awww! *feeds you soup* I hope you get better, hon.
I'm glad you like these questions...some of them are so abstract, they annoy even myself ... I just get so happy and well, relieved when it turns out yeah, people *are* interested in what I think. I know I'm pitiful; I don't care!
boardroom and the bedroom
Oh, yeah, that's excellent. You have to use it sometime!
It all hinges on how well you know another person.
I think so too. But I think it's not just how often you've seen the eyes crinkle in happiness. Is that you say something you *expect* will make the person you know so well happy--and it does, so the emotion is easy to read. Or you don't know what response to *expect*, but the response is easy to read because the reader knows the responder well enough to guess that the reaction will be one of several, and it's just a tip of the mouth that informs you which response it is.
That's not so very unreal. It enters the realm of a bit more fantastic when you've got two characters who've always misunderstood each other, who at last learn the truth in each other's eyes ... when they can have no way of knowing what that truth *looks* like on that particular person, you know? Happens a lot in romance novels. And in fic ;o)
I think there are people who are better able to read body language and are more attuned to it than others.
I think so too. I suck at it.
These 'expressions' like eye color changes are such convenient storytelling shorthands that they're nearly irrisistable, especially for writers who lack confidence.
Also completely agree!
Um, that point being his expressions are really subtle and difficult to describe (Unless he's saying words like "shplunkin' team")so it's always better to find another action or movement to describe feeling/sentiment/action beyond the darkness of his eyes.
Yeah, I definitely have run into the problem of not wanting to write Angel grimacing, or what have you, because Angel is more likely to hold completely still and just denote discomfort with a little twitch of his hand, or something.
There was this fabulous meta, which apparently I forgot to save, about body language, about the movements of the body you could use to describe a character, instead of directly saying, "the character is sad". That's expecting the *reader* to read the characters' body languages, which I think is a good thing...part of the whole "show not tell". OTOH, as far as how the characters read *each other*, and so often seem to see more than what's normally humanly possible.
no subject
I'm glad you like these questions...some of them are so abstract, they annoy even myself ... I just get so happy and well, relieved when it turns out yeah, people *are* interested in what I think. I know I'm pitiful; I don't care!
boardroom and the bedroom
Oh, yeah, that's excellent. You have to use it sometime!
It all hinges on how well you know another person.
I think so too. But I think it's not just how often you've seen the eyes crinkle in happiness. Is that you say something you *expect* will make the person you know so well happy--and it does, so the emotion is easy to read. Or you don't know what response to *expect*, but the response is easy to read because the reader knows the responder well enough to guess that the reaction will be one of several, and it's just a tip of the mouth that informs you which response it is.
That's not so very unreal. It enters the realm of a bit more fantastic when you've got two characters who've always misunderstood each other, who at last learn the truth in each other's eyes ... when they can have no way of knowing what that truth *looks* like on that particular person, you know? Happens a lot in romance novels. And in fic ;o)
I think there are people who are better able to read body language and are more attuned to it than others.
I think so too. I suck at it.
These 'expressions' like eye color changes are such convenient storytelling shorthands that they're nearly irrisistable, especially for writers who lack confidence.
Also completely agree!
Um, that point being his expressions are really subtle and difficult to describe (Unless he's saying words like "shplunkin' team")so it's always better to find another action or movement to describe feeling/sentiment/action beyond the darkness of his eyes.
Yeah, I definitely have run into the problem of not wanting to write Angel grimacing, or what have you, because Angel is more likely to hold completely still and just denote discomfort with a little twitch of his hand, or something.
There was this fabulous meta, which apparently I forgot to save, about body language, about the movements of the body you could use to describe a character, instead of directly saying, "the character is sad". That's expecting the *reader* to read the characters' body languages, which I think is a good thing...part of the whole "show not tell". OTOH, as far as how the characters read *each other*, and so often seem to see more than what's normally humanly possible.