Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a voracious reader (sci-fi) and I would also put it best as processing what I read as facts. I've never been able to daydream or create worlds in my minds eye such that I get lost in them (which is something I hear people who daydream are able to do). I think part of this is why I've always found creative writing to be difficult. For example in grade school I was certain I was among the few that read the most, ye…
Out of curiosity, how do you keep track of the spaces the characters move in if you can't visualise anything?
It feels like proprioception in a way. An abstract sense of knowing--facts internalized, without visual feedback.
As I read each word in a descriptive scene, it feels like my mind pulls in their definitions and tangled web of related concepts (facts), as well as personal memories, then establishes that scene as a "new memory".
When I read "Raindrops glistened in the afternoon light" my first reaction is to think of what that would feel and smell like for example. I can sort of imagine what that would look like, visually, but it's hazy and doesn't come naturally. And definitely not at the same acuity described by others.
Perhaps I'm just bad at visualization. And because I'm bad at it, my visualization skills have further atrophied and my other senses become preferred. Sounds probable that trying to stimulate visualization like in the exercises proposed in the article can redevelop the ability to visualize.