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Tips on Writing Characters Without Faces
so yeah, we all know that facial expressions can tell us a lot about how a character is feeling, but what if that isn’t an option? how can you make someone emote if they don’t really have standard facial features? the answer; body language.
let’s consider how emotions are conveyed on a stage production vs movie with Sweeney Todd. First, the stage play:
Note how Todd’s entire upper body goes into his gestures, how he’s single-mindedly focused on his dreams and ideals; how his hands GRAB for each imaginary ‘man’ with these sharp, aggressive, destructive movements and how that contrasts with Mrs. Lovett’s body language; how her hands linger in the air and gravitate towards Todd even after he’s pulled away, and the slow turn she gives him. It does an excellent, though exaggerated, way of conveying their relationship (her focus is on him and making him happy, his focus is entirely on revenge)
Contrast this to the movie:
Same lines in the song, much more subtle. Lovett’s eyes still track towards Todds, which reminds us she’s still more focused on the outside, but all of the emotion is in their faces. Were this not a close-up shot in a movie it’d be very, very hard to read their expressions.
While I do recommend you watch a few stage plays (in person near the back row if you can) to actually study body language for yourself or try out charades with your face covered with friends/watch how cosplayers or mascots emote, here’s a few shorthands to get you started (US-centric so expressions may vary on your region):
Head:
perfectly still - fear, intense attention, feeling under scrutiny
tilted up - recollection, intimidation (looking down nose at threat, aiming to appear taller)
tilted down - intense thought, shame (avoiding eye contact), depression/sad feelings
turned away - not giving person full attention, avoiding subject/conflict without being combative
cocker-spaniel (sideways) tilt - confusion, curiosity, amusement
Hands
at the forehead - fatigue (wiping away sweat), illness (checking self for fever, feeling a headache), realization/memory (a ‘well duh’ tap)
at the eyes - fatigue or headache (shielding eyes from light), distress (blocking out a painful view, concealing tears)
at the nose - disgust (a pinch at the nostrils,) irritation (rubbing at sore spot on nose from glasses wear)
at the mouth - nausea, surprise, repressing an emotion/stopping self from saying something
at the chin - contemplation, tiredness (face resting in hand)
rubbing back of neck - a need to relax tension, embarrassment, slight unease/desire to distract self
at the chest - surprise, self-protection (reaction to a wounding statement, sometimes used sarcastically), strong emotions (clutching at heart, could be good-strong or bad-strong), need for security (touching necklace/adjusting clothing to conceal more)
at the stomach - pain (clutching, pressing), satisfaction after a meal, protectiveness towards fetus when applicable
at the hip(s) - confidence, intimidation, nervousness (if grabbing for weapon)
at groin - concealment/unease (usually male-coded as protection of genitals), politeness (hands folded in lap)
on thighs - exhaustion (bent over, hands on legs supporting tired upper body)
formed into fists - holding back an intense emotion, preparing to fight
toying with something - restlessness (bored, nervous energy, craving something they can’t touch) or deliberate disrespect of property (playing with personal objects someone holds dear as an intimidation tactic)
Arms
at sides, relaxed - default posture
at sides, tense - unease, restraint (soldier at attention, person holding still to avoid being attacked), fear
crossed at chest - disapproval, displaying authority, unease (hugging oneself)
crossed at stomach - pain, intense laughter (caused by sore stomach muscles from laughing)
up, fingers laced behind head - confidence, relaxation
one arm on back of furniture - confidence, invitation for someone join them
general rule - the further arms are away from body, the more confident/dominant a person means to appear; exposed torso indicates that they don’t see anyone around as a threat to them
Legs
square with shoulders - professional, restraint, protective stance
wide stance, one foot a little back but planted - defensive stance, expecting to receive blows (knees may be unlocked - seen in swordplay and fencing)
weight on one leg - relaxed, tired, may also be leaning on something or pair with one ankle tucked behind the other
uneven stance - could indicate old injury
foot tapping/bouncing - boredom, nervous energy
Whole Body:
stiff and still - fear, unease, standing to attention
limp or pliant - relaxed, tired, pleased
shoulders back/head up - alert, focused, aggressive
shoulders forward, hunched - tired, ashamed
leaning towards person - interest, intimidation (looming over them), aggression (usually paired with tense arms or hands in fists,)
leaning away from person - relaxation, confidence, disgust (recoiling)
smooth/fluid movements - joy, confidence, experience
stiff motions - fear (reactive, fight or flight), pain (reluctance to move), anger (either fighting to keep control of emotions or lashing out), cold (conservation of heat by keeping limbs near body)
cracking joints/stretching - preparing for a fight, often reading as confidence in abilities
general rule - close contact/proximity can read as intimidation (paired with tense body - an invasion of personal space) or affection (paired with relaxaed body language, gentle movement) or passion/attraction while distance can read unease/distaste/fear/dislike.
with those in mind, let’s read this scene from Red vs Blue (a personal fav of mine for body language) featuring agent texas from season 8.
So first of all, very relaxed upper body; limp arms held away from the body, which slowly come back to rest on her hips as she looks at what she’s done. Watch how her lean shifts at the end as her center of gravity shifts, and how she has to move her right leg to restabilize herself when she’s finished pushing it. This reads, in order from the start of the loop; detachment (the least amount of her body is involved in the action as possible), relaxation (smooth movements, the deliberation of those little steps backwards) and confidence (hands on hips.) We can tell a ton about this character just in this gif alone, based on her body language.
in summary! this list isn’t exhaustive, but hopefully it gives you some ideas for ways of making characters emote in fics when you can’t see their faces.
I have a lot of trouble with writing casual dialogue. I just never know when to include physical gestures and actions and facial expressions and how often to say he/she said/yelled/whined etc. I can write dialogue pretty well when it's important to the plot, but when it's just some filler stuff to keep it going, it just starts to fall apart :(
Hey there, anon! Thanks for sending your question :) This is a subject I’ve been working on for the past few months, actually, so I understand your pain! Dialogue – or rather, the descriptors around it – is something that doesn’t feel quite natural to write. There are two reasons for this:
Conversations move much more quickly in real life. When we talk to someone, we are so focused on the information they’re giving us that we don’t always think about their body language, or even how they’re speaking – “explaining,” “mumbling,” “berating,” “perseverating,” etc. It’s not something we consciously register, so it’s not as easy to write as setting description, dialogue, or thoughts.
Dialogue descriptors are a relatively new trend in literature. I’ve found that in most the classic literature I read, dialogue is less frequent – and when it is used, it’s rarely accompanied by body language or dialogue tags. Dialogue descriptors became more popular when movies and TV hit the scene. Writing became less information-centered – focusing more on details that make the scene more imaginable. This makes it much more difficult to do research!
So if dialogue descriptors are hard to recognize in daily life and in literature, how do we write it naturally? How do we know how much is too much, or when and where to introduce it?
Well, like all aspects of fiction writing – dialogue, description, internal dialogue, worldbuilding – it’s important that it’s only used to the extent it’s needed. If it becomes distracting or overwhelming, you’re misusing it. These are my criteria for when dialogue descriptors become too much:
The description takes longer than the action it’s describing. Descriptors become distracting if they take up too much time – just like if an actor held a facial expression for too long. It would stall the scene, and the point would be lost.
How to test this: Put one of your dialogue-heavy scenes on your phone to test it out. While looking at yourself in the mirror, have Siri (or Cortana or whatever the hell else) read your scene to you – while she does, act it out in the mirror. Make the expressions and perform the body language. Read the dialogue, external and internal. Ill-timed or excessive description will become apparent to you this way.
The description is superfluous or too wordy. Descriptive dialogue tags (e.g. “shouted,” “heckled,” “joked,” “complained”) and accompanying adverbs become superfluous if they describe something the dialogue already portrays. Examples:
“I knew it was you!” she exclaimed. (The exclamation point already states that it’s an exclamation.)
“You are so selfish!” he shouted angrily. (You could get away with “shouted”, but it’s implied that the character is angry by their dialogue.)
“I thought you said you were free tonight,” she said in confusion, her eyebrows wrinkled. (Confusion is apparent in the dialogue; also, the image of her eyebrows wrinkling is more powerful than the “Tell” version, “in confusion”.)
It doesn’t add to the scene. Common descriptors, like raising eyebrows, blinking, swallowing, and shaking or nodding of the head are excessive in real life conversations, but not necessary in your scene. If body language doesn’t affect the tone of the dialogue or move your characters through the scene (e.g. sitting down at a table) then it’s unnecessary and clutters the prose.
As for writing dialogue itself, I’ll refer you to this post I made a little while ago about dialogue improvement. If you have any further questions, I’ll gladly take them :) Happy writing!
If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask me!
What are some ways to make stories more detailed and invigorating to read? I am a beginning writer and often times I have very limited dialogue and mediocre descriptions even if what I have in my head is very detailed.
Happy holidays! Thank you for your question :)
I’m going to say first that your problem, while a very real issue, should be dealt with mainly in the second draft and further. Details and descriptions aren’t something to worry about until you’ve got the story out – so even if you’re dissatisfied with your descriptive skills right now, keep writing through your scenes! You can add in description and edit dialogue later.
This is a big question, though, so I’m going to answer the dialogue part of your question and come back in a couple of days with a description post. Is that okay?
I hope it is, because I’m doin it anyway hurr hurr hurr…
Dialogue Improvement
From what you’ve said in the question, I’m assuming your dialogue is a bit barebones or impersonal – a common issue in modern writing, I’ve noticed. We see a lot of our favorite characters on TV, and we can tell them apart by their actors’ faces and voices, more than their word choices. So when we turn to writing fiction, we struggle to keep things unique. There are a few ways to start changing that, though:
Remember that dialogue and prose have different rules. While in prose, small words, passive words, and processing terms (like “um”, “well”, “maybe”), are no-nos, they can add to dialogue to make it sound more realistic and audible. Think about all the natural things we say, which writers are encouraged not to use in their prose and descriptions – and use them, in some places, to improve your dialogue.
Think about which character is speaking. Write out a list of their most distinctive traits. If they are humble or introverted, they may speak less or more briefly. If they are confident or excitable, they may exclaim, exaggerate, or emphasize their speech. If they are pensive or thoughtful, they may remain quiet for long stretches before speaking in long, eloquent sentences. Think of these things, and create a cheat sheet for yourself. For example:
John: boastful, silly, speaks so quickly that his brain struggles to keep up.
Anna: negative, intelligent, speaks when addressed, calming.
Sierra: thoughtful, very funny when she does speak, nervous, stutters.
Abide by “less is more”. This doesn’t mean that your characters shouldn’t speak, but that you should limit your stretches of dialogue to a few sentences at most. Monologues and speeches rarely happen in real life. In fact, it’s rare that all speakers in the conversation go uninterrupted. Dialogue is best messy, interrupted, and brief – never clean-cut and sterile.
Make your dialogue linear, but not completely. When you’re writing a long conversation, make sure that nothing comes out of nowhere! One piece of dialogue, one mention of something, should lead to another. Even if your character randomly thinks of something (”Oh! I think I left my scarf at your house!”) it should be prompted by something said previously (”I had to clean up after the party Christmas party last night.”). This said, however, things shouldn’t be completely Point A -> Point B. Small topics should branch off between two or more people, and should be dropped and picked back up as is necessary. Too much of a formula makes your characters into dull boys.
Lastly, a common idea: read your dialogue out loud. I don’t care if your roommate will hear you. I don’t care if you’re not an actress. I don’t give a tiny little damn if you think it’ll take too long. When reviewing or editing a scene, please, just read it. I’m not griping at you, anon – I’m griping at all writers. It’s such an easy thing to do and it improves your dialogue so much, but people just don’t do it! Why not? Just do it!
Those are just a few good rules off the top of my head, and if I think of more, I’ll certainly post them. If none of this is what’s ailing you, then just flick me on the forehead and send me another question. In a little bit I’ll make another post about description, so look out for that too!
Thanks for your question, and happy writing :)
If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask me!
So, I'm writing a fanfiction with OCs and well, it doesn't exactly line up with some of the canon information because it wasn't there before. I know there are AUs and stuff but it's not divergent enough and with new information.. I'm not sure what I should do or make some sort of attempt to change my writing for it
Thanks for your question! I will say that I don’t exactly understand the question, so if my answer doesn’t apply to your situation, feel free to message me with more details. But let me see if I understand what you’re asking.
Alternate Universe Fanfiction
AUs are tricky things to write, because you want your creative liberty but you’re never sure how much is up for change – what you need to keep consistent – what’s innovative and what’s lazy. If I’m right here, you’re saying that you have a few small changes or inconsistencies between your fic and the source material, but not enough changes to declare it an AU? Or maybe that your changes don’t have a reason behind them (e.g. a canon character is missing but there’s no reason why)?
Either way, I think the solution is to take a few minutes and compare your world (be it an AU or not) and the canonical world, and list out the differences. Classify them as minor or major differences – focus on the major differences. If a character is missing, if you’ve changed a concept, if you’ve changed the course of the plot, check these items and make sure you have reasons behind them. Why did these things happen this way? Why aren’t these two characters together? Why is there a conflict in the details? If you can come up with plausible reasons for everything, then there’s no reason to change anything. These are your creative liberties.
If you have changed things with no real reason, though, then you might want to reconsider what you’re doing. If you change singular events (e.g. the second Hunger Games never happened) then it’s an AU – if you change ongoing events (e.g. cutting out Katniss’s relationship with Gale) then you’re gonna need more explanation, or even a preface before the story. In this example, if Katniss didn’t have her relationship with Gale, she would be a completely different person. That can be hard to believe for your readers.
The thing that helps me in these situations is that, if I want to change/remove a relationship/character/event, I go back to a particular canon event and use it to change/remove them. For instance, if I wanted to remove Gale from Katniss’s life before the events of Catching Fire, I could use the Hunger Games as a tool to separate them. I could say that they’re no longer close because she changed after the Hunger Games, so they drifted apart. It’s still an AU, but if I can draw it back to a singular pivoting point, then it becomes believable.
I’d like to note a difference, also, between AU and headcanon. Headcanons are typically non-canon events/relationships/scenes that could technically fit into the canon, while AUs are built on ideas that couldn’t work with the canon. If you’re merely adding information to a story or universe, you’re building headcanons, and that doesn’t have to be classified as an AU. You don’t have to actually build an alternate reality just to add in your personal ideas.
So to sum up, if I’ve answered your question at all: try to make your ideas align with the canon, and if you can’t, draw your changes back to a single event. If you’re only adding to the story, it’s headcanon and doesn’t need to be labeled AU. If you’re subtracting/changing lore, characters, or events, it should be labeled AU in the summary with a brief explanation of the changed events in a prefacing author note.
If none of this was what you’re looking for, hit me up with another ask or a DM and I’ll do my best to help!
If you need advice on general writing or NaNoWriMo, you should maybe ask me!
Fanfiction help, tips, prompts and ideas
I planned on making this a private post just to help me find all the links and wonderful help made by these wonderful people but it can be helpful for others too to have it all in one place.
But if the creators of these would like me to take down/private the post please let me know and I will, no problem ^^
Dialogue Promts, tips, ideas; everything:
dumplingsjinson's Dialogue promts[They're great with so many different dynamics]:
Tips on writing characters without faces:
Describing emotions internally and externally:
Writing recourse masterlist:
Body language basics(smiles, eyebrows, head positions:
List of body language phrases (positions, reactions, movements like "he arched his back"), divided by body parts:
agirlnamedjana's master dialogues/scenes/dynamics promt list:
And also her masterpost on how to write/motivation/tips:
Uuuuu nicee reblog reblog
When to Info Dump
I was taught as a young writer to never ever ‘info dump’. An info dump is a paragraph (or several) that just runs the readers through info they need to know. While avoiding info dumps is typically a good practice—lots of information at once can be overwhelming, boring, or ‘cheap’—as with most things in writing, never say never. Recently, I finished a book that info dumps often, and with intention, and it worked.
To info dump well, you actually have to do it often (or relatively often). Just one info dump somewhere in the middle or beginning of the story is going to seem like a mistake. Using it as a literary technique however, and it adds a sort of intrigue, whimsy, or discordant tone to your story.
In this way, it becomes a quirk of your narrator’s voice. It should match or make sense with the character you are following. A super serious, meticulous character may info dump in the way they would list off the information they know. A more bubbly character may info dump out of excitement to share their interests.
Which brings us to the type of information you can reasonably info dump without getting in trouble. Of course, the information shared should be stuff that your character would know, but also, information that they would care to share.
For example, that serious character would info dump only pertinent, personally important information, whereas the bubbly character probably wouldn’t info dump about real estate or politics—unless of course it’s part of their special interests. A detail oriented character may only info dump about things they are noticing in the moment. A history buff would definitely info dump about culture and the past.
Essentially, use the right amount, for the right character, with the right information, and you can pull off an intentional and well-done info dump. Otherwise, avoid it!
What are your thoughts on exposition or info-dumping?