Flying Body Parts and Body Language

Some of our favorite times in the car are with our family listening to books on tape. As we follow CSU Pueblo’s football games around the country, we listen and analyze these books.

Last week in the car, we were listening to a well-known author. I said maybe you’re better off not knowing anything so you can just enjoy the book.  The writer wrote she sipped her coffee with tightly squinted eyes. I didn’t know you could drink coffee with your eyes. Then the eyes dropped to the floor and looked around. The eyes need to stay in her head.

And those tags are so distracting. They break the cadence. Today, you don’t write tags like she says, he says. You have to write it in the voice of the character so there is no question who is saying what. If the writer says one more time, “Tim died,” I’m going to scream. How many times is she going to tell the same story? I get it.

My daughter said to me, “Well, listen to you, Old Smarty Pants. The author writes a good story and I used to read all her books, but I quit reading them because she is so redundant.”

Of course this famous writer has been in the business for thirty years. But, today the editors would not take her as a new author. She can get by with it because people buy her books and she has sold millions of books.

I’ve told my children I have grown as a writer. It was an abstract statement to them and I don’t think they believed me or took me serious.  On this trip, my kids were impressed, almost shocked with how much I’ve learned over the last few years honing the craft of writing and spending hours and hours with my editor friend.

I told my kids that my editor friend would not let me get by with this sloppy writing. Thank God she won’t. That’s why my second book is held up because of editing. We’ve gone through each line, each sentence, each paragraph, and each chapter by chapter.

Apparently I haven’t learned enough. When she read a scene in my book, she said to me, “Libby just asked Frank to do something, he agreed but he put his hands in his pockets. Frank just said by his body language, “I don’t want to do it.” Did Frank want to do it? I said of course he wanted to do it. She said you’re not saying that.

Then in another scene the sheriff came up and saw the pregnant girl. My friend said to me, have him do something. I said, I’ve had him adjust his gun in his holster, hold his pad, write something, ask questions, but I’m not sure what else he could do. She said, “Have the sheriff put his hand over his belt buckle. When a man sees a pregnant woman, he will put his hand over his belt buckle.

Are you kidding me? Wow! I didn’t know that. Does other people know that?

She said, “Watch and see.” Then she gave me a lesson in biology.

I said to her, I’ve got to Google Body Language. I can’t believe I’m almost finished with this second novel and I’ve got to go back through and check it out. I’m sure my characters are not saying what they need to be saying with their actions. I thought dialogue was sufficient.

Google has become my best friend. This is what I learned. There is an accurate way of seeing people’s thoughts, emotions or moods by reading their body language. People speak about 75% through their bodies. For example, if a person has a habit of touching his or her nose, people could perceive it as a sign of deception. They are interpreting that gesture as untrustworthy. You could think they are telling the truth, but they are lying because of how their body is acting.

I Googled Body Language. There are a lot of sites on dating and how to act when you want someone to notice you. I’m not planning to enter the dating scene any time soon and hopefully never. But if I’m going to get these characters right, I’m going to have to learn how to act when dating. Oh me. It’s always another learning curve.

In a dating scene when a woman inspects a man over her shoulder with curiosity, she’s checking him out and saying I’m interested. He looks back over his shoulder at her and he’s saying, I’m checking you out, too. I’m also interested.

Another site showed a few movie star couples and how they stand next to each other. The writer of the article claimed how they stand beside each other will tell how long they will be together as a couple.

One of my favorites was Tom Arnold, he had his girlfriend in a body clutch. His arm was around her and his knuckles were white in a tight hold. The writer said it wouldn’t last and he was right.

Final Brushstroke! I need to get these body parts right and my character’s body language acting right since they are saying more than I thought. My characters are fictional, but apparently they are talking out of school and telling on me. It’s time to get some more schooling.

Life after the game – Not the end of the story

As I watched the Pagosa Pirates Football Team play their hearts out during the Bayfield game, I saw the hurt in the players. I knew there would be life after the game. It was the last game of the season, but far from the end of the story.

The score didn’t reflect the player’s determination, effort and heartache on the field and off the field. The boys of fall didn’t just show up on Friday night, they started training at the beginning of summer and officially started in August practicing every day getting ready for Pagosa Football Season 2014.

One player was hobbling off the field, turned around and went back into his position. He made several more tackles after that. Another one was made fun of from the smart-mouth announcer from Bayfield. I wanted to wring the announcer’s neck and put a sock in his mouth, but I was sitting on the other side of the field. Just as well, it wouldn’t have been a very pretty sight for a grandma to come unglued.

I understand why parents get so involved. They see what their child is going through. These young men are growing up and it hurts to see them struggle, but it’s necessary.

I would be amiss if I didn’t write this article. Our grandsons have graduated and gone on, but Friday nights under the lights are as real and poignant as the tears of the players and the heartbreak of the parents.

I remember last year when our grandson was kicked off the field during a home game for un-sportsmanship behavior. He had the one final game to play and he missed it. His senior football season was over. There wouldn’t be another game for him in his #72 jersey on the Pagosa Pirate field. He grew up on that field.

That was emotional for all of us at the time. I know it was just high school football, but it was a hard time. His uncles from New Jersey came to Pagosa just to watch him play. He wasn’t finished with the game of football. His whole life has been studying football and his career choice is to become a college football coach. We thought the un-sportsmanship call would ruin his changes and a college wouldn’t look at him.

Even though he excelled in wrestling his last year of high school, and was even offered wrestling scholarships for college, there was unfinished business with football.

He loves to come back to the Pagosa field on Friday nights just to support and cheer on his friends. He understands how much it matters to them. He has walked in their cleats.

Something on Pagosa’s field made him determine to go on to be the best football player on a winning team. He chose a college not for academics but one that has a winning football program.

The head coach said to his mom, “We can do so much with that passion and but we can’t give it to them. They have to be born with that fire in them. This is what we are scouting for!” They saw his potential, not by the wins or losses of his senior year’s team, but by his determination.

He will finish up what had been taken away from him. His College had a 42/0 record until a couple of weeks ago. They lost their winning streak, but are back to winning. They needed that wake up call to jolt them out of complacency.  I am learning you can be complacent even when you are winning. Hmm, that’s something to ponder on later.

My Sweet Al and I, along with his parents have been outfitted in red and blue and we are burning up the road again traveling to cheer on the CSU Pueblo Thunder Wolves. Our grandson is red shirting this year, and was named scout of the week from among 50 other redshirts.

Bayfield is always the last game of the season and also a rock in the shoe for Pagosa. My daughter said, “Our boys are so sweet, why does Bayfield treat them so badly?” My answer to her was, “Maybe we are growing tough men. And it hurts a lot.”

Bayfield is not going away. I noticed on their lineup a 6’4” sophomore who will be back next year.  The announcer for Bayfield will probably be back, too. He’s not go away either. But, the story is far from being over. I want to remind the young warriors of Pagosa they may not have won Friday night but their opponent was hurting the next day.  This is just the beginning of their next journey. When they are suiting up for a winning college team then they’ll understand the battle.

Final Brushstroke! Everything we experience today, even our failures are designed for tomorrow’s victory. You might change school colors, but you don’t change your passion for football and the determination to win.