So, for those of you who don't know, I live near Seattle. Yesterday, there was the Big Sportsball Game, in which our local team did very, very well, and won a championship they'd never won before. Naturally, this has led to much rejoicing on the West Coast, and many, many tears of lamentation pretty much everywhere else.
Watching the game last night, I found myself focusing a bit more on the expressions of the people on the sidelines and in the stands than the action on the field. (This, of course, is in no way related to my general apathy towards all things sportsball-related.) Through most of the game, I kept making comments on the faces I saw, making up what I thought they could be saying and thinking.
I realize this is something that I do frequently, and I'm wondering if I'm alone in this. I feel as though there's a lot of inspiration to be had in a captured moment of time, even if it isn't something as dramatic as losing the Super Bowl. It seems like the reverse of my acting training, where I always tried to express certain emotions through my body language and facial expressions. Learning how to do that myself makes it easier to recognize when it's being done by others, consciously or not, and it helps me figure out a story behind those expressions.
While the inspiration is there, I find it difficult to capture what I see in the picture when I translate it into words. It doesn't feel right to just describe the details of the picture, because then it reads as dry and technical. I know it helps readers to determine what's important by what's described in detail and what's left out, but it all seems important, which is less than useful in this arena.
Does anyone have any tips or tricks on capturing an image in words? Do you have a similar problem with determining what's important and what isn't? And did anyone else fear for the lives of everyone else in the box with John Elway during the game?
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