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Nov. 10th, 2008 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I've been having an interesting discussion over email lately, which led to a question I wanted to ask other people.
At night, or when I'm in the car or even just sitting when it's quiet, I tend to tell myself stories in my head. Nothing I'd ever write down, just things/people I like and think about. I do that with words and occasional images. So it's like a book with illustrations as opposed to say, watching a movie.
My question is. When you think, do you do so in words, pictures or some other way? Or maybe you don't do the story thing at all and think I'm a big old weirdo. In which case, feel free to smile and back away.
At night, or when I'm in the car or even just sitting when it's quiet, I tend to tell myself stories in my head. Nothing I'd ever write down, just things/people I like and think about. I do that with words and occasional images. So it's like a book with illustrations as opposed to say, watching a movie.
My question is. When you think, do you do so in words, pictures or some other way? Or maybe you don't do the story thing at all and think I'm a big old weirdo. In which case, feel free to smile and back away.
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Date: 2008-11-10 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2008-11-10 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 04:37 pm (UTC)I actually think I get my best dialogue right before falling asleep, but then there is the struggle to remember it, which I fail at. A lot of my cm_exchange story was pulled from night-time story-telling to myself, but that is when I first started writing this stuff down.
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Date: 2008-11-10 01:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 01:26 pm (UTC)It sounds limiting, but it really isn't. My "imaginary stories" tend to be deeply involved mental conversations, and they're often quite interesting. :D
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Date: 2008-11-10 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 03:43 pm (UTC)The stories in your head are meant for Mary-Sues. There's nothing embarrassing about it :)
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Date: 2008-11-10 02:12 pm (UTC)I don't know how people can manage *without* telling themselves stories. I do it all the time, although sometimes the story is "what I will say if..." or "what will happen when I get there..."
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Date: 2008-11-10 03:41 pm (UTC)I can see how that would be a problem in terms of writing. But it's really interesting that you see them that way.
I'm not surprised that people on here tell themselves stories, but I wonder if the same would be true in a non-fannish/creative space? For example, I doubt James does. In all the time I've known him he's never read a book, which astounds me.
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Date: 2008-11-10 03:47 pm (UTC)I can't imagine never reading a book - though, these days, I have internet-concentration and my reading is much more broken up than it used to be. And it's weird, but apparently other people don't tell themselves stories. My son seems to be able to have a blank mind. When I'm in the car, although I'm concentrating on driving, there's usually a part of me busily thinking about something else. Boy, in the passenger seat, is thinking of nothing. Very odd.
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Date: 2008-11-10 04:40 pm (UTC)I don't know if I find the idea of a blank mind soothing or not. In one way it must be, on the other. I don't think I'd like that at all.
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Date: 2008-11-10 02:41 pm (UTC)My thinking is very similar to yours - mostly words with occasional flashes of pictures and mini-movies (gifs?). I often have to consciously think "what would that look like?" or "what would he look like?" to get an image in my head, and even then it's not very sharp or well defined... just a flicker really.
It's kind of the same when I read fic - I enjoy the story without actually picturing the scene as a movie. When I actually try to make myself imagine the characters, I lose the flow of the story. So yes, I am definitely word-centric.
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Date: 2008-11-10 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 03:26 pm (UTC)It must be like having your own personal movie that you can affect at will. I find that so cool.
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Date: 2008-11-10 02:53 pm (UTC)I've been doing it since I can remember, mostly with words but there are images here and there.
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Date: 2008-11-10 03:24 pm (UTC)Your way sounds very like mine. It really is interesting to read all these answers. People are so cool.
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Date: 2008-11-10 03:30 pm (UTC)Really, I shouldn't be let out on the roads.
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Date: 2008-11-10 04:35 pm (UTC)That's very impressive. I'd imagine it also fits nicely with what you've said before, about being able to picture the whole of a story.
Really, I shouldn't be let out on the roads.
I'm sure you can manage three different thought processes at once :)
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Date: 2008-11-10 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 04:38 pm (UTC)Unlike you my mind tends to ramble most times. If I wrote down everything I thought about I'd end up shunned *g*
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Date: 2008-11-10 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 05:32 pm (UTC)For stories I'm not actually writing right now, it tends to be lots and lots of scenes with snippets of dialogue going on the whole time. Sometimes narration too, but mostly it's dialogue. Again, visuals are rare.
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Date: 2008-11-10 10:42 pm (UTC)You know, I'm totally going to lie in bed tonight and analyse how I'm thinking *g*
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Date: 2008-11-10 05:42 pm (UTC)also I'm the kind of person who tells herself stories in her head as if I was watching a movie. I think widescreen so it's pretty cool to imagine things that later on I'm going to draw or write -usually draw- into an story board. It helps the creative process to go on.
I love to play that game. life's less sucky that way.
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Date: 2008-11-10 10:45 pm (UTC)I often talk out dialogue aloud. Thankfully I'm alone often.
I'm not surprised at all you think visually, especially with your artistic background. It's cool that those stories can be applied to things you create later.
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Date: 2008-11-10 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 06:12 pm (UTC)For me, it's words, mostly--to the point where, when they tried to teach me self-hypnosis back in the day, it didn't work, because part of the process the teachers used involved imagining yourself somewhere, and they assumed visuals in your head, which really didn't work for me. Dad taught me how to do it with words instead.
With one exception--I get flashes of crystal clear visuals sometimes, at the weirdest moments. For instance, I was walking home with a bag of groceries one day, and some guy almost ran me down. I got out of the way in time, but immediately afterwards, I had a really crisp picture (with sound) in my mind of one solitary can of tomatoes rolling across the road (with the idea that I was all mushed, just out of the picture). Very disturbing. *g* If a trifle cinematic.
And yes, I have stories in my head all the time--probably horribly Sue-ish, and they never get finished, because anytime I get interrupted, I go back to the start and fine-tune that part, until I get tired of it. I had a therapist that wanted me to stop, because she thought it wasn't healthy, and that was about the most miserable three weeks I ever suffered through. If entertaining myself is wrong, I don't wanna be right. Heh.
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Date: 2008-11-11 09:08 am (UTC)That's so cool about those flashes of clear visuals. It sounds like your mind stores up the pictures and then just erupts with them every now and then.
I can't believe that anyone would ever think self story telling wasn't healthy. It's a perfect way to entertain yourself and has to help your imagination.
And really, self told stories are meant for Mary Sues :)
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Date: 2008-11-10 06:12 pm (UTC)For me it's images, more of a movie reel thing. Sometimes it's in 3Dm which is great for writing, but finding the words to match it can be tricky.
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Date: 2008-11-11 09:11 am (UTC)Me too. People really are fascinating.
I'm so intrigued by people who think like a movie reel. It has to be so cool.
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Date: 2008-11-10 06:49 pm (UTC)Also, why I'm using the term day-dreaming is because those stories have a somewhat dream-like quality to them. Sometimes it's just random scenes (movie-like), sometimes it's dialogue, feelings, words, any combination thereof. Most of the time it's not in chronological order, always jumping around, mostly because I'm impatient and jump forward to the good bits and jump back to other bits and stuff like that.
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Date: 2008-11-11 09:16 am (UTC)Yeah, I do the jumping around thing too. Often I think about my favourite bits over and over. So I get what you mean about having that dream-like quality.
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Date: 2008-11-10 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 09:18 am (UTC)I can see how that could happen if you're so word based.
People are so fascinating, and I love that I'm being told this stuff :)
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Date: 2008-11-10 08:19 pm (UTC)I think for me it's a combination of words and pictures and movie and emotions. It's the emotions and pictures that are the most important, then the movie and the words/dialogue last. And as someone above said, I've got a tendency to go back to the beginning and then polish my favourite bits again and again. Until I grow tired of that particular story/daydream that is, and then I've got to start a new one.
I don't do it all the time though. Always at night before I go to sleep and sometimes when I'm waiting on busses and trains and am bored, but never when I'm walking or travelling by car or train or doing household chores. At those times I usually go completely blank, especially when I'm listening to music.
I think everyone in fandom does it really, it goes with the territory so to speak. I'm not so sure about non-fannish people though. (Not that this in any way proves that you're not a weirdo of course!!! :-)
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Date: 2008-11-11 09:25 am (UTC)You're the first person who's mentioned emotions on this post, and while I don't tend to use those when I think/daydream I can see how they could be added to the mix.
Before I go to sleep is my favourite time to tell these self stories, though as I usually fall asleep so fast they go forward at the mental equivalent of ten words at a time *g*
It seems it is something that goes along with fandom.
Not that this in any way proves that you're not a weirdo of course!!
Ahahahaha. That is very true.
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Date: 2008-11-11 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 09:27 am (UTC)People are so cool. They really are.
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Date: 2008-11-10 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 09:31 am (UTC)I tend to speak dialogue out loud if it doesn't seem to be flowing right. Which yeah, a female english woman speaking the words of amercian males makes for the laughs.
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Date: 2008-11-10 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 10:16 pm (UTC)I'm like a lot of people here as well, I mostly think in movie sequences with narration or dialogue running over it. I think the main thing for me that's strange is that I only think in English, which baffles me since it isn't my first language. I can't remember when it started, but it must've been when I started reading fanfic online and had to run so much English through my head on a daily basis.
I LOVE telling myself stories when I go to sleep. It's one my favorite things ever. Mostly I just take a scene I've been working on in my head for a while and try to elaborate it, or sometimes I just repeat it. Then the words tend to come in, because suddenly descriptive passages pop up and pieces of dialogue, etc. It's a strange process, but I adore it. :D
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Date: 2008-11-11 09:36 am (UTC)It really is.
That is strange that you think in English. I wonder if that goes for others where English is a second language, too? I may have to ask. Man, I'm so nosy.
It sounds like a wonderful process. I can't think of anything more boring that just lying and not thinking of anything. Elaborating on a story seems like the perfect thing to do.
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Date: 2008-11-11 03:06 pm (UTC)