A dear friend of mine is a writer and a movie aficionado extraordinaire. The films she watches fuel her creative process, inspiring her to write better, to delve deeper into her scenes, and to produce prose with an air of excitement and intensity that I think are directly related to her love of the medium. While movies do inspire me to some extent, it’s rare that I watch movies in order to be inspired. My itchy creativity comes more from books than movies.
Or so I thought.
Last night I was trying to fall asleep, and my mind went off on a tangent about how I see my writing, how I see the scenes. And I realized that I write very in a cinematic way, that each of my scenes is “filmed” in my mind. The spaces are defined, the closeups are scripted. I’m literally in the middle of a scene, and every time I think about it, I see the last place the camera left off; I know that Emry is standing slightly to the right, and Cora further up in front, turning slightly to see him. The light is from behind her, and it reflects off of her glasses. You can hear the din of the city from behind her. They are moving right to left. Very specific, but nothing that I write down explicitly. In fact, all of the scenes are like this. While Brick is being taunted by Ander, he is sitting down in a high-walled stall, to the bottom right of the screen. Ander leers at him from the top left, but the camera switches back and forth as they talk.
In essence, there is a movie playing in my head. I hear, and write down, the music. I describe the light, the sounds, but it’s more as if I’m writing down what I observe than describing something into happening.
I suppose, though, this “camera” has one big flaw. In that every once in a while, in certain scenes, the camera fades away and I’m looking through my character’s eyes. As Cora wanders her house at night, waiting to come upon her assailants, I’m seeing through her eyes, watching through her perspective. While this happens occasionally in film, it works to varying degrees, I think. Sometimes it comes off as hokey since it’s truly difficult to simulate first-person perspective through a camera lens.
At any rate, I know a good deal of you who read this also write. I suppose I wonder if you feel the same connection between film and prose, and I wonder how specific the “rooms” of your writing are to you. Or do I just have an overactive imagination?
The Aldersgate Cycle 
July 21, 2008 at 11:04 pm
interesting to see this, thanks
July 21, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I’m even more of a nerd. I have some background in art, and my specialty is 3d graphics. I’ll actually zoom around the scene, looking for what the best frame is, because I can see it in multiple directions at once. So that makes me less of a camera man, more of a god-figure, I think… making small adjustments to put my figures with a better lighting and background props, then “rendering” to see if it’s getting better.
July 23, 2008 at 12:22 am
I understand how you feel, though to a somewhat less cinematic effect, at least in regards to pan/zoom, lighting, etc. In my mind, I’m simply there. It’s not about how the scene is framed or set up, it’s more about how it’s right there before me. More of a fly on the wall, though I tend to try to experience everything through my characters’ eyes. What can I say, I like to live vicariously through my stories.
It’s an interesting effect at times, as, for example, I wrote what turned out to be, from popular opinion, a very stirring and moving short story which I absolutely did not realize would be simply because I was writing it from the head of the main character, who is a somewhat detached person emotionally.
July 23, 2008 at 4:48 pm
@deanjbaker Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the post.
July 23, 2008 at 4:49 pm
@elizaw It’s not surprising that so many writers I know are also artists. But working in 3-D surely must give you another perspective altogether. Ah, that I could put a camera in your head.
… that sounds weird. But you know what I mean.
July 23, 2008 at 4:50 pm
@jinx I love that we all have different ways of “seeing” our work. The imagination is such a powerful tool in creation.
July 24, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I definitely do this too. So I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I have to be extra careful to not get too expositional about … just about everything. đŸ˜›
I read an article that mentioned this way of thinking is becoming more and more common in the new generations of up and coming authors.
We’re evolving the writing world!