Fight, flight or surrender
In a wrestling match and other one-on-one contests the expression square-off is used. Most people, I assume, don’t have a clue what that means. I never thought about it until this concept grabbed me as a blog opportunity. I now recall the words of my wrestling coach in high school. Form a square or rectangle with your opponent. The coach also taught math. The expression square-off means face your opponent don’t let your body give away your next move. In this way you can move either direction in response to your opponent. For those who don’t see this picture your shoulders, hips, head and feet in a square with your opponent. In wrestling, we lean slightly toward our opponent and plant our feet outward at 45 degrees. These last two points don’t hold true in romance.
When a woman or man faces their opposite and assumes and holds a squaring off position they are saying many things. First, they have no fear that this war like stance could be misinterpreted. They are showing complete love and trust in their opposite. They are offering themselves completely to that person. They are assessing rather openly their willingness to commit to this person. They seek surrender and victory at the same time with the same body language.
Am I making too much of this? No, as a writer, it is your duty to the reader to show such subtleties. Enrich your story or risk being dismissed as unwilling to work hard or creating a hackneyed product or clichèd novel.
About the male POV: It is quite an accomplishment for a man, as warrior, to square-off with the heroine. He is a self assured, totally open, loving hero who is saying “I’m yours”.
Square-off and choose to surrender and win at the same time.
In a wrestling match and other one-on-one contests the expression square-off is used. Most people, I assume, don’t have a clue what that means. I never thought about it until this concept grabbed me as a blog opportunity. I now recall the words of my wrestling coach in high school. Form a square or rectangle with your opponent. The coach also taught math. The expression square-off means face your opponent don’t let your body give away your next move. In this way you can move either direction in response to your opponent. For those who don’t see this picture your shoulders, hips, head and feet in a square with your opponent. In wrestling, we lean slightly toward our opponent and plant our feet outward at 45 degrees. These last two points don’t hold true in romance.
When a woman or man faces their opposite and assumes and holds a squaring off position they are saying many things. First, they have no fear that this war like stance could be misinterpreted. They are showing complete love and trust in their opposite. They are offering themselves completely to that person. They are assessing rather openly their willingness to commit to this person. They seek surrender and victory at the same time with the same body language.
Am I making too much of this? No, as a writer, it is your duty to the reader to show such subtleties. Enrich your story or risk being dismissed as unwilling to work hard or creating a hackneyed product or clichèd novel.
About the male POV: It is quite an accomplishment for a man, as warrior, to square-off with the heroine. He is a self assured, totally open, loving hero who is saying “I’m yours”.
Square-off and choose to surrender and win at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment