One of the threads that runs through The Eleventh Floor that has fascinated readers is the protagonist’s ability to see names as colours. This phenomenon is called synaesthesia. I stole the idea from my sister-in-law, Catherine, who has it. I loved this quirk so much that I assigned it to Gracie and if reader feedback is anything to go by, it gave the story an extra layer of interest.

In order to keep track of each character’s colour, I kept a spreadsheet. When it came to allocating colours I took creative licence and tried to match colours that felt like they went with the character’s traits (good=lighter colours, bad=darker colours). It was a curious process and I did have to unpack why I was making the darker colours equate to evil. Across cultures and throughout history, we have associated black with wicked: villains attack at night, they wear dark clothing, we talk about “the dark side” and associate shadows with suspense and fear.

Catherine told me my colours were all wrong (as a joke!) but interestingly enough, everyone who has synaesthesia sees different colours for different words or numbers. Some people see music as art. Some associate a feeling with sounds.

Catherine was kind enough to answer some of my questions on the topic.

What is synaesthesia exactly?

Synaesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon where stimulation of one sensory pathway automatically stimulates a secondary sensory pathway. The most common form is the stimulation of colours when exposed to words, letters and numbers however music can also stimulate colours or smells or tastes. It can also work the other way around where certain smells or tastes stimulate music or shapes. Some people feel that certain numbers or words are further away than others.
We don't really understand why some people have synaesthesia or how it occurs but it appears from a very early age.

How do you experience it?

My type of synaesthesia is called grapheme-colour synaesthesia where I see colours in letters, words and numbers. This is the most common form of synaesthesia. The colours are unique for each person although apparently for most people A is red (not for me though, it's more of a steel blue colour).

When did you discover you had it?

I first found out I had synaesthesia in first year medical school in a neurology lecture where it was described as an abnormal connection in the brain. I was most surprised because it's how my brain has always worked and I didn't realise that everyone's brains didn't work the same way! Surely Monday is white for everyone!!

How does it influence your day-to-day?

It's hard to describe how it influences my daily life because it just feels normal for me to have a colour in my head when I am thinking of words, names, days of the week or numbers. One example of how it affects me occurred to me recently when I was visiting a friend who worked in a cafe called The Goldfish Bowl. I had to look up how to get there on google maps and I kept typing in The Honeypot because to me, they are almost identical words because of their colour (a white and yellow sort of colour). I also remember people's names because of the colour of them. For example someone called Lisa has a yellow name so when I think of them, names like Kylie or Julie come into my head.
Sometimes people have names that are the wrong colour!! For example I know two sisters called Maddy and Caitlin. To me, Maddy is a deep burgundy name and Caitlin is a really blonde/white/yellow name. Now Maddy has blonde hair and Caitlin has dark hair. I find it really difficult to see them in the "wrong" colours so I have to consciously switch their colours around in my head when I see them so that I get their names correct. Fortunately for me, my children all match the colour of their names!
The days of the week all have colours and each day has a certain feel about it as a result.
Some things seem to match up though....

Monday and the number 1 are white.
Tuesday and the number 2 are yellow.
Wednesday and the number 3 are red.
Thursday and the number 4 are green.
Friday is where it falls over though because Friday is blue and the number 5 is red.

Some letters have really strong colours and they tend to dominate words. E is an example. It's very, very red. So is 3. I think it has something to do with the similar shape of E and 3. Words and names with E in them tend to be also very red. Like Wednesday or Elliot or Emma or Steven.

Is it genetic? Do any of your kids have it?

I don't know if it is genetic and none of my kids have the same thing I have. My daughter says she can feel the shape of words in her head (which I certainly do too). My son has perfect pitch which is where he hears a particular note and he knows that it is an A or a G# for example. He can always pick the bird call of the Victorian Grey Shrike thrush because it starts on an A flat! That feels to me like a type of synaesthesia because most people do not associate hearing 440Hz with the letter A! His synaesthesia is much more useful than mine though because he can always play his cello in tune and sing in tune because he knows what the exact pitch of the notes should be. I feel like my synaesthesia is a bit useless!

Do you wish I didn’t mention it at my launch so you weren’t inundated with questions?!!

I am always happy to explain my synaesthesia to people although I find it very hard to describe how the colour appears in my brain. The closest example I can come up with is, if I ask you to picture a banana in your head, you see something yellow. That's how Tuesday is for me!

What colour is my name? And yours?

Kylie is a very strong yellow colour despite the E at the end. Catherine is really tricky because it has many strong letters (A is blue, T is green, H is blue, E is red, I is yellow, C and N don't really have strong colours). The multiple strong letters mean the name overall doesn't have a particular colour, it's more of a multicoloured name.

This gift of synaesthesia is endlessly fascinating to me and I kind of wish I had it!

How about you?

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Kx

Seeing colours as names. What is this witchcraft?

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