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Visions



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Mon May 11, 2015 4:03 pm
Afternight says...



Hey everyone.
I've been writing a character who is suffering from memory loss and i've been thinking about giving him visions from the memories he's forgotten but i really don't know how describe single images in these visions.
for example in one frame of these visions is a young brunette in coffee shop
and in another image in the same vision my character is holding a gun
how would you go about describing these kind of stuff?
by the way , i don't know if it's relevant, but i'm writing in a first persons view.
Thanks
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Tue May 12, 2015 4:24 am
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Rosendorn says...



You can indicate some sort of sudden transition in a number of ways. He could feel like he's blinking, or he could simply narrate a sudden switch. You could also go for a fragmented writing style, where you go one paragraph at a time and don't point out any of the sudden shifts.

If you're going for first person and have it be fragmented, I'd attempt to have each "part" of the vision be a single paragraph, keeping it to snippets and things he'd notice, then jump to the next segment with a new paragraph. Then you can create a scatted, chaotic flow that feels more directly like what he's going through.
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Tue May 12, 2015 4:53 am
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Vervain says...



To add to what Rosey said, an interesting thing: Smell is more associated with memory than sight is. If someone smells something, it's likely going to remind them of a certain situation or a point in time, so you could build that into the "visions" that you're giving this character as well, and it could give them an extra layer of depth. So not only would you be working with what he saw, and what he remembered he saw, but what he felt, smelled, heard, depending on the situation he's remembering.
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Tue May 12, 2015 10:59 pm
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birk says...



Even though it doesn't really get into the 'vision' part you're looking for, I have an example for you which is too perfect not to post. And I love it.

Memento Mori

This is 'Memento Mori', a short story written by Jonathan Nolan. It deals with a man who has a rare case of memory loss. If that's what you're writing about, then it's definitely useful to read this. It's also my absolute favorite short story, so I can't praise it enough.
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