What happens when you read fiction?

MCcuddles2

When you are reading a fiction book, do you hear an internal voice reading the words? Do you see imagery in your head, like a movie, as you are reading? If not, what happens in your head when you are reading?

I'm curious to hear the different ways people process written stories.

I personally see a movie in my head. I think reading a lot at a young age helped me develop this muscle, which has been pretty useful when I'm creating things.

I don't quite have aphantasia but I'm more towards that end of the spectrum when it comes to mental imagery, so I just get quick vague flashes of things in my head when I'm reading most of the time. I do hear an internal voice, it goes between my own and specific ones for specific characters.

I read a lot when I was a kid and it hasn't really changed at all since.

Sheena123

I play it through like a slow moving movie. But my mind chooses the fine detail. I could read a perfect description of a character and my mind will think “nah, he looks like this” lol 😆

When I read, it's like a movie in my mind as well and depending on the POV character, the movie is being narrated by possibly Morgan Freeman or Kristen Stewart or whoever I think is the actor playing the character.

Travismo

I hear the words in my head, in a variety of voices. I don’t usually visualize anything. I’ve been a fervent reader since pre-school, but I just have a hard time making pictures in my head.

TouchofCherie

I have a movie going with subtitles hahaha.
I've engrossed myself in books since I could read. Such a great escape.

Babichev

All of the above. I hear the voices of the characters, see the imagery. I have a very vivid imagination.

When I read non-fiction written by someone whose voice is familiar to me, I hear their voice saying the words.

I have snyesthesia with both words and sound and am also very visual in my imagination. I'm currently reading, "Thinking, Fast and Slow, " by Daniel Kahneman. It's obviously non-fiction, but when he talks about different thinking patterns and the different parts of the brain it triggers, I imagine a real time MRI withdifferent parts of the brain lighting up, traveling down the spinal cord then traveling through the body. Example, anxiety and how it affects our physical body. With synestehsia, I'm sometimes awarded with a taste of bacon when reading. All music is just splashes of color and shapes. I thought this was normal into my twenties, but when I started talking about it, I realized I'm truly blessed, but annoying on low doses of psychedelics.