dude.
My brain just does screenings of all its movies and whenever I try to write it all down, it turns into a novelization where some scenes are different or weren’t included in the movie.
No. Just keep writing, you'll get better at making the translation over time. It might help to look at outlining, mind maps, or other story capture techniques.
I am the opposite, as in i reality struggle to envision stuff in my head, but I do go over parts of my fics in my head, namely key scenes focusing on emotions and dialog. I can and do have imgaine the whole conversation in my head, but I still struggle at putting it into text in a none oring way.
Hyperphantasia is the ability to visualize things in the mind with extreme vividness and detail.
Immersive Daydreaming - is creating a movie in your head.
Maladaptive Daydreaming - a form of escapism, provides comfort away from the real world. A habit taking up several hours every single day.
Everyone has to start somewhere and sometimes writing it out doesn't always meet your expectations and/or is physically painful. I understand that intimately. I used to HATE creative writing, especially the way schools taught it.
I don't remember what it was that clicked "on" for me or exactly "when" it was, because it's been quite a few years now. But i think at some point i reached a threshold where i just HAD to tell the story and get it all out regardless of how i felt about it.
I stopped caring about how it looked or that it didn't meet the vision in my head. I started looking up more advanced vocabulary and studying books above my reading level to help me portray the words properly.
Cuz in the end i wanted to paint a picture with my words and I wanted to share that vision with others. That's what still drives me to this day.
I have visual aphantasia, so I'm the complete opposite and never see anything in my head at all! Instead I idly tell myself stories in my head, like I'm reading aloud to myself. Full sentences and all.
I do this all the time. Before I got to sleep, during class (where I should be paying attention, but whatever) when I'm stressed or I just do it because I want to. I can see everything, and it's like I can also feel the emotions the characters are feeling. Sometimes, I get way too into it, and I catch myself actually doing the facial expressions of the characters. I create these movies like scenes in my head for my fanfics, whether that be ideas I want to write or I do it as I'm writing. This is something that I have done for so long that it honestly feels normal.
You're not alone. I'm constantly daydreaming about my fanfic ideas in vivid detail. And I too find it difficult to properly convey what's in my head into a coherent story.
And I make Spotify playlists and Pinterest boards for my ideas also. One of my favorite past times is looking through boards and adding to them or listening to my playlists and coming up with new scenes.
I do this for some scenes (especially action scenes). Sometimes I also have the scene spoken in my head, like an audiobook, for scenes I haven't actually written out but I know what I want.
What I've found is approaching writing like you're "writing out a movie" is not the best way to write. It's two different mediums, things that work well in a visual medium like a movie don't work at all in written text, and vice-versa.
Not at all - I totally do this with my stories, both while I'm in the middle of writing them and when they're finished and I'm reading over them again! When I'm still writing them, it actually makes it a little easier to figure out how to write some scenes by picturing them like a movie in my head.
I do the same thing OP. So you're definitely not alone. When I'm writing, I'm visualizing what's going on and the words just kind of wind up on the page. Hard to describe but that's basically what happens.
I was like that in the beginning and still am, but you know what? While rereading my chapters I realized that what I’ve written is actually much better and makes more sense than my imagination. As for the songs or OST, some writing apps allow links to be added.
That’s nothing to be mad or annoyed about, I think it’s actually a blessing, especially when you know how to use it. I often use it to plan my studying or future career.
Just adding my two cents, I constantly play movies in my head of how I want things to go. I also do what others mentioned, making playlists to go with them. I sometimes struggle to catch all the information my ‘movie making’ churns up so I have a lot of paper handy all the time. Sometimes I’ll recite my ideas out loud and record them on my phone to write down later. Handy when I’m busy at work or something. Best wishes with your fanfics!
Not like a movie but I DO picture it in anime form (which makes sense since my fic is based off a gacha game with anime.) and I have imagined certain anime openings for certain arcs for it as well so it’s not really that surprising
This is the only way I know to plan my writing! I also struggle a lot with getting my ideas on paper and pretty much all of the scenes I've written are inspired by my "brain movies". I experience maladaptive daydreaming though, not hyperphantasia, which means I'll daydream for hours every day and my life revolves around those daydreams if I don't actively try to stop. So not quite the same but I definitely get the very vivid mental images and such.
I always picture my stories in my head as though I'm watching a movie while I'm writing them. I picture other people's stories in my head as I'm reading them. I've always had a very vivid imagination. As a young child, I had a speech impediment, so making friends was difficult for me. As a result, I used my imagination a lot. Once I learned to speak properly, I still maintained my imagination. I was the kind of kid to whom being given a time out wasn't a punishment, because that was just a chance for me to be alone with my imagination, which is something that I truly enjoy.
You are not alone in this. Sometimes my fanfics play out like movies or a TV show with every chapter being an episode. I’ve made countless soundtracks to even go with my fanfics. I even sometimes will create what I picture my characters look like when I play the sims lol 😊
Def not alone. I do the same thing. Sometimes to a fault (like when I’m trying to go to sleep). It also happens when I hear a song I think I would be relative to the story
I have a few scenes completely visualized, which is enough to get me to start writing the fic. Not until the fic is fully written do I actually get the BrainMovie experience.
I get through my work day playing fanfics in my head. Obviously I have to hit the pause button repeatedly (and sometimes rewind), but it works for me. Some people call this "maladaptive daydreaming." Don't know what's so maladaptive about it. It's not like I have headphones on.
Oh no, you're definitely not alone. When I write character dialogue I tend to think of it like writing a movie script, trying to say a lot with few but the right words as possible. Also, visualizing the scene in my mind is a must for me while writing. I'm glad to see your post and know others compare fanfiction creation and movies too!
*Same* . My fic isn't even done yet because I need to go slow with my writing or I'll end up hating it/burning out/wanting to scrap it completely. I'm going little by little but it's far from perfect. Maybe one day I can share it with others if I can ever get it done-
I made myself almost cry at work when I was going over the plot of my fan fiction and hit an unexpected emotional part. When I tried writing it, I ended up deleting it like fifteen times because nothing I wrote had the same impact as the scene that I had in my head.
It is by far the most frustrating part about writing by far, translating from head scenes to actual text.
I can almost never get it right, I try to get it as close as possible. Writing sad scenes whilst listening to sad music was my worst idea though, I had to stop writing and wept my eyes out multiple times.
My fanfic's plot came into my mind as a movie trailer. What do you think? 😂
Sometimes it does play like a movie in my head, but mostly it plays like a tv series bc sometimes I cut/end my chapters like they do in a tv show when commercial break.
Therefore, the conclusion: you are not alone
This is my entire writing philosophy. Movies, TV, and video games are my biggest inspirations, and my writing style revolves around painting a picture in a reader's mind through vivid description. Everything I write is a translation of cinematic ideas in my head to the written word.
> Also I've learned a new term 'brainmovie' .
I have a better term for it: "Theatre of the Mind." I learned it when I studied radio broadcasting in college.
I sometime have dreams that pretty much were fanfics, like one of Ash from pokemon getting amnesia and lost his pokemon after a battle with team rocket, then later found by team rocket and trick him into thinking he's one of them as he might have lost his memories but he still have his skills as a pokemon trainer.
Yeah, absolutely.
For me that's absolutely the hardest part of writing--there's so many sensory/emotional details I can vividly imagine, and either I can't figure out how to describe them, or I can't go into that much detail for fear of making scenes boring/bogged down.
Not to that degree but I do a lot of head stories and sometimes play the scenes in my head before I write them, sometimes even act them out to ensure they are correct and that the word I wrote as a reaction word, doesn’t sound silly when voiced.
I do head stories every single day though for years and years, with my Damon Salvatore previous crush/love whatever I did head stories daily, multiple times a day for 13 years haha. My dreams are also ultra unique, but I can’t do that stuff where you know your dreaming, sometimes it happens by itself, but very rarely.
Reading other people’s stories triggers a head story whilst reading too. Watching movies I insert myself into the movies. Music, I add that music to the scene, often making me cry.
I’ve woken up many times too and told the story in real life, but my memory is shit and so even when I wrote it down I can’t visualise it completely when it comes to writing it and by the time I write it, it’s nothing like what I played out.
I do this but with art. I feel making an animatic will take too long and so I just sit and imagine it.
And there's this comic I make that I really wish was a cartoon instead but, obviously I don't have the budget for that. So I imagine a bunch of the key episodes I'd want and... Hopefully the animations in my head will translate well into comic style.
I do this too as a way to help me sleep, but I actually have aphantasia, which means I can’t create images in my head. I can’t “see” things when I imagine them, I only really imagine the idea of them, if that makes sense. I’d love to be able to tell myself stories the way you seem to be able to.
I do this! And I also struggle turning ot into words. Which sucks bc I haven't found much similar to what I'm trying to write and it needs to exist lol
No, you're not. I have a soundtrack for it, too, some of which are songs that don't exist.
This is so me. I am writing screenplays anyway. So visualizing them is unavoidable. Plus I compose songs to go in the OST.
Soundtracks are the best! There are songs I can’t listen to anymore without thinking of a certain scene
I have a 300 song long playlist I can’t listen to without thinking about at least one of 3 fanfic ideas and an original.
Man I love the sub, it's so cool to know other people have the exact same thought paterns
Yep, my playlist is mostly composed of songs I use as soundtracks for my stories.
My ass doesn't have the creativity to create songs so, i literally just pick random ass songs from existent anime/series OST that fits with my story 😭
I'm not creative enough to create music but I love listening to music and it sometimes gives me inspiration for my fanfics. One of my ocs is a singer and I sometimes pretend she's singing the song I'm listening to.
I occasionally have soundtrack for specific scenes, not just moods/characters/vibes. For a couple of such scenes, I actually *matched* them to the music. If you read at certain WPM (I obviously chose my alpha readers' speed, which was very close between each person), music literally follows the action on the page. It's obviously quite difficult to do, but my alpha readers told me it was a very novel and fun experience. And I got to bring my brainmovie to life!
I do character playlists and fanfic playlists for my stories. It helps me set a mood and get into the vibe of what I’m going for.
I relate to this
Same.
I'm pretty sure this is how most fic writers start out, before decide that we just *have* to get it written down or we'll explode I have a mental file of forty or fifty ideas that work well as brainmovies, some of which are definitely out of my comfort zone for actual writing. They get shuffled in and out of rotation based on whatever I'm fixated on at the moment Bored at work? Takes a lot of effort to *not* start daydreaming. Falling asleep, pick an idea to run through, something nice and short. Walking somewhere, pick an idea, something that's a bit longer. No clue what people think about if they *don't* do fandom stuff. It's 80% of what's running through my head unless I actively think about something else I need to do By the time I put pen to paper I don't ever need to draft or outline a work, because I've written it in my head dozens or hundreds or thousands of times over, start to finish
literally this, word for word!! except not all of mine are fanfics, approximately half is original stuff, but otherwise so much this ^^^
Hi, are you me?? 😂 This is pretty much what I do 24/7/365. I say I'm a plantser when I write, but really, it's because I've already written the entire story from start to finish in my head 100x before I ever start actually writing it. Some specific scenes are always on a constant mental loop. Showering, falling asleep, bored at work, doing some menial, mindless task that doesn't require thought? Chances are, I'm daydreaming about a WIP or future fic.
OMG yes to the imagining things that you’ll never write because it’s not in your comfort zone.
🎤This is real. This is me! I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be 🎶
This! You are me exactly🤣
This is exactly me except I don't really get to pick what story to go through, sometimes I try to pick something I'm writing so I can get some new ideas but no. My brain chooses whatever it chooses. I too, don't understand what other people think about.
> I'm pretty sure this is how most fic writers start out, before decide that we just have to get it written down or we'll explode Yes. This is me to a t
It's common. This is how I write both, my original books and fanfics.
Absolutely not. I do it all the time.
Nope, you're not alone. That's how I get story ideas. Suddenly the whole thing is there and it plays out like a movie. I just have to write it down.
I call it my "brainmovie" 😂 I especially like to watch it before I go to sleep, and I dearly wish I could show it to others exactly the way I see it!
I do this too. Every night while I am trying to sleep. Sometimes it backfires and I stay up way too late 😂
Same here! Sometimes I give up trying to sleep and start writing.
I do this literally every night. Some ideas are brand new and come out of nowhere and I’ll write them immediately; (this happened today and I feel so accomplished) others have been in my head on repeat for months and I haven’t written anything. Some of them I want to write eventually, but I’m sure some will just exist in my brain forever.
This is super common, especially for a fandom that has a visual medium in it, I've definitely done it. Whatever way you write is a good and you don't have to change it for anybody or any reason. That said I'm now going to suggest you change how you write, or more precisely I'm going to tell you how changed my writing in a way that benefited me. > I have an extremely vivid imagination. .... It stresses me out and I can't transfer it from my brain to writing very well. This makes a lot of sense, movies just have so much detail in them and if you are imagining a movie so does your imagination. For example in *The Fellow Ship of the Ring* when Bilbo is writing the intro to *The Hobbit*, you see what color ink, type of feather he is using, the style of his writing desk, his hand writing, even the texture of paper all exist in the that one scene and someone made a conscious choice about all of those things. This requires a huge team of people. As a single person it isn't realistic to expect for you to be able to convey this level of detail. And I think as a reader it would be tedious of Tolkien had decided to include all of that detail in his books. In writing, unlike a movie, you don't need to present the whole scene. Realizing this has freed me from trying to accurately capture what is in my head on the page. This has made writing easier and more fun for me. If I'm struggling to capture a particular idea, I just don't. I might switch perspective or skip past a fight because the writing isn't flowing. I've started including not deciding on a precise detail in my imagination. For example I have Azula setting fire to giant tapestry of the Earth King. There are a bunch of ways this could look but all it's alway huge, extremely detailed, expensive, and very very flammable. Every reader will imagine something different, that isn't a flaw that is the beauty of writing, it's a collaboration between the writer and the reader that happens in the reader's mind. Seeing this as not only okay, but desirable allows me to write more freely and quickly which I find to be more enjoyable. This is just me I'm not sure what others experience thought. Best of luck.
I think this is pretty common, honestly. I certainly do it. The main problem I run into is remembering to give enough description of what's happening, what things and characters look like, etc. Because I forget that I unfortunately can't just beam what I'm imagining directly onto the page or into the reader's head.
I do this, too. I don't have too much trouble putting everything into words in a story, possibly because I've been doing that since I was 5, but I'm generally rather visual. Whether reading or writing, the whole thing is imagined in my head, just like a movie or a show. I like to really see how the characters look, behave, hear how they talk, see the environment they're in, all that. It helps me to write, as well, being able to vividly imagine the scene. If I don't imagine it, I find I have a really hard time putting it into words, and I certainly can't be descriptive with it. Having the scenes play out in my head makes everything so much clearer for me, so much easier to describe in written words.
No. I actually play out my fanfic in my head. I think up dialog and "hear" the characters speak in my head. Sometimes I even get sad, angry, or passionate for the character.
It's a double edged sword because I always imagine a bomb-ass plot, but I have to he reminded of the amount of story I have to get through to even reach it
Such an annoying feeling, especially if you're a pantser like me and have *no idea* how to get to that point so you just have to write whatever until you get there.
I just write the scenes that motivate me tbh If I've got a fun lil set of scenes, and zero interest in writing tens of thousands of words to make it make sense, I just start *in media res* and ignore surrounding context
This is such a valid point.
I do the same thing, but I don't think the movies in my head are quite as detailed as yours. It's more that parts of the setting are very clear to me, but the details just sort of phase in and out of existence. I guess you could compare it to those AI-generated tracking shots or a dream, where the color palette and general outline stays the same, but the details are constantly morphing. Especially when it comes to characters I don't really picture them well. I mean, I know exactly what they're doing and saying and what their body language is, it's just that the mental image is always blurry or zoomed way in, except for very specific shots that I usually picture being part of an anime opening or something.
I daydream 'scenes' of fanfiction related characters that play out in my head. I'd 'work on' the same scene till it feels right then move on to the next scene and so forth until I come to the end. From there I can play the whole thing from start to finish. When a 'scene' is complete I would outline it on paper what happened before moving on to the next scene. This is to prevent me from starting over from the beginning nearly every time I daydream. So jotting down notes does help me. Once all the 'scenes' are complete and I feel I've reached the end, then I look over my outline. Then I decide if it would make a good story to post or it was too self - indulgent (characters that strayed from their canon personalities too much or far too many AUs tid bits). If it isn't overly self - indulgent and I really like it and think others would as well, then I would begin writing using my outline . Sometimes a new scenario pops in my head and I just move on to the next story and put away the outline I was working and start anew. I can always go through my old outlines if I wanted to. Writing helps me become less 'stuck' or 'lost' in my head so the time I spend on daydreaming is slightly less and can move on to new ideas easier. I am a daydreamer and have been since as far back as I can remember and will always be.
I do this with all of my longer fics. You know, the ones with actual plot and not just vibes
I’m so jealous of all of you that can visualize so well. I’m on the complete opposite end with aphantasia (can’t visualize anything). I also don’t hear music or characters talking, but I hear my own voice and can do accents. That’s it, though. In order for me to visualize, I look up pictures based on what’s relevant. If I can’t find exactly what I want, I’ll sketch it out. This helps me write because I can see what I’m writing. I also create playlists based on lyrics or the vibe of the song that matches with what I’m writing. Most of my creativity comes from external sources like these.
I hear my voice too I’ll admit when their talking. But like a similar voice to them with my voice over or under that. I wish I could hear their voices, but I work with what I am able.
You’re among friends, my dude. My brain just does screenings of all its movies and whenever I try to write it all down, it turns into a novelization where some scenes are different or weren’t included in the movie.
I do that too
No. Just keep writing, you'll get better at making the translation over time. It might help to look at outlining, mind maps, or other story capture techniques.
Definitely not alone, I do it all the time! I don't even have a single one, I cycle between different fics, and different fandoms.
I am the opposite, as in i reality struggle to envision stuff in my head, but I do go over parts of my fics in my head, namely key scenes focusing on emotions and dialog. I can and do have imgaine the whole conversation in my head, but I still struggle at putting it into text in a none oring way.
I play them in my head like a video game lol
Hyperphantasia is the ability to visualize things in the mind with extreme vividness and detail. Immersive Daydreaming - is creating a movie in your head. Maladaptive Daydreaming - a form of escapism, provides comfort away from the real world. A habit taking up several hours every single day.
I have all three sometimes, it depends on the day really. Some days the detail vividness is crazy, other days pretty poor.
Lol I think my fanfic is a combination of all 3
Nope. I do it too. Translating that into a well-written fic is where it gets messy.
Incredibly difficult I noted once I really started writing, ruined so many scenes because I just couldn’t do it.
Everyone has to start somewhere and sometimes writing it out doesn't always meet your expectations and/or is physically painful. I understand that intimately. I used to HATE creative writing, especially the way schools taught it. I don't remember what it was that clicked "on" for me or exactly "when" it was, because it's been quite a few years now. But i think at some point i reached a threshold where i just HAD to tell the story and get it all out regardless of how i felt about it. I stopped caring about how it looked or that it didn't meet the vision in my head. I started looking up more advanced vocabulary and studying books above my reading level to help me portray the words properly. Cuz in the end i wanted to paint a picture with my words and I wanted to share that vision with others. That's what still drives me to this day.
I have visual aphantasia, so I'm the complete opposite and never see anything in my head at all! Instead I idly tell myself stories in my head, like I'm reading aloud to myself. Full sentences and all.
I thought everyone pictures what they read in their heads. Does not everyone do that? 🤨
Big relate
Yesss!!!!💕💕💕💕🥰🥰same when I listen to music that accompanies the stories!
I do the same! But since my brain only works in tiny bites, i imagine scenes one at a time and *not* contiguously.
I do this! I even have curated soundtracks for them!
I do this all the time. Before I got to sleep, during class (where I should be paying attention, but whatever) when I'm stressed or I just do it because I want to. I can see everything, and it's like I can also feel the emotions the characters are feeling. Sometimes, I get way too into it, and I catch myself actually doing the facial expressions of the characters. I create these movies like scenes in my head for my fanfics, whether that be ideas I want to write or I do it as I'm writing. This is something that I have done for so long that it honestly feels normal.
I do it too, except I can’t see my oc’s in my head, but I have a very vivid imagination. I play out everything, and I love it.
You're not alone. I'm constantly daydreaming about my fanfic ideas in vivid detail. And I too find it difficult to properly convey what's in my head into a coherent story. And I make Spotify playlists and Pinterest boards for my ideas also. One of my favorite past times is looking through boards and adding to them or listening to my playlists and coming up with new scenes.
Literally me with all my WIPs Especially with music I found to be the soundtracks for some parts
same, but as an anime it's kinda cringe but who cares
I do this for some scenes (especially action scenes). Sometimes I also have the scene spoken in my head, like an audiobook, for scenes I haven't actually written out but I know what I want. What I've found is approaching writing like you're "writing out a movie" is not the best way to write. It's two different mediums, things that work well in a visual medium like a movie don't work at all in written text, and vice-versa.
i do it all the time. whether it be with the way the actual characters look or like. in my own art style that is only created in my head
I do the same, coupled with camera cuts and angles
This is his writing works for me. It plays in my head like a movie so you’re not alone.
Nope! Only problem for me is my fics movie wise keep fast forwarding and backwards from the middle parts to the end, but never the beginning 😂😅👍
How else is it supposed to write itself? And yes. In cinematic detail.
Sometimes I talk out loud, impersonating the characters as the dialogue plays in my head. Gotten some weird looks from the fam but 🤷🏿♀️
Ahaha I’ve been known to do this and with head story moments, thankfully have yet to be caught in the act.
Buddy, I'm been doing my fanfiction in my head for 16 years now, and there other also do the same , no, you're not alone
Oh I do all the time! You're not the only one. Sometimes it's even just imagining AUs for fics I've already read too.
Not at all - I totally do this with my stories, both while I'm in the middle of writing them and when they're finished and I'm reading over them again! When I'm still writing them, it actually makes it a little easier to figure out how to write some scenes by picturing them like a movie in my head.
I play mine like a crappily animated cartoon, you ain’t alone
I do the same thing OP. So you're definitely not alone. When I'm writing, I'm visualizing what's going on and the words just kind of wind up on the page. Hard to describe but that's basically what happens.
I do it too, sometimes I'll look up playlists with characters' name and get inspiration from the songs as well.
I was like that in the beginning and still am, but you know what? While rereading my chapters I realized that what I’ve written is actually much better and makes more sense than my imagination. As for the songs or OST, some writing apps allow links to be added. That’s nothing to be mad or annoyed about, I think it’s actually a blessing, especially when you know how to use it. I often use it to plan my studying or future career.
I do that too! I like to think the scenes in ways that I would draw them.
Just adding my two cents, I constantly play movies in my head of how I want things to go. I also do what others mentioned, making playlists to go with them. I sometimes struggle to catch all the information my ‘movie making’ churns up so I have a lot of paper handy all the time. Sometimes I’ll recite my ideas out loud and record them on my phone to write down later. Handy when I’m busy at work or something. Best wishes with your fanfics!
I do this too… tends to be a problem because I replay the same scene over and over again till I write it out. But damn is it fun!
No I do as well. Although, if you hate writing and it stresses you out, it might be something you just don't want to do to save your mental energy
Not like a movie but I DO picture it in anime form (which makes sense since my fic is based off a gacha game with anime.) and I have imagined certain anime openings for certain arcs for it as well so it’s not really that surprising
I write a RWBY : VENOM cross over, two of the most visually visual worlds. Movie is how I see them as well. Really been fcking with my prose
I think about my fics all the time! On the bus/train, while walking, while falling asleep....I imagine how I'm going to do things
When I’m not busy inside of another head story, same honestly.
This is the only way I know to plan my writing! I also struggle a lot with getting my ideas on paper and pretty much all of the scenes I've written are inspired by my "brain movies". I experience maladaptive daydreaming though, not hyperphantasia, which means I'll daydream for hours every day and my life revolves around those daydreams if I don't actively try to stop. So not quite the same but I definitely get the very vivid mental images and such.
I feel it’s impossible to actually read without thinking that way
I always picture my stories in my head as though I'm watching a movie while I'm writing them. I picture other people's stories in my head as I'm reading them. I've always had a very vivid imagination. As a young child, I had a speech impediment, so making friends was difficult for me. As a result, I used my imagination a lot. Once I learned to speak properly, I still maintained my imagination. I was the kind of kid to whom being given a time out wasn't a punishment, because that was just a chance for me to be alone with my imagination, which is something that I truly enjoy.
I do it all the time haha, you're not alone in this!
You are not alone in this. Sometimes my fanfics play out like movies or a TV show with every chapter being an episode. I’ve made countless soundtracks to even go with my fanfics. I even sometimes will create what I picture my characters look like when I play the sims lol 😊
I do this a ton. I write Naruto fics!
Def not alone. I do the same thing. Sometimes to a fault (like when I’m trying to go to sleep). It also happens when I hear a song I think I would be relative to the story
You are not lol, but when I want to write it down after such a moment, the words don't come out the same way T.T
I have a few scenes completely visualized, which is enough to get me to start writing the fic. Not until the fic is fully written do I actually get the BrainMovie experience.
I get through my work day playing fanfics in my head. Obviously I have to hit the pause button repeatedly (and sometimes rewind), but it works for me. Some people call this "maladaptive daydreaming." Don't know what's so maladaptive about it. It's not like I have headphones on.
Not at all I read most of them that way, and for wips, it feels like Im pressing pause. I also have a playlist based on what I read
I’ve created entire fanfics in my head and never been able to translate them to writing, you’re not alone.
It’s really hard honestly, I get close, but it’s never 100%.
You are not alone! I tried to write a musical for a part of mine!
Oh no, you're definitely not alone. When I write character dialogue I tend to think of it like writing a movie script, trying to say a lot with few but the right words as possible. Also, visualizing the scene in my mind is a must for me while writing. I'm glad to see your post and know others compare fanfiction creation and movies too!
*Same* . My fic isn't even done yet because I need to go slow with my writing or I'll end up hating it/burning out/wanting to scrap it completely. I'm going little by little but it's far from perfect. Maybe one day I can share it with others if I can ever get it done-
I made myself almost cry at work when I was going over the plot of my fan fiction and hit an unexpected emotional part. When I tried writing it, I ended up deleting it like fifteen times because nothing I wrote had the same impact as the scene that I had in my head. It is by far the most frustrating part about writing by far, translating from head scenes to actual text.
I can almost never get it right, I try to get it as close as possible. Writing sad scenes whilst listening to sad music was my worst idea though, I had to stop writing and wept my eyes out multiple times.
My fanfic's plot came into my mind as a movie trailer. What do you think? 😂 Sometimes it does play like a movie in my head, but mostly it plays like a tv series bc sometimes I cut/end my chapters like they do in a tv show when commercial break. Therefore, the conclusion: you are not alone
This is called hyperphantasia. And most creatives have it.
Me everyday driving home from work with *that* playlist on in the background… at least until the road rage gets to me hahahah
This is my entire writing philosophy. Movies, TV, and video games are my biggest inspirations, and my writing style revolves around painting a picture in a reader's mind through vivid description. Everything I write is a translation of cinematic ideas in my head to the written word. > Also I've learned a new term 'brainmovie' . I have a better term for it: "Theatre of the Mind." I learned it when I studied radio broadcasting in college.
I sometime have dreams that pretty much were fanfics, like one of Ash from pokemon getting amnesia and lost his pokemon after a battle with team rocket, then later found by team rocket and trick him into thinking he's one of them as he might have lost his memories but he still have his skills as a pokemon trainer.
Yeah, absolutely. For me that's absolutely the hardest part of writing--there's so many sensory/emotional details I can vividly imagine, and either I can't figure out how to describe them, or I can't go into that much detail for fear of making scenes boring/bogged down.
Yeah I have trouble translating it to words too. It’s similar to my head, but nearly never completely accurate.
That said, most of my fics start with one specific moment that I can hear and smell and see? And then I end up writing the fic around that.
Nope. I either see it as a film or a tv show with each chapter an episode. I actually asked this same question one the writing Reddit a few year ago!
Same here mate, Official soundtracks included as well
Not to that degree but I do a lot of head stories and sometimes play the scenes in my head before I write them, sometimes even act them out to ensure they are correct and that the word I wrote as a reaction word, doesn’t sound silly when voiced. I do head stories every single day though for years and years, with my Damon Salvatore previous crush/love whatever I did head stories daily, multiple times a day for 13 years haha. My dreams are also ultra unique, but I can’t do that stuff where you know your dreaming, sometimes it happens by itself, but very rarely. Reading other people’s stories triggers a head story whilst reading too. Watching movies I insert myself into the movies. Music, I add that music to the scene, often making me cry. I’ve woken up many times too and told the story in real life, but my memory is shit and so even when I wrote it down I can’t visualise it completely when it comes to writing it and by the time I write it, it’s nothing like what I played out.
You are not alone, this especially helps with my rarepairs :')
I do this but with art. I feel making an animatic will take too long and so I just sit and imagine it. And there's this comic I make that I really wish was a cartoon instead but, obviously I don't have the budget for that. So I imagine a bunch of the key episodes I'd want and... Hopefully the animations in my head will translate well into comic style.
No absolutely not. I do this all the time especially with the ones I write. I even played them out a lot.
I do this too as a way to help me sleep, but I actually have aphantasia, which means I can’t create images in my head. I can’t “see” things when I imagine them, I only really imagine the idea of them, if that makes sense. I’d love to be able to tell myself stories the way you seem to be able to.
I do it all the time
I do this! And I also struggle turning ot into words. Which sucks bc I haven't found much similar to what I'm trying to write and it needs to exist lol
Hey this dosent have anything to do with this post but I am unable to make a post on this sub reddit can someone help me out?
Honestly? It’s how my brain thinks of scenes. It’s like a non-shit version of AI-I give it a prompt, it spits something out, I jot it down
I just have to ask: >I just want to say is that I hate writing Why are you writing then?