Visual Writing

Effective writing is generally visual writing. When you use your words to paint a picture, the audience can see what you mean. Being able to vividly describe a location, a person, or a sequence of action will allow the reader to better-understand what is happening. It allows them to enter your world.

When I read a good piece of writing, an image forms in my mind. I can see everything as though it was a picture. When I read a good novel, there reaches a point where I stop reading the words and a movie starts playing, right behind my eyes. Somehow, I am reading, turning the page, interpreting all of the words, and yet it is a moving picture to me.

This experience with novels has existed for as long as I can remember. I believe that it is and has always been a significant force in my own writing. All of my stories exist in my head. These stories are not words; they're movies. They have people, scenery, props, and everything else. My stories play through my head, right behind my eyes. When I write, I am logging the action of the movie. When people are talking, I'm transcribing the conversation. When people are driving a car or walking down the street or reaching for a flower, I am writing it as simply and concisely as I can. If I take too long, the movie will keep going and I'll miss something, which makes for a sub-par story.

My style of writing has always been described as concise and effective. I don't have a problem with it, to be honest. The only problem I have is that I know I can't paint a picture like others seem to. This is why I love writing for comics. I'm having somebody else paint the picture for me. My writing can remain the same, even become more concise, since no words need to be used to show emotion, action, or scenery.

It reminds me of the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Only recently have I ralized the truth of it. When you take 1,000 words and compress them into the smallest space, you get a picture, which is the densest form that words can take.