[stylist] Visual scenes

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Tessa,

I was fully sighted for 22 years, so I've never been able to adequately
answer this question. I have a visual understanding of the world, and
though totally blind, I'm still an extremely visual person, which is
evident in my writing. In fact, I find it incredibly difficult to write
from a blind POV.

Having said all that, one word of advice I've given to others with this
dilemma is that is writing the visual element necessary? This of course
depends on what POV you want in a story, but we shouldn't look at our
lack of visual understanding as an obstacle to hurdle in our writing.
Perhaps you can provide a unique perspective writing as a blind person.
Consider how this would affect your characters and plot; how can you
approach this from your unique perspective? It's worth considering. You
want your writing to be organic, believable, and by writing from your
perspective as a blind person, you are allowing the process to happen
naturally.

Having said all that, you may want those visual descriptions; you may
want your sighted characters to come from a sighted POV, and this is
perfectly fine. I think your best bet would be to ask people since the
internet may not always have exactly what you're looking for, no pun
intended, grin. A real person can give details, and you can ask
questions specific to what you want. Though the internet is certainly a
great resource for any writer, but many of us still do some old
fashioned research.

As to the application of this, well, my best advice is to study and
analyze how other writers describe things. Keep in mind that any
description must be necessary to the plot and/or character development.
Perhaps some descriptions you are fretting over are not as crucial as
you think. Always consider this when describing things in a story. But
yes, I would pay attention to how others describe the world around them,
and from this, take what is important to your process and see if you can
emulate it in some way. I'm not suggesting you plagiarize, but simply
study other works and incorporate that knowledge into your own writing
process.

Hope this helps

Bridgit
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:52:57 -0400
From: <tfurban22 at gmail.com>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [stylist] Visual scenes
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Hi all,

I hope all of you are doing well.  I have a problem, or question,
however you wish to look at it when it comes to writing visual scenes.
Scenes that have (or, I want to have.) descriptive feel to them.

I'll give an example of something I'm struggling with now.  There's a
fanfiction story I'm looking to write based on a character from the
musical Wicked.

I haven't read the book this musical is based on, but a friend of mine
has so I know the musical is loosely based on the book and I know the
differences between it and the musical.  However, I'm getting off topic.

The scene that I'm looking to write is visual.  You see, my character,
whose name is Thackery, is attracted to a character named Nessarose or
Nessa for short.  I can kind of see the scene in my head, but not
clearly.

She's giving a lecture, he's in the back as it is in a room of advisors.
He's an artist, so instead of paying attention to her speech, he's
paying attention to, "her."  He likes to draw; sketch what not.  I'm
sorry I'm being vague. I'm just not sure how to write him looking at
her, avoiding eye contact when hers meets his.. He trying (and failing.)
to be secretive that he's gazing at her and drawing her outline.  It's
great in my head but I'm finding the words to be very difficult.

Not just that, but how can you, or do you write landscape scenes that
are not boring?  How to write the colors in a sunset over a lake?  Or,
the sun over a meadow in the afternoon?  A raging thunderstorm?

These are just some of the many examples that I can think of at the
moment. There are a million of visual things that I just don't know how
to describe. I try to google things but it just gives me images.

Another example is looks. 

Case in point: I'm looking to write another fanfiction based on the
Disney movie Pocahontas.  There's a character in it that is a woman from
Turkey. However, I haven't a clue what she should look like.  I mean, I
know dark hair and eyes, but that's really it.  What did they wear and
more importantly what did it look like? 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I realize I must sound like a
new writer lol but I did join this list to learn and improve.  It is
scary for me at least stepping out of my comfort zone.

Thanks so much!

Tessa