Lie To Me - Body Language

I love the Fox show, Lie to Me.  The premise is basically this…the average person tells three lies in ten minutes of conversation.  

The series revolves around Dr. Cal Lightman, the world's leading deception expert and his team of experts called the Lightman Group.  Lightman can detect the truth by analyzing a person's face, body, voice and speech. So when someone shrugs his shoulder, rotates his hand or raises his lower lip, he instantly knows they are lying. Lightman is a gifted scientist who studies facial expressions and involuntary body language to discover not only if you are lying but why.   (See http://www.fox.com/lietome/ for more details.)  

I enjoy this show because it reminds me the importance of characters being in constant motion.   Writers can never forget the importance of a character’s body language, mannerisms and voice inflection.  Body language is so vital in distinguishing one character from another in a novel so it’s important to remember research states that we gather information about people in three ways:
Verbal - 7% (what is said);
Vocal - 38% (how it is said); and
Non verbal - 55% (facial expression, posture, gestures).

In normal conversation, a speaker conveys facts or opinions to the listener but body language is the largest component in person to person communication.   Each gesture is like a single word, and a word may have different meanings. It is only when the word is used in a sentence with other words that its meaning is fully understood. Gestures come in sentences/clusters and may indicate the truth about a person's feelings or attitudes.

Naturally, we are generally unaware that posture, body movements and gestures can tell one story while the voice may be telling another. Suffice to say that if you work at understanding body language the better chance you have at understanding what is really being said.

So how does one transfer this information into their writing? Well by using body language indicators to ‘show’ instead of 'tell' the reader what is happening.  Make it a point to use dialogue, accompanied by some sort of physical movements in your writing. Let's face it, do you just sit or stand still when talking to someone? Do you stand closer to someone you are more comfortable with? Do you touch the arm of someone you care for just before speaking with them?

If FOX reruns any of the Lie to Me episodes this summer, please give it a try.  It will educate you on the nuisances of non-verbal character interaction.