Do Actions Speak Louder than Words?

Normally right now I'd be about forty minutes deep into the reading block with my class. Since we have a snow day, however, I'm typing in my pajamas.

Over the weekend, I've been watching parts of a very popular docu-series. The emotions from the people were powerful, and I found myself being fascinated by their body language.

I'll explain.

One of the faults that was found in my writing is that I have a very limited way of showing how characters react to things. The amount of times that I wrote "glanced" in both of my works in progress makes me cringe in hindsight. So instead of using that word, I'm forcing myself to use a combination of stronger dialogue to convey what people are feeling and a more varied vocabulary. To the second point, I've been paying closer attention to people.

A writer should have many methods for improving their craft, but people watching is arguably one of the most important. The characters that we write need to be relatable to our readers, whether they be everyday people or aliens from another planet. That relatability is what draws your reader in and makes them care about the characters and what happens to them. If you can figure out how to describe your characters' reactions in a natural way, your reader might think of how they or someone in their life would react the same way.

But anyway, back to the docu-series.


There was a myriad of body language in the show. People showing guilt, pain, sadness, devastation, disbelief, deception, and more. Though their words were powerful, their body language added another layer of depth. I thought to myself, how can I utilize this in my writing?

In discussing this docu-series with a co-worker, we talked about how the social-cultural climate surrounding the people in the documentary must have influenced how people reacted to what was going on and are still reacting to it today. I realized that this was something else that I needed to think about, which would add another layer to my writing.

Before I started re-writes on "General Leila," I created character sketches for each of my characters. This is allowing me to get a better sense of who the characters are and how they would react to things. Adding in the social-cultural climate also helps me to frame them better; a highly trained General wouldn't react to a crisis in the same way that a civilian would. Things like this will help to fix some of the more grievous errors that were prevalent in my work.

That, and putting "glanced" onto my "do not use" word list.



“Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions."

(Letter to Alexander Chekhov, May 10, 1886)” 
― Anton Chekhov