The dreaded furrowed brow and narrowed eyes

I think you can't simplify all the novels and show how many gestures someone made.

Shaking one's head for example; What if you're writing an adult book about a child. Children shake their heads a lot. When they feel nervous, uncomfortable, they rarely talk, they use body language. Nodding, shaking head, looking in different directions, smiling, shrugging; they do that a lot. I am currently writing a psychological thriller where an 8 year old is the main character. He shrugged two times in the first 6 pages already and he shook his head two times in only one dialogue, because he was talking to cops and was feeling uncomfortable, wasn't sure what he is allowed to say.

Not all people will act the same in the same circumstances.

If you are writing a drama story about an autist, the words "Smile/grin/laugh" will probably be used a lot less times than if you are writing a novel about Batman & Joker.

 

Huh? I asked for help how to write beyond "narrowed eyes" and "furrowed brow". And sorry if you have a "difference of opinion", but I still don't think that's a bad thing to ask for help on.

If you want to help me with that, great, thanks for the tips. If you want to rant at me, you could always PM me so as not to derail the topic.

 

Definitely agree that gestures should be fresh per story, content and character. As an avid movie watcher - I love how subtle gestures & actions can be between decades, countries, and actors. In fact when I can't get out and people watch, I like to watch movies absorbing and jotting down all the overlooked details.

 

Yup, body language is important, I just read a book where it was written that words are just 7% of all the communication, while body language was something over 50%. That's why some actors are better than others, they are great with body language. Look at Hugo Weaving's role in V for Vendetta. Outstanding IMO. Although, the words are also spectacular here.

But it's a bit more difficult to transfer these actions into written words.
My apologies for derailing the thread.

 

I'm a beginning writer myself, and I found that in the earliest drafts of the MS I was working on there were tons of these cliched phrases (smiles, grins, furrowed brows,), that eventually got better as I went over them again and again and became better at self-editing. I think in trying anything new we almost always rely on convention at first because we aren't really sure what we're doing. Later, as we get more experience, style and technique are honed and we no longer need to rely on them so much. You notice cliches in your own work, and you unconsciously begin to fix them.

It sounds like you are at the stage where you know you need to branch out, but the only way to learn how is either by reading articles (as you have) or simply reading good books that don't rely on them so much.

 

Also, I've been thinking about this for a while and have a question about the use of cliches.

Say you have a character who is a ridiculously cheerful person. I'm thinking of a college-age girl in my MS who is a quintessential Millenial (for ex). She repeats herself constantly, says Oh my God often, giggles, grins, squeals, etc. She's basically a very ditzy cheerleader-type who naturally calls to mind many of the cliches being talked about here.

In those situations, what do you do? I mean, I realize dialogue is exempt from this (or is it?) but how do you handle narrative for those characters who are naturally cliched? Accurate portrayals have to take precedence, I assume, but in these situations is it ever acceptable to overuse convention?

Thanks!

 

Well, here again, I think the word cliché is being used overmuch. What you have described is not a cliché so much as a trope character. She's from the stock character bin. This doesn't make her cliché. And to answer your question, you just describe it from the POV of those around her. They are going to notice her cheer and think about it. They may like her for it. It might annoy the butter right off their bread. You don't have to describe her every tropie attribute as she does it. That's not needed. Her interaction in the environment of other people will tell it.

 

Thanks Wrey, I always appreciate your straightforward responses. I understand what you're saying totally, but I guess I'm wondering how other characters might describe interactions with such a person. If someone squeals, giggles, and laughs abnormally often, how would 'cliched' descriptors avoid being overused by anyone?

Well actually, now that I think about it, I guess you could have other characters commenting periodically on how annoying it was, or the person's tone of voice and pitch, etc. So then maybe repetition isn't forbidden, per se, but an original way needs to be found to do it.

 

One problem is that we don't all agree on the classification of cliches and overused phrases. In my mind, there are different classes of phrases:

1) Some are just fine, and the only problem with them is if they're overused in the same work. "Overused" depends in large part on how memorable the phrase is--the more memorable, the more dangerous to repeat it.

I would put the furrowed brow and pouring rain and pungent odor and visibly shaken here. They're not inherently bad, but if you use them once, a whole lot of pages should pass before you use them again.

2) Some are just fine, and so invisible that they can be used repeatedly in one work.

I would put shaking and nodding heads, smiles, frowns, and so on here. That's not to say that these phrases have any particular interest or creative value, but it's not necessary to paint gingerbread on each and every phrase. The simplicity and clarity of these phrases can serve as support for whatever is interesting about the sentence or paragraph or page that they're in.

Widened and narrowed eyes are, for me, somewhere between categories (1) and (2).

3) Some are bad--sentimental or overdramatic or otherwise transparently manipulative--on the day that they were first written, and should never be used.

The "solitary tear rolled down..." example belongs in this category for me.

Edited to add:

4) Some were fine when they were first used, but they're used up now. I haven't actually noticed any of these in this thread, but I would include things like silken hair, limpid eyes, and all of those other overused romantic descriptive phrases. I'm assuming that there are plenty of others, I'm just failing to immediately think of other categories.

 

Good ol' fashioned clean writing.

 

How about pulling the eyebrows together, pushing the eyebrows, pinching the brows, scrunching brows, wrinkled brow. Just trying to answer your question without elaboraing.

 

@TypicalYAHeroine on Twitter:
I've knit my eyebrows so much, I've pretty much made a blanket. And mittens. And a coffee cozy. And one slipper.

 

I would first focus on the story you are telling. All of those cliches and tired phrases can be changed. If you have a great story, believable characters that draw you into the story and suspenseful chapters, that is the main thing. Now granted, the only book I have published to date, is a guitar instructional book published by Hal Leonard. So, that doesn't make me an expert on writing a novel. I don't think you want to put any restraints on your creativity initially and that is what overthinking the details can do. Start with a great outline of your events and your plot, think about different themes you want to convey and find chapters from your favorite writers that move you in some way and study them.

 

I don't think she was asking that. A forum should be open and honest, and if you have a question it should not be criticized. I must say I thought your response was rather rude and disrespectful.