Body English

I worked with students today in a creative writing class on the use of explaining bodily movements in fiction. (His finger taps the period key and glides over the space bar.) We discussed whether the use of these explanations adds to or detracts from a work of fiction. (He taps the 'enter' key once, twice...okay, enough of that.)

Tomorrow, I plan on challenging them to write a scene using only descriptions of bodily movements. The difficult part of this is to tell a story. There can be no dialogue, no exposition, nothing except for description of bodily movements. It will be interesting to see their efforts. I tried this today after school. It was not easy; that's why it is an effective exercise.