Imitating the action of a tiger

[gauchecritic]

I've just received a comment on my Rainy Day Story (link below) from Honey123 which made me smile wide.

Public Comment by Honey123
You actually had me signing as you explained it in your story!

The main character is deaf, I learned to sign BSL quite a few years ago and used that knowledge as a character basis. I had to look up a few of the signs in order to describe them.
The main reason I included the signing at all was so that as people read they would maybe learn a little by copying what I had written. (thrilling for me that at least one person actually read the story as I intended)

Then I remembered what I did as I wrote them. After looking up some of the signs here I practiced them in order to be able to describe them.

Circle thumb and index finger then make scissors. OK. (I think that's adopted from ASL because both letters are two handed in BSL)

Then I realised that I do the same when I'm writing other things too.

She looked back, across her bare shoulder with barely parted honey lips and lidded eyes.

I act out the action so that I can note what it is that I want to get across. In the above sentence the barely parted lips were something I wouldn't have included if I hadn't done the action.

Anyone else find themselves pulling faces or making extravagant gestures whilst writing to capture what is required?

Gauche

 

[Just_John1]

Hey Gauche!

I have to admit I got a chuckle when I imagined you sitting at the computer making aluring feminine faces and then laughed again as I realized I was doing the same thing! I've never done the signing thing, but yes I will make faces, frown, smile, strike a body pose when I write. I never realized I did it until you mentioned it. I must look like the village idiot when I write.

Hope all is well

JJ1

 

[TheEarl]

Right there with you. I follow the actions whenever I need to work out how my characters are moving. Most recent example was working out how I had to move if I was to trip over a power cable and knock a precariously balanced computer from a desk!

How do you know how it's done if you don't experiment?

The Earl

 

[Guest]

Very interesting, and not surprizing about you, Gauche. Anyone awares of you from the forum would know that you know something of theatre and acting. Do you think that's how the 'performing' while writing comes about for you? Me, I do nothing of the sort, only think movements through in my head.

Reading your story I did feel compelled to perform the signing before I could go on reading, just seemed called for. I'd have to read it a few more times though til I could read it fluently.

Perdita

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

I'm usually like Perdita, most of the action occurs in the head. Of course, this means that when I'm writing a scene with an action, I start blinking and closing my eyes a lot in order to play it in my mind.

Apparently when I do this in public I tend to look either depressed or asleep as my friends have attested.

I have once done minor action when I was writing a swordfight in order to figure out how someone would need to dodge in order to counter it and strike. For everything else, it's been eyelid movie screen.

 

[English Lady]

I do move about when I am thinking of specific actions. I recently wrote a story where I stripped to a song. I played that song over and over, bit by bit and moved in my chair as i thought of the actions I would do. I must have looked a right barmpot doing it*L*

 

[neonlyte]

I run with the whole gambit. I do the actions, say the words, I even have photographs if the story is set in a specific place. The current story I am working on has taken almost a year of research, not continuous I hasten to add.

Now I'm wee into the writing but I still find myself performing the actions of the main characters, how they are sitting, moving, touching.