Body Language

[SecondCircle]

I'm fond of dialogue. When writing a story, this is one area where I notice my story starting to "write itself" and when the characters truly start to kind of talk on their own. As long as it doesn't drag on or become unnecessary, I let them talk.

There's a specific kind of dialogue I enjoy. Tarantino bores some people to death, but personally I enjoy the shit out of his dialogue scenes. I think it's because you can taste a sort of tension that builds with each line. Part of this is watching the characters react to one another in the context of the story. I'm thinking particularly at this moment of Hans Lander and how overwhelming he was for any character to speak with.

Pulling this off in written dialogue as with our stories is handled a bit different. Were we to simply write every line of the conversation, even if we used alternative dialogue tags, smooth wording, evenly distributed pacing, and all those technically sound devices... we could still wind up with a wall of text dialogue. Or it could sound terribly like a screenplay.

Personally, I enjoy body language. I find that it's often not what is said that's most intriguing, but what ISN'T said. How the characters react physically. Consider yourself as a reader like a detective. You notice the way She acts out of character when He is around. You see how She fidgets. That tell tale little half blink in Her eye. More so than that, what about the way our bodies react beyond our control? Ever received terrible news and felt that cold spike of hurt driven into your chest? Ever gotten hard or wet just by the way another person says sonething? Ever blush so badly it felt like warm oil was poured on your head?

I like to feel like I'm sitting in the room in the story, watching the exchange unfold, as opposed to say just listening to the tape as it were.

So. How do you guys handle dialogue? Are their words alone enough to intrigue? Do you use body language, character emotion and perspective? How do you personally make it more than just a wall of quotes? How do you like to read it? Anything you do that is unique to your own writing?

 

[NotWise]

I don't write bare dialog and I don't really like reading it.

I include body language and changes in the setting. If writing as an omniscient 3rd person I might also include thoughts. I've even included pets and other characters largely for the purpose of fleshing out the background to a dialog.

 

[SusanJillParker]

I'm fond of dialogue. When writing a story, this is one area where I notice my story starting to "write itself" and when the characters truly start to kind of talk on their own. As long as it doesn't drag on or become unnecessary, I let them talk.

There's a specific kind of dialogue I enjoy. Tarantino bores some people to death, but personally I enjoy the shit out of his dialogue scenes. I think it's because you can taste a sort of tension that builds with each line. Part of this is watching the characters react to one another in the context of the story. I'm thinking particularly at this moment of Hans Lander and how overwhelming he was for any character to speak with.

Pulling this off in written dialogue as with our stories is handled a bit different. Were we to simply write every line of the conversation, even if we used alternative dialogue tags, smooth wording, evenly distributed pacing, and all those technically sound devices... we could still wind up with a wall of text dialogue. Or it could sound terribly like a screenplay.

Personally, I enjoy body language. I find that it's often not what is said that's most intriguing, but what ISN'T said. How the characters react physically. Consider yourself as a reader like a detective. You notice the way She acts out of character when He is around. You see how She fidgets. That tell tale little half blink in Her eye. More so than that, what about the way our bodies react beyond our control? Ever received terrible news and felt that cold spike of hurt driven into your chest? Ever gotten hard or wet just by the way another person says sonething? Ever blush so badly it felt like warm oil was poured on your head?

I like to feel like I'm sitting in the room in the story, watching the exchange unfold, as opposed to say just listening to the tape as it were.

So. How do you guys handle dialogue? Are their words alone enough to intrigue? Do you use body language, character emotion and perspective? How do you personally make it more than just a wall of quotes? How do you like to read it? Anything you do that is unique to your own writing?

I haven't read you but based solely on your post, you must be a wonderful writer.

Character development and dialogue is hugely important. To make the reader see what you see by using description and imagery without having to write long paragraphs of narrative is a gift.

Too many writers don't develop their characters nearly enough. Too many writers don't use the five senses, nicknames, clothes, scars, and/or body decorations to set their characters apart.

I love it when my character stands up from my page to stand behind my chair and whisper in my ear what next to write. At that point, I just hand him or her the keyboard and allow him or her to write their own damn story.

 

[SlightlyGone]

I don't write bare dialog and I don't really like reading it.

I include body language and changes in the setting. If writing as an omniscient 3rd person I might also include thoughts. I've even included pets and other characters largely for the purpose of fleshing out the background to a dialog.

3rd person? kinky.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Talk the talk and walk the walk are what matters.

Body language is nuthin, what counts is whats behind the words and walk. Confidence in the outcome. So make the character confident or uncertain or whatever.

 

[TxRad]

Body language says volumes without saying a word. Getting that on paper however takes careful selection of words. It also takes setting up the observing character before hand. This works well for me in my D/s stories. Doms are people watchers for the most part. Being able to read your submissive is one of the keys to being a good dom.

If you work on body language, you can pick up on things people don't even know about themselves.

 

[SecondCircle]

I don't write bare dialog and I don't really like reading it.

I include body language and changes in the setting. If writing as an omniscient 3rd person I might also include thoughts. I've even included pets and other characters largely for the purpose of fleshing out the background to a dialog.

Background I like. So often when I read dialogue, I actually don't get a sense of the scene I'm reading. I'm aware I'm reading just a story because I'm not immersed in the world. It's just text, I can't hear or see anything else.

Good point about the background.

 

[oggbashan]

It is difficult to put body language into a story because all we authors have as tools are words. Too much emphasis on body movements can distract.

But I have a real problem with body language. Since the 1980s body language has been an accepted part of many recruitment interviewing techniques in the UK. I have a damaged and twisted back, with some completely and some partially fused vertebrae. So my body language is modified by that. I appear to be stiff and unbending.

Of course I do! I AM stiff and unbending. It is a symptom of my disability. That doesn't mean that my management style or work characteristics are stiff and unbending - just that my body is.

The recruitment technique does not allow for disability affecting body language, or else the interviewers are not sufficiently skilled to use body language as a small part of the process, disregarding it if it doesn't match the rest of the indicators.

I remember interviewing a lady for a temporary clerical post. Unusually she had arrived at our office by an expensive London black taxi. On paper she appeared well qualified and competent. In person she was extremely shy and almost wordless. It was very difficult to get any response from her at all. What she was presenting was nothing like I had expected.

I proposed a break in the interview process (I had a ploy for that which I rarely used) to restart in a quarter of an hour. During that quarter of an hour my secretary ensured that the candidate visited the washroom, had a cup of coffee and a chat, and was able to relax a little.

Before the interview restarted, my secretary told us how the woman had responded to the break. She had been worried that she had started badly and had been digging herself deeper. She had arrived in London the day before to stay with her older sister the night before the interview. She had never left her small town before, and had been frightened by the host of new experiences.

When we started again, I asked her to describe her home town. As she did, she became more animated, more coherent and began to show the woman that the paperwork suggested she was. We then asked about what she found so different about London. She had never seen an escalator, never been in an elevator, nor on the Underground...

The poor woman had been scared stiff from the moment she arrived in London. She had come by taxi because she didn't know how to get around London on her own. Going to an interview on the 33rd floor via the high speed elevator had been too much for her.

Her body language at the start had been like a rabbit facing a deadly snake. She just couldn't react normally.

By the end of the restarted interview she had demonstrated that she was a potential employee who might take slightly longer to adjust to living in London than to performing her duties.

She was recruited and proved a successful temp, becoming permanent a few months later.

But AFTER the interview my secretary took her up to the 40th floor to the canteen, then the pair of them rode up and down in the elevator a few times to show that there was nothing to be frightened about. Another member of staff escorted our new employee through the rush hour crowds back to her sister's apartment, demonstrating the Underground interchanges, the escalators, the ticket machines, and all the technology of commuting in London.

 

[SecondCircle]

Body language says volumes without saying a word. Getting that on paper however takes careful selection of words. It also takes setting up the observing character before hand. This works well for me in my D/s stories. Doms are people watchers for the most part. Being able to read your submissive is one of the keys to being a good dom.

If you work on body language, you can pick up on things people don't even know about themselves.

Aye, this is true.

Much like the old thing where a misplaced comma can dramatically change the meaning of a sentence, simple body language can do the same. It might reveal a liar, or reveal feelings about another character that they themselves won't say aloud.

Seems like this should be incredibly prevalent in erotica. Attraction itself is shown in so many more ways than simply stating it. The brush of skin, that look of hunger in someone's eyes, the quiver of their lip, even acts of indifference can add flavor to a character's words.

 

[NotWise]

We might be talking about two different things when we talk about body language. One is a motion that a speaker or listener is going through that may communicate something about the setting but not really lend much to the dialog. The other are those motions that have a specific meaning. In the latter case it might be necessary to actually say what the gesture means.

I'm sure there are better examples, but this is a quotation from my currently pending story.

"Ow, that's hot!” Carl complained, and set his coffee down. He watched Evy clean the stove and asked “I'm taking Donny to karate after school, right?” Evy pulled her hair back in one hand--a nervous gesture that Carl was familiar with–and turned to look at him.

“Yeah, and could you pick Kyle up at daycare, too?” Evy asked. “It's Thursday and he'll be there.”

Now I'll be accused of being schizophrenic.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Body language says volumes without saying a word. Getting that on paper however takes careful selection of words. It also takes setting up the observing character before hand. This works well for me in my D/s stories. Doms are people watchers for the most part. Being able to read your submissive is one of the keys to being a good dom.

If you work on body language, you can pick up on things people don't even know about themselves.

Body language matters when its dispensed in single fingers.

 

[Hypoxia]

"Yes, dialogue tags," I nodded sagely. "An insidious way to insert adverbs, but it works for me." I looked back. "And here comes another," I smiled evilly.

I avoid both walls of speech and unbroken narrative. Mix them. I write speech in smaller segments divided by actions and reactions; what are they *doing* while jawing? How do they interact? I break up narratives with silent or spoken thoughts. How does the narrated sequence affect somebody? How do word and deed relate?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

We might be talking about two different things when we talk about body language. One is a motion that a speaker or listener is going through that may communicate something about the setting but not really lend much to the dialog. The other are those motions that have a specific meaning. In the latter case it might be necessary to actually say what the gesture means.

I'm sure there are better examples, but this is a quotation from my currently pending story.



Now I'll be accused of being schizophrenic.

Body language matters when you know its context.

 

[SecondCircle]

It is difficult to put body language into a story because all we authors have as tools are words. Too much emphasis on body movements can distract.

But I have a real problem with body language. Since the 1980s body language has been an accepted part of many recruitment interviewing techniques in the UK. I have a damaged and twisted back, with some completely and some partially fused vertebrae. So my body language is modified by that. I appear to be stiff and unbending.

Of course I do! I AM stiff and unbending. It is a symptom of my disability. That doesn't mean that my management style or work characteristics are stiff and unbending - just that my body is.

The recruitment technique does not allow for disability affecting body language, or else the interviewers are not sufficiently skilled to use body language as a small part of the process, disregarding it if it doesn't match the rest of the indicators.

I remember interviewing a lady for a temporary clerical post. Unusually she had arrived at our office by an expensive London black taxi. On paper she appeared well qualified and competent. In person she was extremely shy and almost wordless. It was very difficult to get any response from her at all. What she was presenting was nothing like I had expected.

I proposed a break in the interview process (I had a ploy for that which I rarely used) to restart in a quarter of an hour. During that quarter of an hour my secretary ensured that the candidate visited the washroom, had a cup of coffee and a chat, and was able to relax a little.

Before the interview restarted, my secretary told us how the woman had responded to the break. She had been worried that she had started badly and had been digging herself deeper. She had arrived in London the day before to stay with her older sister the night before the interview. She had never left her small town before, and had been frightened by the host of new experiences.

When we started again, I asked her to describe her home town. As she did, she became more animated, more coherent and began to show the woman that the paperwork suggested she was. We then asked about what she found so different about London. She had never seen an escalator, never been in an elevator, nor on the Underground...

The poor woman had been scared stiff from the moment she arrived in London. She had come by taxi because she didn't know how to get around London on her own. Going to an interview on the 33rd floor via the high speed elevator had been too much for her.

Her body language at the start had been like a rabbit facing a deadly snake. She just couldn't react normally.

By the end of the restarted interview she had demonstrated that she was a potential employee who might take slightly longer to adjust to living in London than to performing her duties.

She was recruited and proved a successful temp, becoming permanent a few months later.

But AFTER the interview my secretary took her up to the 40th floor to the canteen, then the pair of them rode up and down in the elevator a few times to show that there was nothing to be frightened about. Another member of staff escorted our new employee through the rush hour crowds back to her sister's apartment, demonstrating the Underground interchanges, the escalators, the ticket machines, and all the technology of commuting in London.

Aye but this does illustrate that body language does convey a dort of meaning, even were it the incorrect.

The idea in writing is that it can break up monotony, but yes, as you said it can get distracting and pointless. But so can too much of anything. I'm a fan of moderation, definitely not over saturation.

But more than simply breaking monotony, to me it lets me "see" the conversation. If a character were to simply state, "I don't love him." ... technically are we to take her word? True there may be enough context in the rest of the story to assume whether she's being truthful about her feelings. (Or his.) But what if you were to SEE her say that? What if you saw the cold indifference in her eyes? Or what if you saw the way she looked away, avoided eye contact? Our reader would be able to look and begin to make their own assessments, rather than being told. (Ah, show not tell?)

And the reader doesn't even have to be right in any assessment. This isn't to say that every single action/reaction alongside the dialogue is supposed to get the reader to make any choice about who or what a character is. The idea is to simply immerse them in a scene with realistic exchanges between two human beings.

Sometimes the look in someone's eye is enough to lift your heart, or silence a room. This could add an extra edge. It could pump the room full of gaseous tension to nearly choke a reader with that glare or pleading eye.

It isn't so much as, eh, judging someone off of how they act in a scenario as much as asking the question of why they are acting that way. To get the reader to watch the way a character acts, that it may draw them in and have them thinking of that character as a living breathing person.

"Huh. Wonder why she's acting so fidgety now when he came into the scene? Who is that guy? She was chittery as hell a second ago. Hmm. She won't make eye contact with him. Ooh, I'll bet she's attracted to him."

I want my reader's subconcious doing this ^. And as you said, they don't even have to be RIGHT. The story might unfold to show us that no, she's not attracted to him. In fact, he was aquitted of charges for murdering her neighbor.

Ah, but watching this all was no less engaging for the reader, yes?

So in a sense, I agree with all that you've said. Personally, I think it's all the more reason to include it.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

As Fritz Perls usta say ALL THERE IS, IS ME, AND YOU, AMD ALL THE SHIT WE IMAGINE.

 

[SecondCircle]

We might be talking about two different things when we talk about body language. One is a motion that a speaker or listener is going through that may communicate something about the setting but not really lend much to the dialog. The other are those motions that have a specific meaning. In the latter case it might be necessary to actually say what the gesture means.

I'm sure there are better examples, but this is a quotation from my currently pending story.



Now I'll be accused of being schizophrenic.

Ah, good point. I welcome thoughts on both types, since both can affect dialogue in ways that makes it less monotonous.

But I suppose specifically? I guess I favor the latter. The actions that sort of clue you in to emotions or unspoken infornation without the characters simply saying it. But I enjoy reading a mixture of the two. Sometimes it sets the scene, lets you "see" that say, your characters are at the lake. Ah, they're filling a cooler with beer. Friendly get together? Party? Hmm. Oh poles, I see. Fishing trip. All the while, the characters could be dancing around a tender subject. You can tell by the way they are small talking about useless crap like the weather. The the way they avoid looking at each other. One keeps asking questions that hint at something. The other gives short answers and focuses on setting the poles up.

So, already you kind of have a glimpse of the setting and what they are doing. (Fishing at the lake). They aren't "saying" that something has them on edge around each other but you can see it. And if you're reading in the 1st person perspective, you may even be hearing the Main Character's thoughts. Which even in themselves could be vague, such as, "Why is he avoiding the issue?" If there's wind or hot sunshine every now and then between the dialogue, it paints the scene even more. (The blazing sunshine only made me feel feverish around Ana.) So, now the reader can almost feel the heat on their skin, and feel those sickly moths of nervousness beating their wings in their own stomachs. And keep in mind, this is mid conversation. It isn't a drawn out exposition. It's driving the conversation on while simultaneously letting you see and feel the rest of the story.

I would say both, and mix them well. (Depending on the conversation of course, but every topic has a "depends" clause when it comes to writing.) Stir them up until they are nice and smooth. Both are relevant, in their own way.

 

[TxRad]

JB, if you have nothing meaningful to say, please go away.

If you can't read body language past the simplest things then you shouldn't be a detective or a boxer for that matter. Not reading body language sure limits your knowledge of people and events. It also helps to show rather than tell in stories.

 

[FantasyXY]

My take

I think the hard part of adding body language is to not let it overpower the dialog that it relates to. If you have someone in a story answering a question with a simple two word response, and accompany that response with two full sentences of body language, the reader will likely get lost.

It all comes down to this. Adding dialog for the sake of having dialog in a story doesn't work. The dialog needs to actually tell part of the story. Further, getting verbose about body language for the sake of writing body language can also ruin a story.

Your readers are all human. Last I checked, humans are pretty good at subconsciously reading body language. In most cases in a story if you just leave hints about the body language, your readers will fill in the blanks as they read.

For Example:

“I suppose that will work.” Laura gives in. “But don’t go thinking you two can go off and have too much fun without me.”

The phrase - Laura gives in - hints at body language. There is a certain facial expression and tone of voice that happens when someone concedes a point or gives up on their argument, and almost everyone on earth knows what conceding a point looks like within their culture. You don't have to fully describe that look and tone of voice... just tell that it happened. Of course if you leave the body language out, the dialog can become flat and uninteresting.

In other cases the dialog will stand on its own by virtue of what is said, and doesn't really need a body language hint to go with it.

For Example:

"I did fucking not asshole."

In that phrase everyone knows the person is pissed off and you don't need to describe the frown and stern look that goes with it.

All in all a good mix of emotional phrasing mixed with hints of body language seems to make for the best read.

 

[Gorza]

The trick with body language is that it is often misinterpreted, in the way that the stiff-and-unbending Ogg says. When I'm stiff I do have a slight bend, but that's beside the point, or the glans, or whatever!

There are eye movements that can suggest either that a person is lying or trying to recollect something. Of course these things aren't fool proof. You could have a character look askance while delivering a line of dialogue, and the person they're talking with could be thinking that they can't remember whether that direction is lying or deep thought. I think it brings a nice nuance to the characters' interaction.

Someone young and confronted by a difficult situation will be nervous, they might hunch their shoulders, have a dry mouth, even a little cough when they try to speak. Their eyes might dart around, and not be able to hold eye contact. Their hands and feet might fidget. Someone older and more confident might lean back, take an open stance and fix their eyes on the other. You could Show Don't Tell the socks off writing characters as nervous or confident.

Preening, especially the hair, can be a sign of sexual attraction. Parting the legs can signify sexual arousal -- letting some airflow up there -- or, in a man, he could be a graceless slouch.

Body language is handy if you write in the 3rd person. It can be used to hint at a character's emotional or psychological state without having to dip into their thoughts. In the 3rd, dipping in and out of different brains can get quite messy! In the 1st person, the narrator can guess at what's going on with others via their body language, as you cannot get into anyone else's head. You could double bluff, by having the narrator misread the signs in someone else's body language, and nicely misdirect the reader.

Last of all, one great use of body language is to have a character say one thing and signal the other: "Iolanthe stared into the middle distance. 'No, I don't fancy him', she replied, twirling a braid of hair tight around her finger".

 

[SecondCircle]

I think the hard part of adding body language is to not let it overpower the dialog that it relates to. If you have someone in a story answering a question with a simple two word response, and accompany that response with two full sentences of body language, the reader will likely get lost.

It all comes down to this. Adding dialog for the sake of having dialog in a story doesn't work. The dialog needs to actually tell part of the story. Further, getting verbose about body language for the sake of writing body language can also ruin a story.

Your readers are all human. Last I checked, humans are pretty good at subconsciously reading body language. In most cases in a story if you just leave hints about the body language, your readers will fill in the blanks as they read.

For Example:

“I suppose that will work.” Laura gives in. “But don’t go thinking you two can go off and have too much fun without me.”

The phrase - Laura gives in - hints at body language. There is a certain facial expression and tone of voice that happens when someone concedes a point or gives up on their argument, and almost everyone on earth knows what conceding a point looks like within their culture. You don't have to fully describe that look and tone of voice... just tell that it happened. Of course if you leave the body language out, the dialog can become flat and uninteresting.

In other cases the dialog will stand on its own by virtue of what is said, and doesn't really need a body language hint to go with it.

For Example:

"I did fucking not asshole."

In that phrase everyone knows the person is pissed off and you don't need to describe the frown and stern look that goes with it.

All in all a good mix of emotional phrasing mixed with hints of body language seems to make for the best read.

Aye, very good point. Every tool a writer has should not be used to beat a reader over the head. A good mix and moderation is key.

But that's actually rather the point. Much as you've demonstrated, showing body language doesn't necessarily mean that we cut completely away from the quotes to actually start describing every little thing. Just by having a character shouting angrily, we already can visualize what they might look like. This, too, is body language I think.

Too much in any case is too much. Walls of quotes lend no other sensory perception for the reader, and can often toss pacing off track. Likewise, tossing in too much of that stuff can also ruin the pacing and actually bog the reader down unnecessarily, or even become monotonous in itself.

To show is not always to describe. It can mean "display" or "demonstrate".

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Aye, very good point. Every tool a writer has should not be used to beat a reader over the head. A good mix and moderation is key.

But that's actually rather the point. Much as you've demonstrated, showing body language doesn't necessarily mean that we cut completely away from the quotes to actually start describing every little thing. Just by having a character shouting angrily, we already can visualize what they might look like. This, too, is body language I think.

Too much in any case is too much. Walls of quotes lend no other sensory perception for the reader, and can often toss pacing off track. Likewise, tossing in too much of that stuff can also ruin the pacing and actually bog the reader down unnecessarily, or even become monotonous in itself.

To show is not always to describe. It can mean "display" or "demonstrate".

Writing should be plausible, especially if its fantasy.

Like my daughter said to my grand-daughter, FOR SOMEONE WHO DONT BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS YOURE REALLY ROLLING THE DICE PISSING ME OFF.

 

[SecondCircle]

The trick with body language is that it is often misinterpreted, in the way that the stiff-and-unbending Ogg says. When I'm stiff I do have a slight bend, but that's beside the point, or the glans, or whatever!

There are eye movements that can suggest either that a person is lying or trying to recollect something. Of course these things aren't fool proof. You could have a character look askance while delivering a line of dialogue, and the person they're talking with could be thinking that they can't remember whether that direction is lying or deep thought. I think it brings a nice nuance to the characters' interaction.

Someone young and confronted by a difficult situation will be nervous, they might hunch their shoulders, have a dry mouth, even a little cough when they try to speak. Their eyes might dart around, and not be able to hold eye contact. Their hands and feet might fidget. Someone older and more confident might lean back, take an open stance and fix their eyes on the other. You could Show Don't Tell the socks off writing characters as nervous or confident.

Preening, especially the hair, can be a sign of sexual attraction. Parting the legs can signify sexual arousal -- letting some airflow up there -- or, in a man, he could be a graceless slouch.

Body language is handy if you write in the 3rd person. It can be used to hint at a character's emotional or psychological state without having to dip into their thoughts. In the 3rd, dipping in and out of different brains can get quite messy! In the 1st person, the narrator can guess at what's going on with others via their body language, as you cannot get into anyone else's head. You could double bluff, by having the narrator misread the signs in someone else's body language, and nicely misdirect the reader.

Last of all, one great use of body language is to have a character say one thing and signal the other: "Iolanthe stared into the middle distance. 'No, I don't fancy him', she replied, twirling a braid of hair tight around her finger".

I like your bit about double bluffing and misleading. I love that Ogg and yourself added that though we can read body language, it doesn't always mean we read it correctly. Which is exactly why I think it doesn't add just one extra layer to the dialogue but several layers.

Like your 1st person POV example. You're in the character's head, and often seeing things the way they view them. They may think a person is acting suspicious and could lead the reader to think that something is up with that person. When in the actuality of the story, they are just nervous around the main character because of sexual attraction to them. Essentially this becomes another way to keep them on the breadcrumb trail, showing them candy while hiding the heat of the furnace you're about to roast them in.

In my experimentations with 2nd person lately, I've learned this to be effective as well. You can merely present the body language without alluding to anything, letting the YOU (the reader) assume as they will. Because in 2nd person, you must be aware that the reader will have their own ideas and prejudices about everything. It's actually unwise to suggest what the body language means in these stories. Let the YOU read onward and wonder about what the words and actions really meant.

 

[sr71plt]

I do add body language to the dialogue tags when it significantly reveals or enhances what's being conveyed in the dialogue/action. I try to be subtle with the body language reveal, though, inviting the reader to take another dimension into account rather than beating them over the head with it.

 

[Kraveree]

I'm fond of dialogue. When writing a story, this is one area where I notice my story starting to "write itself" and when the characters truly start to kind of talk on their own. As long as it doesn't drag on or become unnecessary, I let them talk.

There's a specific kind of dialogue I enjoy. Tarantino bores some people to death, but personally I enjoy the shit out of his dialogue scenes. I think it's because you can taste a sort of tension that builds with each line. Part of this is watching the characters react to one another in the context of the story. I'm thinking particularly at this moment of Hans Lander and how overwhelming he was for any character to speak with.

Pulling this off in written dialogue as with our stories is handled a bit different. Were we to simply write every line of the conversation, even if we used alternative dialogue tags, smooth wording, evenly distributed pacing, and all those technically sound devices... we could still wind up with a wall of text dialogue. Or it could sound terribly like a screenplay.

Personally, I enjoy body language. I find that it's often not what is said that's most intriguing, but what ISN'T said. How the characters react physically. Consider yourself as a reader like a detective. You notice the way She acts out of character when He is around. You see how She fidgets. That tell tale little half blink in Her eye. More so than that, what about the way our bodies react beyond our control? Ever received terrible news and felt that cold spike of hurt driven into your chest? Ever gotten hard or wet just by the way another person says sonething? Ever blush so badly it felt like warm oil was poured on your head?

I like to feel like I'm sitting in the room in the story, watching the exchange unfold, as opposed to say just listening to the tape as it were.

So. How do you guys handle dialogue? Are their words alone enough to intrigue? Do you use body language, character emotion and perspective? How do you personally make it more than just a wall of quotes? How do you like to read it? Anything you do that is unique to your own writing?

Dialogs are the heart and bones of a story in my opinion. The rest is flesh and blood. But that is just me. I like it when people are reacting to dialogs with either more dialog or non-verbal communication.
I try to find something that I find intriguing about a character like an unconscious thing he or she does while talking. Also the setting is pretty important when it comes to dialog. I find it strange to read people talk sex in the middle of a supermarket or about the stock market in the bedroom, unless it turns them on.
But what I like the most about writing dialog is to be witty, fresh and with a certain unpredictability. Dulling the reader into a sense of familiarity and then try to surprise them with an insight, a strange remark that doesn't fit but makes sense a few paragraphs later.

As previous posters already added, it can be hard to interpret body language. One of the things is that in different cultures some specific body language means different things. It is sometimes better to have a person think or hint about his/her state. It all depends on the target audience and what you are willing to offer.
One of the things about reading, something I enjoy quite a lot, is that being too specific ruins the story for me. I want to fill in the gaps and form a picture of someone based on the actions of a person not on the basis of hair colour, lip gloss, breast size or the curliness of breast hair. I want to use my imagination and let it run wild if needs be, it is all about feeling good about a story.
And one more thing, don't try to write like a writer, write like a reader who wants to write. In the end it is much more fulfilling. At least it is to me

End-Of-Line

 

[rjordan]

The recruitment technique does not allow for disability affecting body language, or else the interviewers are not sufficiently skilled to use body language as a small part of the process, disregarding it if it doesn't match the rest of the indicators.

Great point, and an interesting story.

For clerks, we would typically ask them two key questions:
"Do you have a reliable means to get to work every day?"
"Do you smoke?"

If we got a yes on the first and a no on the second, they were probably in the running.

As a reader, I'm annoyed by too much detailed description. Descriptions of common body language are like detailed descriptions of sex. They take me out of the story trying to figure out what the hell the characters are doing. And it rarely matters all that much. Let's see...he's turning his wrist to the left and she's...he can't do that...

I recently had a character visit the cheating wife he was poking. She opened the front door:

Before she could say a word, Ken pushed his way in stark naked. "Surprise!" he said, arms extended, jazz hands waving like he was Roy Fucking Scheider.​

I think I worked on that short paragraph a dozen times trying to come up with an image instead of a set of Twister instructions.



rj




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