How often do you really roll your eyes?

Everyone knows that firsts drafts are crap. They're meant to get ideas on the page, and to be glossed over later. Still, when I was looking over my work in progress, I had a sinking feeling that I had way too many mannerism cliches. A search confirmed it; Word let me know that I had too many instances to preview of these mannerisms:

• shrugged
• rolled eyes
• sighed
• nodded

In the words of Admiral Ackbar, "it's a trap!"

I'm sure I'm not the only one to use mannerism cliches in the first draft, but I certainly don't want to keep them in the final draft. So how to get rid of them?

After scouring over my story, I took out a lot of the character movements and tried to convey their emotions through dialogue. When a section became too dialogue heavy, I tried to find another way for the character to manifest his/her feelings. What else could a person do besides roll eyes, shrug, etc.?

The only way to find out was to people watch. I spent a day at work playing close attention to my co-workers, noting when they seemed annoyed or excited. Some cliches are real - people DO shrug, roll their eyes, etc., but they also might scratch the back of their neck if they're feeling cornered, glance around the room if they're annoyed, etc.

Take a look. You might find a new way for your character to move.

PS - Nick Harrison has a great post about mannerism cliches here.