Character Action

On striving for value—and variety—in non-verbal cues and character tics.

This post is part of the Write With Me series. For more like this, check out the writing your novel page.

For this installment of the series, we're talking action: no, not high-flying combat action, but rather topics including non-verbal cues and character tics.

The Importance of Precision

In keeping with the idea that art imitates life, it follows that we as writers incorporate things like non-verbal cues (body language) into our writing. Doing so allows us to better adhere to the "show, don't tell" mantra, and also introduces a subtlety that many of us take for granted during our day-to-day interactions with those around us.

That subtlety, of course, is the ability to look at the person you're speaking with and have a feel for things like:

• How are they feeling generally?

• How are they feeling about what they're saying or hearing?

• Are they being truthful in their statements?

• Do they believe what they're being told?

• Are they distracted or are they focused on the conversation?

The list could go on, but I think the above illustrates the point that though we as people can pick up on these visual or auditory clues that help us answer those questions, our readers don't have the same opportunity unless we paint that picture for them.

Consider the scene below:

He smiled. "I was hoping you'd come."

"Of course." She nodded as she stepped forward. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Now compare that to:

His eyes found the floor. "I was hoping you'd come."

"Of course." She clasped her hands behind her back. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

There are two very different feels there, right? Those simple differences in the character action-reaction chain changed the feel of the entire interaction. This is the kind of context we as writers provide to readers, the sort of thing that frames their understanding of characters as individuals, the relationships between them, and the relationships all of these have with plot and setting.

Above all else, this should emphasize the importance of being deliberate when having our characters take action of any kind.

Our first examples also show exactly why it's critical that we minimize general actions that anyone could perform when writing our scenes. Let's take a look at the below and try to discern why it just seems... flat.

"It'll be fine." I smiled, but I knew the words fell on deaf ears.

He nodded. "I know. It's just..." The words never came.

"Come on," I stood. "You'll feel better if you get outside for a bit."

"Right." He smiled as she stood.

A keen reader will notice a few things about this scene and this blog post as a whole so far. Of the ten character actions included to this point, five of them have been either simple smiles or nods of the head.

These stock actions run amok in early drafts everywhere, and uses of them leave a lot of room for strengthening. Though humans do smile and nod an awful lot in our day-to-day lives, as writers it's our job to paint a picture with as much depth as possible in as few words as possible (word economy, remember?).

So how do we get there? Stronger, more precise action. Let's explore the same scene again, but with some changes based on this idea.