Physical Cues of Violence: FightWrite™
One of the golden rules of writing is “show don’t tell.” Telling paints the entire scene for the reader and has them look at it. Showing brings the reader into the scene and has them look around for themselves.
(Writing Scenes With Sparring: FightWrite™)
The irony of that rule is that when you show, you actual do tell. In fact, showing tells more than telling could. Showing can even tell what a person may not want told. If your character means to harm another, their body will likely make it known even if their mouth is closed tightly in a grin. Violence has physical cues that scream through silence.
Physical Cues of Assault
If your character means to inflict physical harm, there are some cues their body may give. The Public Agency Training Council’s Legal and Liability Risk Management Institute (yeesh, that’s a lot) conducted a study on the physical cues that precede assault. They asked over 100 law enforcement officers, all of which had been assaulted on the job, what behaviors the assailant showed before the attack. These are 11 behaviors those officers listed from least to most predictive. I go over all this a bit more on my blog where there is also a video.
11. Stretching arms/shoulders
10. Sweating profusely
9. Pacing
8. Tense jaw muscles
7. Head rolls/neck stretches
6. Looking around the area
5. Making verbal threats
4. Clenching hands into fists
3. Hiding the hands or hand, i.e. placing in pockets or in sleeves
2. Invading personal space
1. Assuming a fighter’s stance—placing one foot in front of the other and bringing the hands up
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When a weapon is involved, there may be a few differences. All of these physical behaviors are an attempt to obscure the weapon.
1. Blading the body—keeping empty hand side to the viewer
2. Obscuring one hand in a pocket, up a sleeve or behind the body
3. Having one arm straight while the other is gesturing
Body language accounts for as much as 60 percent of human communication. It makes sense that our character would have a gracious plenty of it as well. Show what a violent character intends by how their body is moving. Let their body tell what their mouth keeps silent. What remains unsaid should be listened to carefully.
Until the next round with FightWrite.net® on the WD blog, get blood on your pages.
Struggling to choose a fighting style for your character? The struggle is over. The way your character does battle isn’t up to you. It’s up to the story. The time and place of the work, the society in which your character lives, their inherent and fostered traits and the needs of the story will determine how your character responds to aggression.
