When reading a story or novel

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I thought of this question after the thread about reading and attention.

When you are reading a fictional story or novel, do you find it difficult to picture the characters? Their faces? I am, I have no problem with picturing objects, but I do have some problem trying to imagine how a character might look like, its almost like a world with faceless people. I have to do a lot of effort to manage to picture the characters in my mind but I dont think I get a clear image. Is it the same to others?

I get a simple idea of what they look like. Heck, even with the human characters in MY story I have a faint idea of what they look like!

Sometimes, but not too often.

Rarely. It depends how well they are described.

I agree with ping-machine.

I can generally visualise the clothing and stature and build of the character - depending on the description. In fact, sometimes I get annoyed because to me a character may, for example, have brown hair, and then later in the novel they'll be described has having blonde hair. I also have this problem with televised and movie versions of stories because the characters don't look the way they did in my head, and this can actually make it impossible for me to watch the programme because I can't cope if another person's 'vision' of the characters differs so much from mine - I can't relate it to my idea of the story and I cannot imagine how the person responsible for televising it even came up with those descriptions.

Regarding facial features - I know what you mean. The more noticeable features (hair, height etc) I don't have a problem imagining, but I generally can't picture a face - and often don't even bother. I mean, in the sense that when I was little I didn't even realise that you should picture a face. I sometimes pictured eyes - especially if they were described, but that's about it. When I was older and realised that you were supposed to visualise a 'complete' person, I tried, but it was so difficult and so much effort that it actually distracted me from the story, so I stopped bothering in the end. I'd rather just enjoy the story.

Also, I have mild face-blindness (I think the fancy name is 'prosopagnosia'), so this is probably also a factor.

I definitely do that, but I thought it was because I'm a writer so I have my own view. I'll often rewrite the whole thing in my head, then read it or see the movie years later and get upset that "they" changed it when in fact I changed it.


I can picture the characters because I write. So if the writer doesn't do it, I will just fill the gap myself.

The one thing I do when I read though is to dissect the text and write all over it. I automatically track themes because I've taken so many literature courses as an undergrad and grad student. I really can't read a book any longer for entertainment. I dissect the text so much that the actual story is lost. That's an unfortunate by-product. I also can't read a book until my husband is done with it because he can't stand looking at my writing all over the pages.

I am hopeless at visualising characters. That is why it is useful to me when they make movies of books I have read. I just assumed that everyone had this issue. Likewise, I cannot draw people to save my life. I have tried to often to do this, and they end up totally primitive in appearance. I am ok at visualising scenes though.

I always have sort of a cloudy vision of the characters in my head. I can picture their height, build, clothing, hair, etc., but their face is always sort of fuzzy. It helps if any distinguishing facial features are described, like a hooked nose or piercing blue eyes. For the most part, though, I usually just see hair and a body. But even that is specific enough for me to agree or disagree with a choice of actor if the book is ever made into a movie (like the Harry Potter movies – some of the actors have been great, and others… not so great).

If I see a movie first, I will picture the actor when reading the book.

If there is an illustration on the cover of the book, sometimes I’ll sort of borrow that image. It sucks though when they use different artists for subsequent books in a series, and the characters’ image changes.

I hear Sam Raimi wants to make a movie out of the first book in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. It’s my favourite series of all time, so I gotta say, I’m having a bit of a heart attack with this one! On the one hand, I think it could be a fantastic film, but on the other hand, I’m scared to death to see what kind of actors they’ll end up using. (BTW, if anyone else here happens to be a SoT fan, I haven’t read Phantom yet, so no spoilers please!! !)

I have that too. its like they are faceless people in the crowd

Erilyn, thats so true about the movis I see the actors too! I have faith in Sam Raimi in that he has really proven that he has talent and skill with Spiderman series. though I don't know much about Sword of Truth, tell me more! I'm always interested in new series to read!

I only picture their appearance e.g. clothing, hair etc.

I have a problem putting things into context, but I can explain things very well!

Well, I’m terrible at summarizing things, but I’ll try, LOL. In essence, it’s a fantasy series, but it’s different from other fantasy stories in a lot of ways. Most tend to concentrate more on nonsense creatures, places, and magic; and the characters in them either go looking for a quest or they are unwillingly dragged along on one. There is usually little character development and the story is usually carried by nothing more than consequential events and descriptions of said creatures, places, and magic.

But the Sword of Truth has depth. There are fantastic creatures, places, and magic, but these things are secondary to the actual story that is taking place. It’s basically been compared to a modern-day Lord of the Rings. You get to know the characters as real people, something I’ve found severely lacking in other modern fantasy series like Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Most importantly, the characters are intelligent, and that alone is so rare it’s almost enough to make any story worth reading.

So far there have been ten books in the series (I’ve read 9), and out of all of them only two have been a little weak – but the last one I read (#9) more than made up for them. The tenth finally comes out in paperback next month and I can’t wait to read it. The final book is being written now and the series will finally come to an end.

I am nervous as hell about the movie, but I too have faith in Sam Raimi. Terry Goodkind has apparently refused numerous offers to have the books made into film, because he didn’t ever want to see his work butchered or exploited in typical Hollywood fashion. But apparently he was convinced by Sam Raimi’s proposal in less than 30 minutes, so that does make me feel somewhat better!

I have a horrible time remember who looks like what. I mean, even when I do get a slight idea I forget right after. It was a very frustrating time in my life. . . so, I just take my favorite TV show character that sounds like them and put their face over the character. With most Dean Koontz books I imagine the detectives that are some times in them as Mulder and Skully from X-Files

Other stories I just use generic characters I made up in my free time. You know, just use what I got in my mind. Rarely anything new.

Sounds great! I'll have to read it.
I always feel bad for the author of the books that are made in to movies. So often their books are mutilated by the filmmakers efforts. Sam raimi is a very talented filmmaker and I think he'll do a good job. That depth of character stuff is hard to come by, so when you find it you have to be happy about it. Don't feel bad about the summerizing stuff, you convinced me to read it! LOL