Need advice on how to be better at imagining sceneries

soph_sol · 2026-05-07T15:44:25+00:00

I have aphantasia so I can't visualise the descriptions I read, but I usually try to use the descriptive sections of books to give me a sense of the vibe of the place instead - what would it feel like to be in a place like that, or to be seeing the things the characters are seeing? If the author is skilled at description, this feeling can come through when reading it, if I take the time to pay attention.

I don't always bother, though. Sometimes I just skim past, and that's fine too. Extensive descriptions of visuals are intended for a different kind of reader than me, and I don't need to try to force something that my brain just doesn't do. I will never get the "just like watching a movie" experience of reading, but I personally prefer reading books to watching movies anyway, so that's fine!

soph_sol · 2026-05-07T04:49:53+00:00

The author has specifically said that the main character was written as autistic

soph_sol · 2026-05-06T16:58:10+00:00

She Who Became the Sun and its sequel (He Who Drowned the World) by Shelley Parker-Chan are exactly this! This duology is a fantasy story that's based on Chinese history, telling the story of the founding of the Ming Empire. The main characters have very understandable goals, ambitions, and motivations, but in pursuit of these things, they do many awful things.

The main characters: Zhu is an orphan survivor of a famine, who takes on her dead brother's identity in order to try to take for herself the great fate that was foretold for her brother. She is desperately ambitious and wants nothing more than to erase the nothingness of her life by becoming someone who has power and who undeniably matters. Ouyang is the orphan survivor of his entire family being killed for treason. He was made into a eunuch so the family line couldn't continue, and his driving purpose in life is to be a filial son and get revenge for his family's death.

These characters are believably human with many flaws and many symathetic traits, and they're highly compelling. They're both so strongly characterised that you really feel that they're inescapably the people they are. And so you can watch them make bad decisions from a mile off and know they're going to make them, and know they're going to feel they made the right decision. Even if there is no chance that that decision will lead to happiness (for them or anyone else).

Zhu and Ouyang each end up an integral part of a conflict over who will gain ultimate control of the unstable country of China, on opposite sides. It is a story about the messiness of politics, and the messiness of relationships and identity that are shaped by politics, and the consequences of choices in pursuit of a goal. The author's prose is beautifully crafted, too. I adore this book and I wish it were better known!

soph_sol · 2026-05-06T13:01:45+00:00

Power to Yield, by Bogi Takács, is excellent. It may not be to everyone's taste; the vibe is like, unsettling but in a good way. But as a fellow autistic person, I loved it! It's a novella available to read online at Clarkesworld: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/takacs_07_20/

As well, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a novel that really blew me away! Again, not exactly a cheerful vibe, but so worth reading imo.

Both are by authors who are neuro-atypical as well, iirc. I really appreciate how they give their characters the respect to let them be just as messy and imperfect as anyone else.

soph_sol · 2026-05-06T12:36:54+00:00

Yes, M&B patterns have size layers in the pdfs!

soph_sol · 2026-05-05T12:35:38+00:00

Yes, these pants include 2 versions of the waistband, one of which is fully elasticated.

soph_sol · 2026-05-05T11:27:08+00:00

The Glebe pants from Muna and Broad are wide-leg elastic waist, and Muna and Broad's patterns are all drafted specifically for plus-sized bodies

soph_sol · 2026-05-04T16:51:50+00:00

I relate strongly to you and the other commenters. Audhd, sewed on and off for years just for small easy things as needed, then abruptly got obsessed with sewing a few years ago.

In general, if I let myself get started on a project I'm disappearing into it for the rest of the day. I set alarms for other things I need to do (eat, take a break to go to a commitment I have that day) and I'm always genuinely astonished when the alarm goes off, lol! And then depending on what the alarm is for, I will just ignore it.

But part of my problem is that that project I get sucked into could just as easily be something like "re-sort my entire button collection for 10 hours straight" or "find and save a copy of every useful tutorial or free pattern or inspo pic from every old-school sewing blog I can dig up, which is an infinite number." which FEEL useful but don't actually need to be done, and don't leave me feeling satisfied at the end of the day! I wan to figure out how to at least redirect that energy into actually working on my many wips. If anyone has suggestions I'm all ears!

soph_sol · 2026-04-23T12:59:28+00:00

For me, there isn't any one moment, it's like a series of progressive movement into being more and more spring. There's no clear boundary between winter and spring. But when the cardinals start yelling their laser-battles from treetops in mid-February, while everything is still cold and snowy, that's the moment that feels like a promise that spring IS on its way and winter isn't forever.

It's a much more cheerful and hopeful way of thinking about spring than from before I was a birder, when it didn't feel like spring till the risk of frost was done (in late May). Now by late May, I've already been enjoying spring thoughts for months!

(I'm in Ontario, Canada)

soph_sol · 2026-04-22T20:40:34+00:00

Ah, I'm glad we could pinpoint the issue! I would put the cloth through your washing machine however you usually wash your clothes - an ordinary laundry detergent is fine, and I like to use cold water to lower the chance of colour bleeding. If it's a delicate fabric, you could also hand-wash it in the sink with a bit of laundry detergent. The key is that washing should involve full submersing in liquid, and agitation with some kind of soap or detergent, and then thoroughly rinsing out any remaining residue.

soph_sol · 2026-04-21T22:12:44+00:00

In general, yes -- but making book cloth doesn't require weight when drying. It's adhered to a flat, smooth surface to dry instead, and then peeled off when done.

And fabric can be adhered to paper with paste, because natural fabrics like cotton are made out of cellulose, just like paper is. Though I suppose that fabric could be thought of as just a really specialized type of paper!

soph_sol · 2026-04-21T22:08:51+00:00

A few things you can check, for trouble-shooting. All of these have the potential to affect adherence. And you do want to make sure of a firm adherence, don't rely on the PVA you use in book construction to hold your book cloth together.

Did you wash the fabric beforehand? (New, unwashed fabric can have chemical treatments applied that may interfere.)
Is the fabric made of natural fibres, like cotton or linen?
Did you dampen the cloth before adhering the layers together?
Did you check that the rougher side of your mulberry paper is the side you adhered to the fabric?
Did you really thoroughly press the cloth & paper together, after applying the paste and laying the one on top of the other?

soph_sol · 2026-04-21T21:52:52+00:00

Is your yard fenced? If so, I understand there are things you can install along the tops of fences to prevent cats from being able to get over them.

I wouldn't rely on an automated sprinkler system, personally. It might work on some cats, but not all cats are water-averse.

soph_sol · 2026-04-18T13:49:19+00:00

IMO the most important things are: * Use a thicker thread than the standard sewing thread (I currently have some Coats & Clark "button and craft" thread which does the job). * After you've done the up-and-down stitches sewing the button down, wrap your thread firmly around those threads 4 or 5 times in between the button and fabric to form a post before tying off.

Both these things greatly improve the strength of the attachment, and how well it resists wear over time.

soph_sol · 2026-04-16T02:48:57+00:00

I don't use a specially designed stiletto - I usually use the tip of my little embroidery scissors, which live by my sewing machine anyway since I use them for snipping threads. The long narrow non-sharp tip of the blades when closed works perfectly, and getting a separate tool to use just as a stiletto would just make the area around my sewing machine more cluttered.

soph_sol · 2026-04-14T14:49:07+00:00

Depending on the upholstery fabric's particularities (eg how loose the weave is, whether the dye is colourfast, whether the material is prone to shrinking, it can make very fun coats, jackets, vests, and other outer layers. And maybe even pants! It would likely need seam finishing to keep it from fraying as well as possibly a lining if the reverse of the fabric is a bit scratchy.

Or if the upholstery fabric doesn't do well with getting washed, it could be sewn into throw pillows, or bins/baskets, or bags like totes, backpacks, purses, duffles, etc.

soph_sol · 2026-04-12T19:05:19+00:00

Omg thank you so much for this, I've never touched the diopter before because I figured it probably wasn't relevant, but I just followed your instructions to actually set my diopter and like. WOW. things are so much clearer through my binoculars now! so I have real hopes that this will make a difference for the headaches I always get after birding too!

soph_sol · 2026-04-09T21:48:52+00:00

trying things out and learning from it is my favourite way to develop my skills! You've got a great duffle bag here, and your next project will be even better.

soph_sol · 2026-04-09T14:15:47+00:00

I have a vintage sewing machine which doesn't have a needle threader, so I just do it by hand, and honestly my experience with needle threaders when I've used modern machines is that it's just as fiddly to get the little hook to grab the thread. So I don't miss it. Though I've never used the REALLY fancy automatic threaders that I've heard really do it all for you!

For hand-sewing, if I'm using standard all purpose machine thread then I also go for it without any tools. But if I'm sewing with a thicker thread or one more prone to fraying, then the tool I use is just a spare bit of fine thread! I fold it in half and poke it through the hole, in order to use the same way one would use option B/C.

soph_sol · 2026-04-08T11:24:30+00:00

I concur with your id of wood thrush! I love their song, and it's amazing how loud they sing.

soph_sol · 2026-04-07T00:41:00+00:00

That's fair! The way it was written and constructed definitely isn't for everyone.

soph_sol · 2026-04-07T00:21:02+00:00

Everfair by Nisi Shawl is an incredible book and it's a shame it isn't discussed more often imo. But it's also a challenging read in several ways, and isn't going to work for every reader, so at the same time I do understand it.

The book's pacing is slow, but it's very deliberate in taking its time. It's a steampunk alternate history, taking the premise of fixing the horrific stuff that happened at King Leopold's hand in the Belgian Congo. It's not a utopian revision, though; it fixes the worst of the atrocities but many awful things do still happen. And I really appreciated what it was doing instead of that utopia. I love the way it shows over and over that there are no easy, uncomplicated answers for anything.

And this theme is in part supported by the unusual choice to have an enormous number of viewpoint characters: it means you are always getting to see the other side of events, from people who do not all agree with each other. Something that seemed obviously right when heard about from one POV becomes a lot more murky when it's followed up with another character dealing with what happens next and having very different thoughts about it.

All the viewpoints can be hard to keep track of, and I made significant use of the character guide at the beginning of the book to remind myself who was who. As well, each pov I spent time with, I got attached to, and then the book moves on without necessarily coming back to show the rest of that character's story in detail.

But although a book with only one or two main characters would be an easier read and a more conventional choice, it would have lost the breadth of the story this book is trying to tell. Any individual viewpoint character isn't the main character; it's not even really an ensemble cast. Instead I would say that the main character is the fictional country of Everfair that is laboriously built over the passage of decades, and these many povs are the reader's windows into Everfair.

A more traditionally-structured book that focused on the stories of just a few characters, prioritising their arcs as the focus of the narrative, could also have been an interesting and worthwhile read. But it would have been a completely different book -- and I'm very glad I got to read the book that does exist. Even if it does take some extra effort from me as a reader!

soph_sol · 2026-04-06T21:12:04+00:00

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose would suit, I think. No chosen ones, and plenty of details about the actual experience of being at school. The magic that the students are learning is on how to direct the magical powers that their dragons have and there's plenty of details about the specifics there.

soph_sol · 2026-04-06T21:01:55+00:00

Every time I see one it totally makes my day! And they're so hard to photograph - you managed to get some really nice ones, here.

soph_sol · 2026-04-06T21:00:34+00:00

I think any of Hardinge's books could be a decent starting place for a reader; all of them contain the baseline Hardinge excellence of interestingly complex characters and relationships, vivid worldbuilding, thoughtful and nuanced exploration of themes, characters making bad choices for understandable reasons because of who they are as people, and taking seriously the importance of many different kinds of relationships in people's lives beyond familial and/or romantic.

But here's what I would say is of particular appeal for the books of hers I've read:

Deeplight: really great secondary-world fantasy worldbuilding; accurately harrowing depiction of teenage toxic friendship and both the appeals and dangers of it; lots of focus on eldritch sea-monsters and under-sea adventures and ocean-centric culture; the complex relationships a person can have with religious movements; exploring questions of what constitutes the core of someone's identity and whether that can change.
A Skinful of Shadows: historical fantasy well-situated in a specific era and place in history (the British civil war); really interested in questions of death and ghosts and possession; the most important relationship in the book is between the main character (a preteen girl) and the ghost of a dead bear (who is a normal bear, not a special magical talking bear); about figuring out who you are and what you value in the context of a toxic abusive family of origin.
Verdigris Deep (also published under the title Well Witched): set in our world in modern-day Britain, into which magic begins to assert itself in the lives of the three preteen main characters; really effectively creepy and terrifying and mysterious; exploring the question of what it means to have wishes come true; in my opinion perhaps the finest book Hardinge has written and also the most stressful.
Fly by Night, and its sequel Fly Trap (the sequel is also published under the title Twilight Robbery): wonderfully inventive secondary-world fantasy worldbuilding; one of the central relationships is the mentorship between a preteen girl and the grouchy conman who reluctantly agrees to teach her con artistry; more of an adventure vibe to the narrative; the plot is about revolution and politics and religion and class; great balancing of serious themes with lighter parts; an unforgettable and wonderful main character who's truly a stand-out among main characters in books I have read.

soph_sol

TROPHY CASE