Can you be a writer if you can’t visualize? In this essay, Andrea Thorfinson explores how aphantasia shapes her storytelling process, and why great writing is built, not seen.
As a fellow aphantastic writer, I agree with the building thing, but honestly I think that in some ways aphantasia helps us.
See, whenever, throughout my life, I've been told to 'picture' or 'visualise' something, I've automatically described it to myself in detail. The truth is I only recently discovered that other people literally meant they could see it. I simply didn't know that was a thing until a few years ago. So, it turns out I have far more experience of composing detailed mental descriptions than most folk, and that's a pretty useful skill for writing of any kind.
That’s such an interesting way to frame it, and honestly I think there’s a lot of truth in it. I used to assume everyone was basically doing what I was doing too, describing or conceptually “building” things internally rather than literally seeing them. Realizing people actually saw mental images was a genuine shock for me. 😄
But I agree with you that there can be strengths hidden inside the difference. I think a lot of us with aphantasia become very intentional about structure, emotion, sensory detail, and observation because we’ve had to develop other pathways. We may not “see” scenes internally, but we still learn how to construct them.
I really appreciate this perspective. It’s encouraging to hear from another writer navigating the same thing.
As a fellow aphantastic writer, I agree with the building thing, but honestly I think that in some ways aphantasia helps us.
See, whenever, throughout my life, I've been told to 'picture' or 'visualise' something, I've automatically described it to myself in detail. The truth is I only recently discovered that other people literally meant they could see it. I simply didn't know that was a thing until a few years ago. So, it turns out I have far more experience of composing detailed mental descriptions than most folk, and that's a pretty useful skill for writing of any kind.
That’s such an interesting way to frame it, and honestly I think there’s a lot of truth in it. I used to assume everyone was basically doing what I was doing too, describing or conceptually “building” things internally rather than literally seeing them. Realizing people actually saw mental images was a genuine shock for me. 😄
But I agree with you that there can be strengths hidden inside the difference. I think a lot of us with aphantasia become very intentional about structure, emotion, sensory detail, and observation because we’ve had to develop other pathways. We may not “see” scenes internally, but we still learn how to construct them.
I really appreciate this perspective. It’s encouraging to hear from another writer navigating the same thing.