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Can thinking about thinking make you a better writer?
Last year, I learned that some people don’t have a “mind’s eye.” This is called aphantasia — or the absence of fantasy. They see objects or people when they are looking directly at them, but are unable to see those images in their minds — to get a “mental picture” of people, objects, or places.
In his article titled
“Aphantasia: How It Feels To Be Blind In Your Mind,” Blake Ross
— a writer and programmer who was a cofounder of Firefox — writes about his realization that he has aphantasia. Ross explains that he first learned of aphantasia when he stumbled upon an article published in The New York Times about an elderly man who “lost his ability to form mental images” after undergoing surgery. Ross then describes his thought process while reading the article:
What do you mean “lost” his ability? Shouldn’t we be amazed he ever had that ability?
Ross had never been able to conjure mental images, and he was astounded that other people have that ability. His revelation led him to ask friends and family members on Facebook to describe their thought processes to him and help him understand how people can actually “see” images in their minds of objects, people, or scenes they aren’t looking at. Studies on aphantasia are limited — the number of people who have it is inconclusive. A survey conducted in 2009 suggests that it affects approximately 2% of the population, though Ross does note that only 2500 people were surveyed.
Even after reading Ross’s article, the experience of aphantasia was difficult for me to imagine. Just as it hadn’t occurred to Ross that other people could conjure images in their minds, it hadn’t occurred to me that other people couldn’t. It made me reconsider how the way we think might shape our interests or strengths (generally, of course) and how my mind’s eye influences my writing.
Thinking About Thinking and Writing
Learning about aphantasia led me to think about thinking — an exercise referred to as metacognition. I realized that as a teacher, my lessons about writing and descriptive language may have failed to reach some of my students.
“Help the reader see what you experienced. Use language to recreate sounds, sights, smells, tastes, and touches.”
These are confusing instructions to someone with aphantasia.
I also realized that my mind’s eye is what enables me to write. I reach into my vault of memories and retrieve experiences to write about. Being able to “see” those experiences is essential to my ability to recount them through writing and communicate them to readers.
I see the world in words.
Ever since I learned to read, which was very early in my life, most of my mental images have been paired with corresponding printed words. For example, when I think of a blue jay, the word “blue jay” appears in my mind alongside the image of the bird. When I think of New York City, the words “New York City” pop up right along with images of street vendors, sky scrapers, and Central Park (and some of those words float along with the images as well).
When I write, I conjure the image of what I’m writing about and words hover around those images. If I’m searching for a better word, I hold the image in my mind that I’m trying to describe and run through a mental slideshow of different words that could fit for that image or experience. When the right word appears, a mental click occurs. I also consider what my reader might be thinking and ask, “Is this language going to help the reader see what I see?”
The Mind’s Eye and Writing
My mind’s eye is central to my writing process. However, there are people who write without a “mind’s eye.” Blake Ross is one of them.
Perhaps the most fascinating part of Ross’s article and experience is that he is a writer. He explains how the writing process is different for him than it is for other writers — he can’t visualize in his mind what he is writing on the page. As a result, he says that “writing fiction is torturous” and he is amazed that he has “given people an experience [he himself has] never accessed.”
While aphantasia is the subject that got me thinking about my mental process and how I see the world through language, my reflections have extended to how people’s mental processes vary according to our interests and strengths. Do I write because I see the world in words? Do mathematicians see the world in numbers? Do architects see the world in varied structures? Do artists see the world in colors and shapes? Do photographers see the world in frames?
Metacognition and Writing
Engaging in metacognition is — I think — a process that can help us be better writers. When we understand that other people experience the mental process of reading and writing differently than we do, and when we understand how our own mental process influences what and how we write, we are going to write in different ways — I would argue in better ways.
I’m fascinated by how other people process reading and writing. Understanding how our readers interpret the words we give them on the page can help us communicate more clearly and reach them through the language we use to tell our stories.
What is your mental process when you read or write? Does thinking about your process help to improve your writing? Please share your experiences in the comments below.
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