How do you write about a character’s physicality?  Vivid descriptions of a character’s facial expressions, posture, and movement can add a layer of depth to any scene, but (for me, at least!) it’s always a challenge to avoid uninteresting descriptions and clichés.  My characters are constantly sighing heavily, smiling happily, staring intently, raising their eyebrows, rolling their eyes… and I’m rolling my own eyes in my edits, asking myself if this is really the best I can do.  Trying to push through the layer of easy description, I spend a lot of time imagining exactly what my characters look like in any given moment, how they’re moving their arms and legs, how they carry their weight, where they keep their stress. 

I love to write in cafes, but I have this habit of acting out a character’s facial expressions and posture so I can better describe what I think they look and feel like.  As long as I’m alone, this is fine.  I have a little button that says “I write books!” and I figure anyone who catches me making faces and slouching in front of my laptop screen will just assume I’m a crazy writer.  BUT.  Every now and again I go writing with someone, and when the person sitting across from me sees me making faces and muttering to myself, she’s likely to a) ask me what the heck I’m doing, b) ask me if I’m okay, and/or c) mock me.  Heartily. 

It’s hard. 

For this reason, I am VERY excited about one of our short courses this summer.  (Actually, I almost don’t want to tell people about it, so that I can have it all to myself!) The class is called Body Language, and it will focus on deepening written dialogue with “the elusive art of communication that happens ‘in the body.’” Doesn’t that sound great?  The more I think about it, the more I realize how complex and elusive body language can be.  Men and women tend to move in different ways, as do adults and teenagers, children and senior citizens.  Business people move differently than artists, who move differently than politicians…. 

See, now I’ve gotten myself all inspired.  I’m off to work on my novel… and if you see me tucked into the darkest corner of a café in Bucktown, frowning and smiling and whispering to myself, you’ll know exactly what I’m doing.  Maybe I need a new button to wear, one that says, “I’m not crazy… I’m writing!”