Showing instead of telling with facial expressions

Chasing the Horizon said:

...how do you 'show' the feelings of the people they're interacting with?

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I don't. I show their actions and leave the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Focus on their actions. If all their giving is a slight shift in facial gesture, then it might be only worth to just tell.


She sat there, annoyed.

What did your mom do when you spilled milk on the floor?

Did she,put her hands on her hips and draw one side of her mouth up causing her eye to squint?

Did she, smile, tilt her head to the side giving you a reasurring look before, handing you a few paper towels?

Did her face turn red, her fist clench tight, and tremble, while the veins on her forehead popped out in purple lines?

I try to use expressions I'm familiar with. i.e., family and friends I observe all the time.

Actions are easier, as are body language. Facial expressions are difficult to do well, and often fail to convey the emotion. There are only so many ways to describe the facial features.

Also, most writers are NOT actors.

I'd suggest less is more. Give the gist and move on. And use other means to convey the emotions:

a) dialogue ("I can't believe you lied to me, bastard!")
b) interpretation by the POV character (he looked furious)
c) obvious body language (he pounded his fists on the kitchen counter)
d) use a simile -- that may strike a chord with the readers without a lot of words

Or put it all together!

His face scrunched together, red like an apple. He looked furious.
"I can't believe you lied to me, you bastard," he yelled, pounding his fists on the kitchen counter.

You can try looking at yourself in the mirror and mimicking some of the emotions. What parts of your face do what, and how? Combine that with body language.

His hands balled into fists. He glared at me and one corner of his lip curled up. What's the emotion?

She folded her arms over her chest, tapped her foot, and pinched her mouth closed so tight her lips all but disappeared. What's the emotion?

She smiled and leaned into him, all dewy-eyed and cooing. With one finger she twirled the ends of her hair. What's the emotion?

Her lower lip trembled and her eyes welled with tears. What's the emotion?

In addition to the mirror thing, learn to study other people whenever you can. Malls are a great place for this. Watch the people walking by or sitting around and study their facial expressions and body language. Eavesdrop on a conversation or two. And mentally describe all that in words.

I used to live in a city that had toll booths and one day I decided to try to figure out what the people in line ahead of me were like based on the type of car they drove, how they approached the toll booth, what their arm looked like (and how they were dressed if I could see a sleeve), how they tossed/handed over their money, and how they left the toll booth after paying. It made those toll lines more tolerable each day I did it and it helped me a lot with body language.

Beth (aka Annelise Ryan)

Though not necessarily useful, you may also want to take a look at David B. Givens' "The Nonverbal Dictionary of Gestures Signs and Body Language Cues"

Last time I checked, it's available here for free.

My mom once read me a scene from my trunk novel, and I was struck by how different her interpretation of the dialogue was from mine. I think it's good to keep things like inflection--and body and facial language, which is sort of the physical equivalent--a little on the vague side so that the reader can project onto the characters the actions that are the most relevant.

Also, "He shifted his weight to his left foot" can really slow down a narrative.

A good trick, I think, is to throw in a really quick one in where there would be a break in conversation, or right before the character is about to start talking about something new.

So, keep it vague and sparse, and use it to make the flow of conversation feel more natural.

Chasing the Horizon said:

My difficulties are more in describing the expressions and body language that go on when the characters aren't speaking. The problem is compounded by the fact that most of my characters know each other very well and can communicate a lot through subtle body language that wouldn't happen with strangers.

I just hate telling in all forms, though I understand it's necessary sometimes. It never reads as nice as showing, at least not when I'm the one writing it. Maybe I need to learn how to 'tell' more creatively, lol.

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Telling is not evil. In this case, you can tell, especially since the characters know each other well. That means, the POV character can interpret and make judgment easily, thus the POV character can just tell us, "Jane was mad."

It's all about the amount of details and the pacing you desire. Excessive descriptions are going to slow down the pace or bog down the story, when a simple "tell" could work.

Too much face (description of facial expressions) = red flag saying "inexperienced writer."

How much is too much? If depends, but in edit, if you have to go through and find interesting new ways to describe a frown, or a smile, or some other facially-expressed emotion, so there won't be too much repetition, you probably have way too much face.

Besides, it gets kind of boring for a reader to see all of those facial contortions as indicators of the reactions of the various characters.

It does rather depend on the style you are adopting. It is fashionable in certain types of books to avoid the obvious, the simple tell, but, unless you are very good, focusing exclusively on the show just results in a lot of squirmy, tick-ridden character or an over reliance on cliche. I think you have to make sure that whichever route you choose your intention is clear to the reader and that the sentences by which you express your intention don't clunk, aren't too boring, and don't trip the reader up.
I don't think there is one universally applicable rule or guideline you just do what works best for the piece you are writing.
Ah I just checked the original post!
I avoid talking about facial expressions in a non filtered way unless it is something like a frown, a smile or a raised eyebrow. Once past that level of simplicity I would tend to add a gloss of some sort, ' She twisted her mouth into a smirk' or 'She gave that peculiar inverted smile of hers: he never knew quite what it signified.' etc
Very few facial movements are unambiguous even 'she flushed' could mean she was angry, embarassed, or busy in the ladies' loo...

My main character thinks like a robot, so she gives very analytical descriptions such as, "five firm creases appeared in his forehead." I had the same problem trying to figure out exactly what people's faces do when they're feeling different emotions. Looking in a mirror helps, but I got a lot of suggestions from beta-readers as well.

Eye contact, subtle noises like groaning or sighing, are also things to keep in mind. Also, the dialouge itself. When I'm angry or upset, I'll sometimes cut people off, or try to make the conversation as short as possible.

I have a few ideas (they're similar to the ones higher up; sorry if this post is obsolete).

Some examples of how to use body language: If a character leans forward, tilts her head and plays with her hair, she's instantly flirting (especially if she smiles a lot and hangs onto everything the other character says). And if someone is slumped in their chair, not looking at the character, and fiddling with the zip on their pocket, then they could be bored, or sulking, or tired. If they challenge everything the character says, they're sulking; if they say "huh?" once in a while, they're bored or tired; and if they yawn they're tired.

So you can say a few things about the character's body language throughout the scene, and each one narrows down the character's mood more so the reader can work it out.

You could also use italics to emphasise the character's meaning, for example:

"I didn't take money from your purse." (Someone else did.)
"I didn't take money from your purse." (I really, really didn't!)
"I didn't take money from your purse." (Just your driver's licence and Halifax card...)

Each of the above sentences indicates a different mood (1. Annoyed about being blamed, 2. Desperate (pleading or lying), and 3. Mischievous or nasty, depending on the character's personality and the seriousness of the situation.)

Haha, I've written so much, and you probably knew it anyway. Feel free to ignore my advice if you think it's stupid/not relevant...

Keep in mind that if the dialogue has received the same attention as given to the body language and facial expression issue the reader shouldn't need any more than the very occasional facial expression and mention of body language -provided that information adds to the scene.

If there's no response to, say, dialogue, other than facial expression or body movement make sure the reader knows what triggered that response and what the response means. Frowning, sighing and groaning etc., are meaningless without the reader knowing with certainty what stimulated the sighing or whatever, and what the reaction means. Get to the point and simply say what you mean.

If the use of facial expression and body language gets repetitious, it will become obvious and ineffectual and maybe the dialogue should be revisited.

Read carefully and pay attention to how your favourite published authors do it.

facial expression as a subset of communication

Use descriptions of facial expression only when doing so actually tells the reader something interesting or important. People seldom have very interesting facial or body expressions, and what they do have is predicated a lot on who they are with and who they are talking to.

I would suggest confining the use of same to those situation where facial expression is telling you something the words and situation and, even, body posture, isn't revealing.

"He reached across the table to grab me by my shirt. His leering smile and piercing eyes, though, went directly to my mother, squirming in terror next to me."

Just my 2 cents worth. Actual communications in words is not easy. BFF can easily misunderstand one another because they are unwilling to ask direct questions of one another, fearing hurt feelings. An author can hint at words not meaning what they seem to mean by using a body language or facial expression clue.

In one of my unpublished works, two long time male friends are sitting in the dark talking (no help with body language or facial expression). One uses the word 'business' to describe his occupation and the other, not able to figure out why the other guy used that term, muses about their whole relationship, most everything he knows about his friend for two or three pages, trying to respond intelligently. Gives me a chance to develop character and background for both men.

The second speaker finally decides the first means something about his part time preaching, the 'business of saving souls', in local vernacular, and responds accordingly along that train of thought. The first guy then has his reverie to try to decide how to respond to guy number two. He realizes that he had accidentally used the word business because he was thinking about his illegal moonshine operation, and even wonders if the second fellow already knew about it, and, if he did, why did he change the subject? Etc. Facial expressions might have helped if I were writer enough to figure out how....

As an actor, I can tell you that facial expressions are very subtle. Humans have the cognitive ability to decipher complex emotions by just observing subtle facial movements. A tiny frown and a twitch of the lips are enough to convey the feelings, and a lot of that is involuntary, meaning the person can't even control that -- unless he's a robot or he deliberately fakes it.

That's why it's difficult to do realistic animated characters (Polar Express, Beowulf, etc.) without motion capture of the faces.

But that's real life. On paper, it's just not the same. Even if you describe it to the T, your readers won't get it the way they would in real life, visually. Text has its limitation, and facial expression/body language is it.

So what happens is that writers tend to exaggerate, much like animators have to exaggerate facial expressions for cartoon characters. So, when a writer exaggerates the expressions or body language to convey the emotions, the result can be... you guess it... cartoonish.

That's why I say, less is more. If your dialogue is good enough to convey the emotion, let it do the work. If you can put your POV character to work and interpret/tell, let it. A little goes a long way. And if your characters are silent, use just a little bit to give the gist and let your readers fill in the blanks with their imagination. Use strong verbs like jerk, twitch, fidget, etc. so you don't end up trying to describe every movement or crease of the face.

maestrowork said:

That's why I say, less is more.

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Absolutely. As others have said, don't overdo it.

Beth (aka Annelise Ryan)

I'm largely with maestrowork on this one. You don't want to try to give lengthy descriptions of faces because they'll distract from what's really going on. There are, however, specific types of facial gestures that can be easily described (especially with help from a well-placed adjective. Like, "she got an anxious pinch between her eyebrows." Or, "he frowned." These are the most iconic, easily recognized of emotional cues, and thus they will convey the whole impression most simply. You can also do a lot with eye gaze, as in, "He looked at her." "She looked between us." "The kids looked down at the floor." I personally try always to avoid an authorial description (tell) of a character's emotional state - but you can, as maestrowork says, give the POV character's judgment of that character's emotional state. "Suddenly he looked so angry - it freaked me out." These are some good ways to portray the emotions of another character without having to step into their heads. And in fact, when the POV character's reaction to the expression is important - as it seems to be in your example - then giving that reaction a little extra text works just fine.