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With a red face I admit that I do. Not because I think my book will ever be a movie, but just because it's fun.

And sometimes I'll be watching a movie and see an actor or actress and think, "She/he could play [name of character]."

And if the movie is 20 years old and the actor has since aged out of the role, too bad!

I have an alternative mindset. If one of my novels was made into a movie I would love for it to be unknowns in the roles and they become famous actors after doing the parts. I wouldn't want them type-cast only to always look back and enjoy what gave them their big break.

Good answer!

When I was a kid, it took me a long time to figure out that the actors were not actually the person they played in the movie. Once I had seen them in one movie, they were forever "typecast" in my head.

Sometimes it helps the flow of a story to imagine it as a movie, but I can't say I've every thought about what actors might play the characters. Then, I'm always a fan of the writer/director making the story their own. I'd be more curious to see how a film maker interprets my work rather than expect a strict telling...

jjmainor wrote: ↑24 Sep 2018, 21:56 Sometimes it helps the flow of a story to imagine it as a movie, but I can't say I've every thought about what actors might play the characters. Then, I'm always a fan of the writer/director making the story their own. I'd be more curious to see how a film maker interprets my work rather than expect a strict telling...

Wow, you are very restrained! I wonder what genre you write?
The way my characters look is very important to me. Maybe not so much to you?

I write science fiction and a little bit of horror under this name; Family dramas in graphic novel form under a pen name. I suppose with the graphic novels, there's no question what the characters look like, but with straight prose, my opinion is I want the reader to imagine their own "character." Besides, the aesthetics are rarely important to my stories. It really doesn't matter if a character has blond hair or brown, so I figure let the reader plug in their favorite.

And in the unlikely event my stories get made into movies, I won't have fans crying that the actors selected don't look like the characters as described in the book.

I would imagine what my characters look like, but they aren't "actors" because it's their story.
I don't really put real actors/ actresses face for the characters. Mostly because I never really think about it. Now that I do, I'm also afraid of the actors'/ actresses' PR might ruin my impression of the characters, if I ever link them together.

I do that too because i feel more happy that way and write even better

It's funny and helpful to have a start point. But I don't exactly use their features. It would be boring!