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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41347
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

## Body Language

Body language and how you narrate the interpretations of this body language can be a very useful tool in portraying a lot of these messages without outright saying it.

Jim Butcher has a series called the Codex Alera where the main character meets another species that is sort of a mix between wolves and humans. These are large creatures that can speak, have their own hierarchy and culture. And as expected they are feared by most people. The main character interacts with them a lot and starts to notice patterns in the body language between them. The biggest factor here is that a huge sign of respect is when one wolf-guy lifts his chin up a little. Just enough to show the throat. This was seen as a sign of trust and respect. A sign that they'd trust their life to the other party.

The main character then uses this information and other hints things that he picked up while interacting with them to gain respect from them (and for survival purposes in a few cases).

Depending on the specifics of these creatures you're making you can try slip in a small mention of body language while the character being narrated is making sense of the world.

E.g. He saw Rubin straighten his shoulders and he relaxed himself, content that the danger had passed.

Something like this then associates straight shoulders with relaxation. Then later on you can use this action to portray the sense of relief and relaxation in another situation without having to say that the character is now relaxed/relieved.

Original score: 6