Interesting, I wonder to what degree that the experience of aphantasia is a scale. For instance when I am writing, or reading, I get vague impressions off the physicality of what I am reading or writing, so I can imagine the weight behind a deep dark forest the way its presence weighs on a scene, but not the specific appearance of the forest no matter how well its written. In action scenes i tend to imagine the motions of the scene, meanwhile during more emotional scenarios I dont imagine the emotions the character is feeling(I struggle with theory of mind) but I can imagine the weight and tension the emotions bring to the scene like to the affect of gravity or inertia in a physical scene. 

So  on  one hand I get more than just words, but I dont get much more than impressions to accompany those words.