Imagining the characters in a book

[TinkerTiger]

Just wondering how normal this is as I am too embarassed to ask have never asked friends about this.

When you read a book, how do you imagine the characters? So you get a description, a woman with long flowing red hair, do you just conjure up an image of a random woman fitting the description, or is it a woman you recognise?

I alsways choose actors. In fact, I even have to work hard to use different actors across different stories if they sound like they have similar features to one I've 'used' before. I'll make it fit even if the age isn't just right. I can even remember when looking at books I've read which 'actress' had the starring role in it

Is this standard?

Just a random person that fits the description.

I have vague ideas of clothes or locations , but I can't picture any faces.

Random woman, but often with a couple of my own features, so it might be ‘me’ with totally different hair in a period costume, for example- the book I am reading at the moment is set in Edwardian times. Everyone else is random and made up in my head but that’s What I do for the main female character. Not sure what that says about me really 😅

Hi🙂 actually it varies. The book I’m reading at the minute didn’t immediately conjure anyone up so I have a picture of her in my mind from the writer’s description.

Some I do what you do though. I get really upset if actors are miscast in the film version though.

It depends, if there is too many characters I can't remember what they all look like

I sometimes think actors, i also watch shows or movies and go 'no way should they be playing that character they look nothing like in my head'

Oh wow that's interesting, I've never thought about putting myself in the story

Yes, it's hard if you've read the book before they make the film adaptation. This was the case for me when I read 'Before I Go to Sleep' and 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'. Really didn't think Colin Firth suited either role!

Luckily I read Gone Girl after the cast was announced, so imagining rhe characters was easy!

I'm really intrighued by those that say they just make up someone in their head. I've tried and I cannot do it 🙈

Never picture characters, never even spell their names out loud so am sometimes taken aback when someone says them put loud and I've never associated the sound with the name in my head.

For me they're just a sort of cloud of words.

I definitely feel that way with overly-done names like in LOTR.

I have been wondering about this recently too! I’ve always read a lot, but as a child I’m sure I was able to “invent” a character’s face and appearance in my head. However, my brain seems to have lost this ability and I can now only imagine people I have already met. So the characters take on the appearance of eg parents from the school run, people I’ve met through work, someone who works in the local shop. They’re not usually people close to me such as family or close friends though.
I can also look back at books and remember who I “used” to imagined the characters. It’s completely involuntary on the part of my brain and I do make a conscious effort to change it but I seem unable to create an original image.
It can also be quite odd when I see the person I’ve used in real life. I’ll say good morning to a parent on the school run and part of my brain will be thinking about what that character is up to in my current book!

Yes I like to pick an actor or actress who fits the description. Otherwise I only have a vague mental image.

I seem to struggle more the older I get. When I was younger it was pretty easy to conjure up a face for the character but now even with a good description I struggle to imagine them and use tend to think of actors that fit.

Oh yes you're right about being able to do it as a child! Except for me it was definitely because of the pictures on the covers. Sweet Valley Twins and The Babysitter's Club always had a lovely photo on the cover.

I struggled with Nancy Drew though as there were so many different publishers that her appearance changed a lot!

I don't know how forensic sketch artists do it!

It's amazing how reading, especially for pleasure which we are all doing here, can have such different effects in our minds.

I remember reading that some people who are very gifted at maths visualise numbers and equations in some space in their heads, wonder if it's all part of the same machinery in the brain.

I can’t form proper images in my head - more of a very blurry suggestion like an impressionist painting.

But I will look at an actor playing a role I’ve read and feel they’re not right at all. Or, read a book after the movie, and not feel the actor fits the text.

It’s very peculiar in my head.

Good question! I actually hate it when authors describe their appearance - I build their looks around how the character 'feels'. The same way film actors never look right, the author's own description may not look right 😬 Seeing as they’re taking up space in my head, I think that’s ok!

I see characters how I remember people - faceless unless I concentrate.

I always have head pictures of characters, I don’t choose to do it or choose their appearance, it just happens. I am always devastated when books are televised as they always look wrong. It’s not just people, it’s places too, Harry Potter’s home (well, the Dursley’s) was particularly traumatic. I think good head pictures are a sign of a good book / author.

Always random for me but they are always Caucasian even if the book says black. I think it’s cos it’s easier for me to imagine them

Normally I have a very fixed idea of what the characters look like, they don't normally look like a celebrity or person I know, just someone I have made up in my head.

Although in the latest Strike book for some reason I always saw Marcus Wareing as Jonathan Wace 🧐

I always find that when watching a film or TV series of a book I've read first, I either replace the character I had imagined with the actor that plays them when I re-read, or I keep with how I had imagined them. Most helpful example is Harry Potter

Harry Potter - always see Daniel Radcliffe
Ginny Weasley - always the Ginny I had imagined
Arthur Weasley - Arthur I had imagined
Mrs Weasley - Julie Walters

I do tend to conjure up an image based on what the characters say/do, etc. but they're usually a blurred representation, but places are really vivid to me for some reason - I got irrationally annoyed whilst watching Girl with a Pearl Earring as I had this complete image in my head of Vermeer's studio that I had created whilst reading the book, and it was completely wrong in the film (according to me anyway).

Interesting question and I've actually thought about this myself.
Mine are usually a mix - most are completely made up. However, there's been a few of male characters where they seem to have gradually manifested into a good looking actor in my imagination. This is usually after I build a connection with the character but is also completely involuntary. 😁

This is interesting because the locations for me are always really clear but my made up character's facial features aren't always clear.

It’s just random for me depending on the description of the person. I love the ‘images’ I get in my head from books and actively avoid TV series or films based on my favourite books as they just spoil how a book ‘looks’. A prime example is Tom Cruse playing Jack Reacher, ridiculous.