The Dinner Table Conflict

" . . . a bead of illumination glimpsed from a poet's oblique angle. . . ."  
                                                - Peter Matthiessen

Anita Shreve develops characters using body language. She employs movements, gestures and glances to reveal mood and emotion to show the reader a story from a variety of angles.

"Life for the Edwardses, Sydney has come to understand, centers around the dinner table. It is where triumphs are praises, politics aired, lies told and truth occasionally released," Shreve writes in Body Surfing.

Here are few lines from Shreve that illustrate character:

Jeff's fork pauses on the way to his mouth.

Mr. Edwards shuts one eye. A child making a wish.

Mrs. Edward's mouth is a straight line that barely moves. She makes a quick frown with her eyebrows.

"Think." Mr. Edwards puts a hand over his wife's wrist at the table.

But who can tell what Ben notices or doesn't.

Create a dinner table sequence where body language promotes the situation. Develop a scene with a conflict or two. Let dialogue become secondary. Raise the temperature in the room by using gestures, sounds and aromas to add to the drama.

Approach the table from oblique angles.