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.