I have partial facial blindness which makes it hard to picture faces that aren’t super familiar and I can’t create new faces in my head. I end up picturing faces of people I know and celebrities.
It becomes frustrating when I’m reading as the faces morph constantly into my head. I constantly stop to get the faces right. Sydney Sweeney ended up as 2 characters when I read “Bunny” lol. I also get a biased view of the characters this way. It makes it really hard to enjoy reading nowadays. Any suggestions? Different strategies for picturing or reading without picturing?
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Oh this is actually a topic I got weirdly fascinated with and I think it’s related to whether or not a person thinks in words or images. It started when I asked my bilingual mother what language she thinks in and she said “What do you mean? Thoughts are pictures.” I think in words and this was absolutely wild to me. I can visualize things if I try, but by default I just hear the words in my head.
Turns out she’s a slower reader than me because she’s visualizing every detail by default. Meanwhile, I just read words and get the general emotions. But apparently most of the world is split into word-thinkers and picture-thinkers.
In short, I don’t picture faces at all. But if you’re usually a visual thinker, I’m guessing your facial blindness is conflicting with that. Not sure there’s a real answer to that conflict other than trying to let it go, but you might find this interesting: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/16/how-should-we-think-about-our-different-styles-of-thinking
I can’t picture faces, can’t picture anything so I don’t.
I don’t have facial blindness but I don’t usually picture faces either. Characters are like background figures in a painting, reduced to only their most striking features which can still be captured at the scale of a small brush stroke. It would be like asking me how to imagine the specific grain on a wooden floor board, that level of detail would just never occur to me.
Same. And I don’t realize I’m doing it. It feels like they’re completely there, but if I suddenly had to nail down the details, I would realize it’s just a vague idea.
Omg that’s a really good way to explain it. I completely get that.
some authors clearly describe facial features and others don’t - if you want, after reading a description, google a similar type face for use as a reference?
I don’t remember the face lol
I have a very vivid imagination while reading, to the point where I can almost forget that I am reading, like a movie playing in my head.
And while I do not have facial blindness, I try to not see faces of characters unless I am reading after having seen a tv/movie adaptation in which case it is near impossible not to see the characters from the screen while reading.
I instead try very hard to go by shapes starting from a blank canvas which is like a faceless mannequin or the of one with details filled out by what i read, such as a red lipstick, purple eyes or a smirk but it’s more like clear details on an otherwise blurry/faceless mannequin.
Have you tried focusing more on the characters’ personalities and actions rather than their physical appearances? This can help create a clearer image of the characters in your mind without relying on specific faces.
Kind of? Thanks I could try that more before picturing a face. Usually the annoyance comes from having a person in mind and then realizing they don’t fit the character
I used to get really hung up on visualizing everything in books like they were little movies for my brain. Then I realized that’s a real disservice to literature as an art form and also wastes a lot of time while reading, so now I just let whatever comes to mind come and let everything else live there in the text. If it’s important, the author will tell you, but rarely does what a character look like matter more than their dialogue or their actions or their personality and thoughts.
yeah, I usually think of books the same way as someone telling me a story
like, if my mom goes “and then I went to the bank and saw Judy there” I don’t picture the bank and Judy, I just kinda acknowledge the existence of both in my head, idk how to explain it
Thank you this is really helpful! That’s why I was frustrated- I was seeing actors not the artistic vision of the writer you know? I thought picturing them right was important to understand the book but yeah I like that idea of just focusing on the text not the image
I find it easier to read the book versions of movies I’ve already seen.
Do you actually have facial blindness in real life?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia
Or just in the way you describe here, which is not “facial blindness.” It’s just part of the normal experience of reading.
I picture the books I’m reading very vividly, but oddly I don’t really picture faces.
Instead, I usually make micro expressions with my own face, so I “act out” what the characters are doing with their faces. This helps me “picture“ what they’re expressions look like but without picturing their faces.
When I create a face it sticks for the entirety of the story. If details are added later in the book like a crooked nose or long hair then I skip over it. Sorry it too late, this guy has been here for 3 chapters and he’s staying this way 😂
I’m not faceblind but I don’t really imagine faces for characters. I build a broad generalisation of their characteristics in my head, like hair colour/style, height body type, specific gestures, any accessories they always have, etc. All the things you likely use to tell people apart. Even after a TV show/movie comes out for the book, I don’t add actors faces on the next read through.
Imagine they have a tattoo of their name on their forehead.
I have this problem too. I create a cast for any book I’m reading. The cast is any celebrity that matches the description of the character of the book. The cast is based just on appearance. Sometimes I’ll even write it in a piece of paper. I hope this helps!
my characters rarely have a face I visualize it’s more a tone/ feeling