I've had many questions posed to me about body language over the years I've been blogging, and I highly recommend this link, which has illustrations of features of body language, intended for comics folk but also super useful for writers.
I hope you find it interesting!
Body language is crucial for conveying subtext, especially in a scene where the character is not the pov character. I have books on the subject - but this is a great addition.
ReplyDeleteIt is a lot more work to put in the subtle touches - showing what one character perceives from another's body language, while showing that body language and allowing the reader a different interpretation - but it makes for a far more fulfilling reading experience.
Instead of a simple dialogue tag, you can tuck in a description of the character who just spoke which completely contradicts what he just said - the possibilities are huge.
Readers may read something and not realize it, but they are getting visceral information almost as good as if they had seen the scene themselves, and sometimes even better because the writer gets to comment at the same time.
I love books where the writer has taken his time and does this. In the real world, non-verbal communication far outweighs the verbal - this lets you do it in a book.
Thanks so much for the link - I didn't even think to look online for something visual. Always something new to learn.
Alicia