So, I could use some help. I feel like this is the best place to post this topic, but I'm sure it'll be moved to another board if not. I'm someone who's entire roleplay career has involved some form of visual stimulant/crutch, and while it's helped greatly with immersion, it's stifled my ability to not only detail a scene but keep an accurate map of the area visualized during forum roleplays. What are some suggestions to improving on this?

Well, @RiDaku, some forum RPs use images to convey components that words more easily fail to convey. We're running one such where we built a 3D model of the ship everything is happening on. That might help for a gradual transition.

and if you simply want to learn text-based descriptions... Read stuff. RPs, books, etc.

practice describing scenes from images. How did the elf kill all those orcs? Did he just stand on a pedestal shooting arrows, or did he flow through them, stabbing, decapitating, shooting arrows, etc.

@RiDaku

I believe practice and patience is your key in this area. Spending the time to think of the environment and describe it to your liking is what will help you the most. Imagery is quite fine if you want to use it, but the longer it takes to think of an area, the more you will be able to describe.

For instance I got an image here and I'm going to point out a key parts that you could use to describe the scene.


So your simple questions will be:
- What is the weather like?
- The smell of the area?
- What can you hear?

Then you can delve into the finer details:
- What does the tram look like? Are there any imperfections on its surface?
- where is the tram going? Where did it come from?
- How would you describe its arrival? A rough and ratterly stop, or on time and smooth?
- How did you get to that area? (Assuming you're playing the woman in the dress)
- Do you need a ticket, or have you already given that ticket away?

So as you can see I've created several questions about the image, but these are only from a few seconds of looking at it. The more you practice and use your visual aid, the more you will less likely need said aid and you'll be able to imagine the scene within your head. It's much the same as what @Ellri described but I'm just helping to reinforce that he is on the right track.