Writer Wednesday: This Is How I See It

I've previously described myself as a 'visual writer'. Maybe I ought to explain what that means and how it works.I've always been a visual thinker, a 'big picture' person. When this is applied to my writing, it means that I 'see' the story in my head and then I write what I see. This visualisation occurs on different levels too. In the case of my current work in progress, Taking The Gardener, I had visualised the whole story outline from the start. I suppose it was something akin to a storyboard with a collection of images ordered sequentially, but needing a great deal of connecting material. On another level, each 'scene' in the story appears in great detail as still or moving images just needing to be transferred to paper.My characters are visualised clearly at the start too. I can see them clearly, including what they will be wearing in different situations. Even when new characters appear part way through the writing, my experience is that they appear to me as fully formed characters just needing to be described in writing.In just the same manner all the locations, and settings appear as clear images, it must be said that they are often images of places I have seen, known, loved.This may appear strange to some, but even dialogue often appears as if I am watching some kind of soap opera. Then I just need to write the script!This style of writing has its good and bad points. Because I'm so often describing a scene which has already played out in my head, the actual process of writing it down can feel laborious and long-winded. As for the writing process itself, that is a whole different subject - so maybe next time!