Writing Lessons-- Non-Verbal Communications to express emotions

Okay, while I'm at it, here's the skinny on the workshop Margie Lawson gave on Empowering Characters Through Emotion. This is but a tiny portion of the lecture. For more information, please go to: http://www.margielawson.com/

I really liked how Margie explained using emotional clues to empower a ms. Her list of possible cues was impressive to say the least.

1. Facial Expressions
2. Non-verbal Communication (NVC)- Uncontrollable physical manifestations of emotion (sweating, shuddering, eyes dilated)
3. Kinesics (Body Language)- crossed arms, hunched shoulders
4. Paralanguage- tone, pitch, quality (slurs, nasal, squeaky, enunciates every syllable), rate (breathy rush, slow pauses, cadence)
5. Haptics- Use of touch to add weight to words. (Squeezing a knee, punching a shoulder, patting a head)
6. Proxemics- The four zones of proximity are Intimate, personal, social, public
7. Gestures- Steepled fingers, clasping hands behind back, open hands, handshakes
8. Eye behavior- eye blink rate, where eyes are looking, averting eyes, cold shoulder, blank face (poker face)
9. The Tells- personality traits to indicate mood. Raking hands in hair, snapping gum, eye twitch
10. Lip Behavior- lip/jaw tension, oral stimulation
11. Self-touches/Stress responses- fingers to lips, holding arms, hugging self, tapping fingers on thigh
12. Ideomatic Shifts- "That's an idea". Involuntary motor activity caused by a change in thought pattern. Shifting position, jerking, turning the head to look directly (or away)
13. Props- breaking a pencil, playing with a glass,

The back load- to put all the emotional punch at the end of a sentence or paragraph.


What are we talking about, here? Balancing your scenes. We've all seen the discussions (or, I hope you have! If not, go read Morgan Hawke's blogs and website, please) on balancing dialogue with action, setting, and introspection.
http://www.darkerotica.net/EroticQuills.html

Some authors subscribe to the Action then Dialogue.

He gasped. "What do you mean?" He hoped she hadn't found out about his little deception for her own good.

She snarled, keeping the gun pointed at his chest. "You know damn well what I'm talking about, you ass. Don't play the innocent with me!"

I personally find that style somewhat restrictive and boring. Life is not always a perfect action/reaction world.

The use of Non-Verbal clues would spice that scene up.

He gasped, his gaze never wavering from the glinting gun (eye behavior) . His palms slicked (NVC) and he barely held on to the coffee cup in his shaking hand (Tells). "What do you mean?" He was appalled to hear the squeak in his voice (Paralanguage). He hoped she hadn't found out about his little deception for her own good.

Carolyn's eyes narrowed. (NVC) She snarled, keeping the gun pointed at his chest. "You know damn well what I'm talking about, you ass. Don't play the innocent with me!" The muzzle of the gun rammed into his chest with every word she spoke. (Haptics) She waved the diary under his nose with the other hand. (Gestures)

She knew. He saw his own cold death in her icy blue eyes. (That's the backload)

Can you see the difference? In both examples, you know he's guilty and she's angry, but which makes you see the emotions more?
Lena