[stylist] Visual scenes

Sun Apr 14 16:49:00 UTC 2013

Hi Eve,
Just wanted to jump in here, because it sounds to me like you had an
experience very similar to mine. I was born legally blind and didn't find
out about it till I was 16. I was told that I had "bad eyes." Of course, my
classmates knew I was blind and had no end of fun tormenting me.

I remember some of the strange things that happened when I was a child. We
had an apple orchard in our neighborhood, and you could see the trees from
our back yard. I had seen other kinds of trees up close and had touched
their leaves. The apple tree intrigued me, because it looked like it had a
small number of huge leaves rather than thousands of small leaves. One day,
I went over there and was expecting to be able to touch one of the mamouth
leaves. They weren't there, of course. I was dumbfounded that they could
have looked so different from a distance and that the other people around me
hadn't seen it that way.

I have RP, and I could never see much at night. I could see light sources
and even read lighted signs, when I got close enough. What puzzled me was
that others claimed to be able to see the same things they saw in the
daytime. I had a hard time getting my head around how that was possible.

You bring up an interesting point about "fully sighted." I'd hazard a guess
that when most people use the term they mean 20 20 vision with an
unrestricted field of vision (not sure what's normal. I've been hearing
since childhood, though, that sighted people see color differently than each
other. They also use their "normal" vision in different ways. Some really
seem to be looking around at the full spectrum of their environment, while
others seem to be imposing some sort of self-restriction and seem to be
focused narrowly on what's right in front of them.  
Donna 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Eve Sanchez
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2013 11:12 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Visual scenes

Bridget, What is fully sighted? I find that term to be even more vague and
meaningless than partially sighted. Im not meaning to be a smart ass. Just
thinking about it. I had always thought I was a sighted person, but came to
learn that I had always been what is legally blind. I saw though. I saw in
my own way that is and since that is how I saw, I thought it was full normal
vision. I wonder if anyone really does see things the same way as another.
Oh we could describe things that are recognizable to each other, but it
perhaps is more that we know what is being described and we know what it
looks like to us. I hope this is clear though my sight is not. I am just
thinking there is more to sight and the lack of, than we all consider.
Perhaps none of it really matters either. Blessings, Eve

On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Bridgit Pollpeter
<bpollpeter at hotmail.com>wrote:

> 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
> Message-ID: <002201ce3867$5aa2d1d0$0fe87570$@com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
>
> 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
>
>
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