What Goes into Building a Movie in Our Mind?

Thank you to everyone who commented on my post last time about aphantasia,or “mind blindness.” As we discovered, not everyone can create a movie in their mind when writing or reading (which, as Davonne theorized, might explain why some don’t enjoy fiction).

But even for those of us without aphantasia, as writers, we can still struggle to create a well-rounded world or characters that feel real. Or as readers, we might never feel fully immersed in a story to get the whole movie-in-our-mind ef...