How it feels: Visual Thinking
On the image above you see my travel version of Untold: adventures await by wearehubgames
I never put anything to paper. Never made a drawing of how I was going to make it. I thought of it, and started. A gift my dad had too in the things he did, but I will explain how it works.
It works the same with writing. I need a general concept of what I am going to write, and then I can start writing. I need images, before I can start. The image for this blogpost, was the image you see up top.
What starts me off?
What starts me off generally is a project I want to do, like this blogpost, like the travel version of Untold, like the kindle cover I am making now. I have this need to do it, and then it starts. (This also works for writing a story or constructing a magic effect. I need to see it all happen first, before I can put pen to paper.)
Next?
Next, I start to envision the final product. Now for my kindle cover, it has to look (ironically), like a book. I can style it the way I want, I can make it look the way I want.
For a story for example: I need to see what happens. I need to see it like an opening of a movie. It has to happen that visually. That makes it easier for me, to write out what happens, to translate the video to words.
Ok. Next step?
The next step is harder. I start to look for a starting point. In magic, I gather the materials I want to use and start to practice, to look for ways how to achieve it, without compromising. It could be that I make a mental list of things I don’t want to comprose, rules that the magic method has to adhere to.
In writing this is where I start to write down what I see in my head, as clearly and as easily as I can without making it bogged down. This is the moment that I crawl into the skin of my character and look through their eyes and play out, in their mind, the scene I am writing.
So… What happens when things don’t go as planned?
When things in a crafts project don’t go as planned. I readjust. For example: in the kindle cover I am constructing now: The book would be to tedious to hollow out. I didn’t want to make a mess, and I didn’t want to make it cost a lot. I had the luck of having some packaging foam from the Xbox we have lying around (don’t ask). And started with that.
In magic, this is where something doesn’t work out the way I planned in my head. The method I envisioned isn’t suited for this. I have to compromise on one of my rules set out. This really doesn’t matter, as I set really, really strict rules for my effects. for example: for a diary effect: where a card the person has chosen freely, matches a card written down in a diary. I have researched dozens of methods and none satisfied my criteria. Ok, there was one, but in my mind, it needed a lot of work. So, I created my own, which works, which has mostly all criteria (I think I only broke one of the criteria I set out).
In writing, this is where I start planning the next logical step. For example: in a crew of cyberpunks: how do they meet eachother or know eachother. How do they meet up at her place or where do they meet up? What follows the first scene? I need that video image before I can go on. I have it mapped out for a story I am writing now, I have the start image, I have the follow up and am now thinking of the third one. It isn’t because I haven’t written anything down, that I am not working on a project.
I hope this resonates with some of you, and I hope this helps people unterstand how the autistic mind works a bit better.