I don't know how to imagine stuff?

Question

I loved reading when I was younger and I still do now, but not anymore as in 1 hour ago. If I'm reading a book, I can't imagine a character on my own. I'll have to look up someone that meets the description that the author writes in order to know what they look like. I have to look at a face. And if I have no way of looking up someone to play a character I'll just choose a random celebrity or someone else that I use as a character in another book. And I hate this. I hate reading now because I just can't do it anymore. It's hard to look up a picture of some random person on google to play a character in a book and keep that image in their head. But mostly, I'll have to choose people in a movie or something so I can hear their voice or how they talk or walk, so I can read my book knowing how they truly are. 

For example, I'm reading Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I see the names of all these characters but I can't visualize my own person to be them. I have to look up a real person or go on YouTube and watch the videos of the "dream cast" that people select for the characters if it were to become a movie.And it's hard because I can't do this every single time a new character pops up or whenever I forget what that person looks like.

For example, If I use for example Taylor Lautner as a character, I'll end having to sit there with a picture of him so I can look back and forth so I don't forget what he looks like or certain facial feautures. I HATE DOING THIS. I just can't do it anymore. I want to sit down and just read without googling up random people to play characters in my mind. And I can't have 20 phones sitting around me so I won't forget each character's face. Please help. I know I sound crazy, but I don't know what to do. I've been recently getting back into reading as I've always had since I'm done with tests, and now I don't even want to read them anymore. Everyone knows I go crazy for books and how much I love them, and now they'll think something's wrong with me since I'm technically ranting about how much I hate books suddenly. Please help me. I can't visualize my own characters, and when I do, I'll have problems with how they'll talk or walk or whatever. Even if I have a book with a characters face on the front, I'll have to keep flipping from the cover to whatever I'm reading so I don't lose the vision of their face in my mind. Pleaseeeeee help. What do I do? Should I just quit reading all together?

Sheree · Accepted Answer

Don't quit reading! I think this is actually less to do with your problem imagining the character and more to do with the problem of getting into a state of relaxation when reading. When your reading a book you should make sure your in a good environment. Make sure that the room is quiet and not noisy as that's obviously a big distraction. Make sure that you have good lighting so that you don't have to strain your eyes. Make sure that you are sitting comfortably so that you don't have to distract yourself with moving about too much. The next thing is the book. Pick one that excites you, a genre you like, a style of writing you enjoy from the perspective you like. Then when your reading dive in. You don't have to see the character clearly in your mind's eye, because mostly when your thinking too hard about it is when it becomes difficult to envision that character. What the character looks like is not often very important to a story, so make sure you remind yourself of that. If in your head the character looks like a blank faced mannequin so what? When your over thinking it you'll see nothing. When your really into the book and carried away is when you will be able to see that character in your head. I hope this helped. Just remind yourself that the character's looks aren't important!

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I don't know how to imagine stuff?

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