Even the main character(s). An author can introduce someone in vivid detail, but the moment I turn the page, my mind just lets go of it.
It’s not that I can’t understand descriptions. If an author says “green trousers” or “aquiline nose,” I can picture those details in isolation fine, but unless the book constantly reinforces what a character looks like as a whole, I can’t seem to hold onto a complete image of them.
I can read well. I can follow the plot, the dialogue, all of that lands. But in my mind, there’s no actual figure attached to any of it. No face, no consistent body, nothing solid. I read the name on the page and that's what I see. Barbara in New Times Roman. Chad in Palatino. Marcus in Cochin. Greg in Comic Sans. But they're phantoms. When it comes to faces, voices, builds, even a minute later, all gone.
Weird part is that this doesn’t happen when I’m writing. As an author, I have no trouble with my own characters. I can picture them, describe them, work with them. When I’m reading, though, nothing sticks in the same way. I read books like I'm watching a movie (I find this easier to do, for some reason) but there's really no "actors".
It's a little frustrating.
by MiraWendam
5 Comments
I do imagine the characters but at times yeah, kinda forget their descriptions and fill in the gap.
i totally get that struggle, it’s like your brain just zones out on the details. maybe try jotting down character descriptions or sketching them out while you read? could help keep those phantoms a bit more real.
I totally get what you mean. The author can give this huge in depth description and even if I can picture that in my head, my brain will make up its own character. My brain will make up someone with brown hair and brown eyes and then I find out the character is blonde and I’m like oh…well I guess the character isn’t blonde anymore!
I just roll with it at this point. I can’t make my brain “see” anything else so I just keep reading and enjoy the story.
I’m the same way. Either characters are amorphous blobs, or they’re just whatever my mind conjures up. I’ll generally remember basic characteristics like age/gender/ethnicity if described, but that’s about it. I try not to sweat it.
I kind of do to, or at least I don’t reflect about how they look very often. But I kind of like that.
One of the worst things I know is watching an adaptation of a book (especially a bad one) and then re-reading it… That character just becomes that portrayal forever more.