During my writing career, I’ve had the good fortune to engage with many topics that were fun to write. A Baker’s Dozen For Writers: 13 Tips for Great Storytelling was not only fun to write, but fun to publish.

As a self-diagnosed sufferer of technophobia, the acts of formatting and cover design leave me with heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and a compulsion to run down the street screaming, “Help! Please save me from this!” Fortunately, fellow author and friend Sharmyn McGraw rescued me from sinking deep into my technophobia by creating the adorable cover design and professional formatting for A Baker’s Dozen For Writers, thereby making publishing this little book as fun as writing it.

And now it makes me happy to offer the following excerpt as my tiny gift to you, so you can experience how much fun I had writing it.

Tip Eight- The Body Speaks

“I speak two languages, Body and English.” — Mae West

While Ms. West excelled at using body language to her advantage and to the delight of her viewing audience, writers often overlook this opportunity. We spend hours, draft after draft, selecting the right words and crafting them into phrases and sentences we hope will leave the reader spellbound. Perhaps it’s because we sit so still while engaged in our craft that we forget to pull this creative device out of our toolbox.

Body language speaks!

Body language conveys emotions, intentions, personality traits, character development, and even plot twists. It discloses information the reader has not learned from the dialogue, backstory, or internal thoughts. Well-crafted body language is critical to successfully showing instead of telling.

A note of caution …

Overuse of body language perplexes readers. A character who paces, flails, and frowns sends an overload of movements, gestures, and facial expressions that confuse readers as to what they are supposed to learn from this silent form of communication. The goal is to give the reader a greater understanding of what the character is feeling or thinking. But when a character appears to be performing a mime show or to have been overtaken by a twitching fit, the opportunity to convey deeper meaning is lost. Like so many aspects of creative writing, the most powerful body language is subtle and strategic.

Let’s get specific.

In Running with Sharp Objects, Gilligan Flynn could have written, “I grabbed her and clenched her waist so tight my arms ached as we spun so fast that my cheeks were flapping against my face, tickling me.”

But a reader struggling to visualize this surplus of body language, an overload of grabbing, clenching, aching, spinning, flapping, and tickling, is bound to be distracted from the meaning Flynn intended to convey. Fortunately for readers, she had the wisdom to include only those movements needed to connect her readers with the joy of this encounter.

“We were spinning so fast my cheeks were flapping, tickling me.”

The secret in the power of her words? She chose those most relevant and impactful for the scene and no others.

Emotions

The gift of body language is that it brings emotions to life instead of telling the reader what the movements look like and what they should think about them. When writing, emulate the example provided by Gilligan Flynn. Keep it tight. Don’t state the obvious or offer the same insight already delivered by dialogue. Use body language to make public something the character is trying to hide, or the reader might not expect.

A passage that reads “He kissed her and forced his lips into a smile” is a classic example of telling. To show this event, you might write, “His dry lips barely brushed hers.” In both cases, the reader receives the message that this fella is not really into her, not interested in kissing her. But in the first version, the reader is told what happens rather than allowed the freedom to interpret the lack of emotion in this kiss.

Contrast and Irony

Body language can express a contradiction between what the character is saying and doing. Such irony creates humor, suspense, or surprise for the readers.

Consider:

She felt her head nod at everything he said, as if of its own free will. But her eyes were locked in a long-distance embrace with the blue-eyed man who casually tipped his glass toward her.

The contradiction of the nod to one man and the eye-locking gaze with another sets the stage for all sorts of possibilities. Based on personal experience, a reader may believe he knows what will happen next, but he can’t be sure. Now the reader is hooked and must continue reading.

Experiment with body language that exposes the character’s unique personality, mood, background, or relationships with others. Avoid generic or clichéd gestures that might apply to anyone in a variety of circumstances.

Another example of contrast and irony:

He shouted, “I would never lie to you.” Yet his glance darted around the room as if searching for a rathole down which he could escape.

Now, is your reader predicting this fella will sneak away, or stand his ground and continue the deception? Which will it be? Once again, the reader must read on.

Mood and Tone

Body language can reinforce or contradict the mood or tone expected by the reader. For example:

When he leaned in to kiss her, she forced her nose not to wrinkle up at the stink of his garlic breath.

The reader instantly flashes back to a time when they too expected the type of kiss that gets the heart pounding, only to end up gasping for breath. And what does this shared memory accomplish? It bonds the reader and the character. The reader is now vested in this relationship.

Have Fun!

Spice up your narratives and give your characters an extra bit of oomph. Dialogue and narrative do not provide the best delivery of all concepts. This is the perfect time to use body language to share an underlying emotion, characteristic, or intent that is not evident in any other way in your story. Use movement to enhance or undermine what the reader thinks they know or what they have come to expect. Most importantly, have fun with the richness body language adds to the reader’s experience.

Dr. Pat Spencer has a lifetime of experience publishing fiction and nonfiction. Her historical fiction novel, Golden Boxty in the Frypan, is published with Pen It Publications. Pat also indie-published A Baker’s Dozen For Writers: 13 Tips for Great Storytelling and Story of a Stolen Girl, an International thriller. Her literary fiction trilogy, Sticks in a Bundle, is prepared for publication. Pat’s short story, A Healing Place, won the 2019 Oceanside Literary Festival. Other short stories and articles are published in online literary magazines and blogs. Pat formerly authored columns in the Press-Enterprise newspaper and Inland Empire Magazine.