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Some relatively random musing on writing, characters and faces:
Writing Face-blind
Okay, this is coming, again, from something random. I was watching some people do memes, where you make up characters and then find the actor you'd want to play them, or pick book characters, and find the actor you want to play them, and so forth. And I sort of realised that I ... don't. Imagine people playing them. Kind of can't, even.
Because I'm face-blind. I don't remember faces in RL, unless I have reason to remember them, and even then I can't if too much time has passed. I don't see faces, really. I see expressions, but not really the features they're playing out on, unless I'm specifically looking for something.
As a side note, this makes my aesthetic appreciation of faces a little skewed, I think. In that the most attractive faces for me are the interesting ones, the ones with distinct and robust features to actually hold my eye. For some reason, most of the more conventionally beautiful/handsome faces can't hold me, because they're all sort of ... the same? Bland? Flat? (This actually came up once with a fanart of Snape, showing him as described in the books, lank and greasy and craggy, vs him in fanfic, all supposedly hot and anime-esque. I prefered the craggy, by a mile. Because craggy actually holds my eye). Also, I tend to prefer older and more weathered faces, again because age adds features, distinction.
*blinks* Anywho. That aside. Back to characters in books, and, following, in fanfic.
See, I can't really do those memes, or answer those questions, which real-life face would you put on this character. Because when I see the characters in my head ... well, actually, to start with 'see' is misleading. I don't see characters in my head. I don't see their faces. What I get are ... impressions, sensation. Weight and power and personality. Physical sensations of motion, of body, of expression, more intangible impressions of strength and character and personality and thought. I don't picture them. I sort of ... feel them? Inhabit them? Sense their motion around me? I hear them, too. Voices, I remember. But not faces. Just vague impressions. Rounded. Craggy. Flat. Narrow. Most of my physical understanding of a character is ... sensation of weight, form and motion, snatches of features, a palette of colour. Nothing concrete. Nothing really visual.
Which is odd, in some ways, because usually I'm relentlessly visual in my imaginings. Scenery, settings, poses, tableaus. All image-rich. But not faces. Not physical features. I have to work at describing those.
Also, expression are a little odd, with me. In that, when I'm describing them, what I'm seeing in my head is ... well, actually nothing. What I'm describing when I describe expressions is what I've just felt my face do when I put myself mentally in the character's place. Which sometimes has the unintended side-effect that I start acquiring tics from fictional characters. Avon's grin. Nikola's smile. James' eyebrows. Holmes' supercilious expression. And heaven help me when I'm writing Londo Mollari, or Gabriel. Do their faces ever stay still? I also tend to pick up physical habits from characters I write, too. Hand motions. Stances (Nikola Tesla is doing wonders for my posture, let me tell you). Things like that.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that characters are not pictures, for me. I can't see them, as such. They're more ... physical sensations, fleeting impressions, heavy, intangible things in my mind. And questions like that, who would you cast, what does he look like ... they don't make sense to me. Not really.
This is interesting when I'm working from a visual media, translated into fanfic. I need to rewatch things, if at all possible. Not for plot points, not to clarify things, but to remind myself what characters look like. For example, I never know what colour anyone's eyes are. I have a tendancy to exaggerate expression, because for me they're nearly disembodied. I have to keep checking myself, checking the sensations in my head against what people actually look like.
It also tends to manifest in that I don't actually describe people an awful lot. Their motions, yes. Their expressions, yes. But not their features. Not what they look like. That comes up more in Original Fic, I think, because in fanfic you can be reasonably sure that the people reading already know. *smiles* Actually, one of the most liberating experiences for me was writing a blind rat, because to him everything was simply weight, noise and motion. Well, also smell, but I had a harder time with that one.
So I can't cast actors as characters. Not from pictures, anyway. From seeing them move, hearing them speak, that's different. But I never imagine what characters look like. Only how they feel. Faces ... are a strange, strange country, for me. Heh.
And so. After that little bout of weirdness, we now return you to your regular programming. Carry on. *nods, grins*
Okay, this is coming, again, from something random. I was watching some people do memes, where you make up characters and then find the actor you'd want to play them, or pick book characters, and find the actor you want to play them, and so forth. And I sort of realised that I ... don't. Imagine people playing them. Kind of can't, even.
Because I'm face-blind. I don't remember faces in RL, unless I have reason to remember them, and even then I can't if too much time has passed. I don't see faces, really. I see expressions, but not really the features they're playing out on, unless I'm specifically looking for something.
As a side note, this makes my aesthetic appreciation of faces a little skewed, I think. In that the most attractive faces for me are the interesting ones, the ones with distinct and robust features to actually hold my eye. For some reason, most of the more conventionally beautiful/handsome faces can't hold me, because they're all sort of ... the same? Bland? Flat? (This actually came up once with a fanart of Snape, showing him as described in the books, lank and greasy and craggy, vs him in fanfic, all supposedly hot and anime-esque. I prefered the craggy, by a mile. Because craggy actually holds my eye). Also, I tend to prefer older and more weathered faces, again because age adds features, distinction.
*blinks* Anywho. That aside. Back to characters in books, and, following, in fanfic.
See, I can't really do those memes, or answer those questions, which real-life face would you put on this character. Because when I see the characters in my head ... well, actually, to start with 'see' is misleading. I don't see characters in my head. I don't see their faces. What I get are ... impressions, sensation. Weight and power and personality. Physical sensations of motion, of body, of expression, more intangible impressions of strength and character and personality and thought. I don't picture them. I sort of ... feel them? Inhabit them? Sense their motion around me? I hear them, too. Voices, I remember. But not faces. Just vague impressions. Rounded. Craggy. Flat. Narrow. Most of my physical understanding of a character is ... sensation of weight, form and motion, snatches of features, a palette of colour. Nothing concrete. Nothing really visual.
Which is odd, in some ways, because usually I'm relentlessly visual in my imaginings. Scenery, settings, poses, tableaus. All image-rich. But not faces. Not physical features. I have to work at describing those.
Also, expression are a little odd, with me. In that, when I'm describing them, what I'm seeing in my head is ... well, actually nothing. What I'm describing when I describe expressions is what I've just felt my face do when I put myself mentally in the character's place. Which sometimes has the unintended side-effect that I start acquiring tics from fictional characters. Avon's grin. Nikola's smile. James' eyebrows. Holmes' supercilious expression. And heaven help me when I'm writing Londo Mollari, or Gabriel. Do their faces ever stay still? I also tend to pick up physical habits from characters I write, too. Hand motions. Stances (Nikola Tesla is doing wonders for my posture, let me tell you). Things like that.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that characters are not pictures, for me. I can't see them, as such. They're more ... physical sensations, fleeting impressions, heavy, intangible things in my mind. And questions like that, who would you cast, what does he look like ... they don't make sense to me. Not really.
This is interesting when I'm working from a visual media, translated into fanfic. I need to rewatch things, if at all possible. Not for plot points, not to clarify things, but to remind myself what characters look like. For example, I never know what colour anyone's eyes are. I have a tendancy to exaggerate expression, because for me they're nearly disembodied. I have to keep checking myself, checking the sensations in my head against what people actually look like.
It also tends to manifest in that I don't actually describe people an awful lot. Their motions, yes. Their expressions, yes. But not their features. Not what they look like. That comes up more in Original Fic, I think, because in fanfic you can be reasonably sure that the people reading already know. *smiles* Actually, one of the most liberating experiences for me was writing a blind rat, because to him everything was simply weight, noise and motion. Well, also smell, but I had a harder time with that one.
So I can't cast actors as characters. Not from pictures, anyway. From seeing them move, hearing them speak, that's different. But I never imagine what characters look like. Only how they feel. Faces ... are a strange, strange country, for me. Heh.
And so. After that little bout of weirdness, we now return you to your regular programming. Carry on. *nods, grins*
