fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2305 ]

[ SECRET POST #2305 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2305 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Team Starkid]

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[Denise Donovan, Regina Spektor]

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[A Very Potter Musical]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 016 secrets from Secret Submission Post #329.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've been wondering about something that seems to pop up in a lot of fanfic. There are so many descriptions of characters "reading" each other's faces (you know the thing, "he looked at his face and saw the confusion and whatever", that kind of schtick) - everything from guessing what someone's probably feeling to seemingly becoming mind readers just from one glance. I've always chalked it up to a combination of poetic license and exaggeration of normal "reading" of body language (and occasionally just plain bad writing), because I certainly don't go around reading people's faces like that. It's part of how I perceive body language, sure, but that's more a subconscious thing than something that allows me to pinpoint "this subtle emotion is what the person in front of me is feeling right now" (with obvious exceptions, of course, like intense anger and that kind of thing). Even people I know really, really well - I may be able to guess what they're thinking, but that has very little to do with their facial expressions and a lot to do with familiarity with their behavior and prior reactions.

But maybe that's just me? Do you guys read people's faces like that, or is fanfic in general (surprise, surprise) exaggerating?

Fic definitely exaggerates it, but yeah I read peoples faces like that. Especially people I've known for a long while or are really close to, I can totally tell what they're thinking by reaction face.

That's kinda what I've been thinking lately, that maybe it also has to do with my brain just not working that way. The human mind is so fascinating sometimes, how much it can differ from person to person!

Heh. Yeah, I've noticed that too. Especially when the description of what someone "read" is long and ridiculous and involves divining actual plot points.

I think some people are definitely more sensitive than others to that sort of thing. but it's definitely exaggerated in fanfic.

Those long descriptions are what made me stop and go "...I know this is over the top, but what if it's based on something more real than I think?", heh. But yeah, it's kinda hilarious sometimes.

There's a bit of poetic license taken with it, sure, but facial expressions can reveal a lot about a person's current emotional state, especially when they're unaware they're doing it and/or bad at hiding it. I generally use facial cues to help me figure out if a person is confused (that's the easiest one, IMO) or whatever. I'm not always right, of course, but I'm also not fictional.

The thing is, I've been trying lately to consciously do that, and I guess I'm just bad at it because I got nothin'. Body language in general and tone of voice, no problem, but facial expressions are just not helping me at all.

They don't mean read literally. They are just saying in a poetic way, that the person could perceive the mood of someone else.

What I get confused about is when they write about facial expressions and interpreting them and I'm like "Wait, that's not what I took away from that face." Then I'm always left confused if my interpretation is just that different, or if they're using creative license just to write what they want without regard to facts.

You can get quite a lot of information from a person just by looking at them, not just their face, but their entire body and at times the vibe they give off. (this can also be done over the phone)

You have to know someone for it to be that accurate, but I can at times read people almost as well as they do in fanfics if I know the person well enough.

Just like I can read people pretty well on the phone, as in I barely have to hear a sentence from my mother to figure out her mental state, or if someone is sad or happy or anything really.

So it depends also for me it takes a lot of energy to concentrate on people enough to read the subtle changes, but yeah it can be done.

I'm okay with body language, tone of voice and that kind of thing, but faces? Faces I am completely blank on, which is why I've always thought the fic thing was kinda silly. But interesting to see it can be done!

I think what quite a few fic writers are doing wrong, is depending completely on facial expressions when one character "reads" another character, because it is more than one factor that you read of a person not just their face or tone of voice, it is all of their body and "soul".

Though on the other hand it might be easier to rely on facial expressions when writing fics? I dunno? I am no writer. I have read some stories who explains how a character reads another character that have used more than the face though.

Okay, now I feel weird reading people's responses to this. While I feel fanfic exaggerates it I kinda do this? Has no one ever just met someone and known exactly what they were thinking? Yeah, I'm a weirdo and asked if I was right a couple times. I don't know. I'm so awkward in social situations I find I tend to study people so that I know I'm not screwing up. I've done this since I was a kid. It's in the background when I feel I don't need to do active analyzation but I slip between the two quite often.

So... no one else does this?

Thank goodness i'm not the only one!

I'm socially awkward as well, so it was more of a survival skill than anything else lol. (It did actually help me avoid a creeper once!)

I feel okay in social situations, maybe that does have something to do with it, like I've never learned to develop it as much or as consciously? It seems like a useful skill to have, tbh!

I'm very good at this but that comes from a combination of my first language being sign/lip-reading and the fact I grew up in an abusive home (studies show kids from that environment tend to do better at reading expressions and body languages). People often comment on my knack for it though so I wouldn't say it is common and fic tends to exaggerate this kind of thing to begin with.

I have pretty good emotional intuition. I can almost always tell how people are feeling (even if they're trying to hide it), and facial expressions are a big part of that for me.

I have no trouble reading people's faces, and I have a lot of trouble hiding my expressions. That can be bad if I think someone is being a dumbass or whatever but don't want them to know I think so. Must ... smile and nod ...

I think they exaggerate the accuracy, but, yeah, getting a general idea of what a person is thinking via the emotions revealed in their face seems to be a pretty normal thing.

I used to suck at this big time, but that's not the norm.

(Watching the TV show Lie to Me actually helped me a lot! Consider watching a few episodes to learn what to look for!)

Also, if you have difficulties with faces, you might have a form of Prosopagnosia/Prosopamnesia.

Never thought of watching Lie to Me to develop this, that sounds like a fun way to go about it heh.

I only tend to forget people I don't know very well or I haven't seen someone in a long time, but that's not quite Prosopagnosia/Prosopamnesia as far as I know? I mean, I'm okay with faces in general, it's just the whole reading exact emotions off of them. That would've made sense, though! It's so interesting to read people's responses, I guess I'm just less adept/haven't developed the skill as much or as consciously as some have.

Most of the time I'm not consciously aware of "reading" people, I just kinda... do it anyway? Like, I'll pick up on how they're feeling, their general demeanor, what kind of person they are.

If I'm actively trying to "read" someone I'll be more focused, pay attention to their facial expressions, reactions, body language.

I don't know; I thought this was normal. Maybe not? :/

Judging by these responses I think it is normal, and I'm more the odd one out heh (op here). I mean, I do read people but the thing I'm talking about in fic is that sometimes it seems to be a separate thing entirely from body language and so on, and that doesn't work for me - cue my confusion.

Part of it's probably a bad writing thing. When you get the kind of passage you mentioned, that's the author telling instead of showing. What you'd see more often in better writing would be a description of the actual expression or body language. So it would be more like:

"Charlie continued droning over the agenda for today's meeting, eventually mentioning the sandwiches missing from the communal fridge. Alice chose that moment to narrow her eyes at Bob, who raised his brows and grinned, his arms shrugging outward."

Whereas in fanfic, you're more likely to get:

"When Charlie got to the item of the missing sandwiches, Alice looked suspiciously at Bob, who she could tell wasn't really innocent because his grin was too wide."

Or possibly some deep analysis from Alice about how his mannerisms explain exactly when, how, and why he took the sandwiches. Unless Alice is Sherlock Holmes, it's a method of cheating at narration and is usually frowned upon in "not writing solely for fun" circles. Often it has to do with the author not being confident that the audience will correctly interpret indicators based on description alone.

Because, yeah, most people do perceive body language on a subconscious level. They don't actually think about their analyses of every quirk of lips and twitch of eyebrow, which is maybe why the narration of a character doing that sounds dishonest to you.

Yeah, I'm thinking this is pretty much that! And that I've just gotten focused on the facial expressions as a separate thing, which doesn't work for me because I seem to pick up on those less.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #2305 ]

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