Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Photo by Narupon Promvichai on Unsplash

Hi SEers. John here with you today. I’m going to further discuss the idea of giving characters life with gestures. The reason for gestures (or beats as they are sometimes called) is to provide a character some tools to share with the reader without the writer explaining what is going on. These tools can communicate moods and nuances when the character is speaking.

It is always uncomfortable for a reader to be forced to guess what a character means or what emotional state that character is in. When the author tries to help out by explaining the current emotional state of the character, the reader many times is taken out of the story in the classic “show/ don’t tell” mistake.

So, what are the various forms of nonverbal communication, and how would a writer use them to covey the intended non-verbal message of a…