Picture Talk

It would be completely awesome if one of our books became a documentary. I would think that the movie would definitely help market the book. There are some people I know who don't care for (or dare I say, don't even like) reading, but most people like to watch things, whether it's television, movies, Youtube etc. There seems to be something about a visual or a picture that appeals to our senses a lot more than words, which in a way, just look like black, crawling lines on a white surface.

Just looking at myself, I have a sort of a film running through my head all the time. Whatever I write, I see everything in moving pictures first, which I translate onto the page in words. And when I hear or read something, I translate the words into pictures in order to comprehend it. This, of course, happens both unconsciously and simultaneously. If this is a common way of thinking, it could explain why people are so attracted to pictures. Not only do people like moving pictures, but readers also love illustrations, especially when they are reading something dense. But, I am not a psychologist, so I won't get further into speculations.

Now that the digital book market is booming, we have the opportunity to incorporate more visuals into the books. But, no matter how much I like pictures, I would still like to keep my text. There are some things that can only be enhanced or explained by words. For example, take this comic by Dagsson below.

Source

Other than the fact that this comic is hilarious, imagine that the words "Anarchy in the UK" weren't there. It really wouldn't be funny at all, because the words on the bottom make up the punchline. And it still wouldn't be funny if the punchline was expressed by another picture instead of words. You see? People say a picture speaks a thousand words, but there are some things that can be adequately expressed only by words. So, in other words, the collaboration of words and pictures is important.