TECH: Nanowrimo Notes #25: Shake Yo Booty?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Work Your Body

Or at least your character's body . . . characters' bodies? Anyway, as you thunder along the nanowrimo chapters, you've got people saying and doing things, right? And part of what's going on is what's called body language -- nonverbal communication using posture and motions. Yes, it does include those hand gestures that we all have seen, but there's a lot more to it than just that.

http://changingminds.org/techniques/body/body_language.htm has a whole section about different kinds of messages that are often identified in body language:

1. Aggression
2. attention
3. boredom
4. closed -- sort of the opposite of attention
5. deception
6. defensive
7. dominating
8. emotional
9. evaluating, judging and deciding
10. greetings
11. openness -- that's the real opposite of closed
12. power
13. readiness
14. relaxation
15. romantic
16. submissive

To some extent, we can all think of how people express most of those -- the way they stand, the way they hold their body, their arms, their expression. The trick is simply to figure out what your character is communicating, and whether the point of view narrator notices it or not. Then you can add the dance of body language to the dialogue, action, and all the rest.

You might want to consider the four major parts: the head or face, the arms, the torso, and the legs. Obviously, you can refine those -- fingers and such do a lot of the work. But ask yourself what the character is doing with the big parts first - then get down to the details.

One of the common places that body language gets worked into stories is around the dialogue tags. Instead of the simple "he said" or "she said" tags, we start getting "He tapped his fingers on the table." Or some other reference to body language bits and pieces. Spend a little time thinking about what the character would genuinely do -- the action tag should make sense -- and about how the POV character would notice it. And try to make it somewhat meaningful. One of the amazing things about stories and movies from a little bit earlier was how often characters lit cigarettes, puffed on them, stubbed them out, and so forth. Not that most of it meant anything except that the writer was nervous :-)

So there's another way to mix things up in your nanowrimo stories. Don't just have talking heads with dialogue, let them communicate with their bodies -- even if it isn't a romance. Not just action - also motions, glances, and all the other body language that makes communications so much fun!

tink
(about 400 words)
swing yo' partner, dosedo . . .