I'll think up a cool scene from a sci-fi space station, or an epic battle with a giant, or one character tearfully embracing their friend as they pass on....it's all stuff without context, other than the emotional resonance I perceive from such scenes.
That's why I think I'm better suited to visual storytelling, since I tend to focus more on the emotions that an image conveys, rather than its words. I don't know if the two are actually interchangable and that I could create that same potential through pen and paper (metaphorically. it would be typed on a computer, obviously).
Well, both of these ways require different skill sets in terms of evoking emotion out of an audience. Individual scenes in a book can absolutely tear up a person emotionally. A Prayer For Owen Meany left me a total wreck by the ending, and I had no idea a book could make me cry that much. I've had the same reaction to some films, though a comic has yet to get that kind of strong, sad emotional reaction out of me. But getting that emotional provocation in comics is as much about your skill as an artist--or finding the artist with the skill you need--to bring that image to life. Same for a scene in a movie, you need to have the eye to compose the scene, light it, and finally actors that can pull off the words and facial expressions. And of course, with written fiction, all you've got to rely on are word choices to shape the experience.
But in each instance, the problem remains the same. You have the idea in your head, and it may be strong, but without the necessary real world ability to translate that into your chosen medium, it can fall flat. A tragic death scene in a comic loses its power if all you can draw are stick figures. A sad deathbed scene in a movie can be comical if your actors are terrible, or you've chosen to shoot it like an action sequence with crash zooms and shaky cam. And a devastating confession in a novel can be dull if all you write is "He confessed and it was sad." And even after all that, if you've carefully crafted a scene, it may still lose its power if you don't have a story wrapped around it that earns that emotion. Otherwise, it's just a single scene with a curious emotional power to it, but no real resonance, since there's nothing before or after it.
To me, personally, it's just a matter of trust. For myself I made a choice to go crazy with novels as my medium of choice because it was the most feasible for pulling off what I had in my head. I haven't drawn in years, and even then, I was mediocre at best. And if you're a director, you need to be on your A-Game for working with other people, because it's such a collaborative effort. If your director of photography, actors, musicians, editors or effects people aren't all working in harmony with you, your vision can fail anywhere along the chain of production. With novels, if anything goes wrong, you really only have yourself to blame.