Hi writers, I don't write words, nor do I draw - but I do I "write" software tools to help people do such things :-) Dialyn's recent post "Why I like words better than pictures" reminds me of a question that has been in the back of my mind for years: While it is clear from replies to Dialyn that some of you would prefer to leave the "visualization" to the reader's mind, I am curious whether that is always the case. Specifically, I am wondering whether partly there is a "technical" barrier: for some, writing flows naturally, for others, drawing flows naturally - it may be much effort to master both. So, I'd like to offer a thought experiment. While it is "unrealistic", as such experiments are, hearing people's thoughts on this would be of real use to me, in thinking about some tool ideas that I have. Suppose there were a magic box. It took your words, and created pictures to go with it. Obviously, you would cringe at the initial results: "No, that is NOT what I pictured". OK, but this is a SMART magic box. You tell it where and how it is is "off the mark", and it keeps trying to modify the picture to please you. Now, its not as smart as having an artist friend to work with, who can inject their own creativity. But the basic idea is that you talk to it in words and by choices -- it deals with all the details of drawing and layout. Again, this is not intended as a "realistic" proposal. The question is just this: If such a magic box existed, would you as a writer have a use for it? Would you consider publishing any form of "graphic book" using it, or would you prefer to stay with straight text?