This is one my favorites ways to tighten and strengthen your prose (and mine) for two reasons:
It’s an easy edit (or self-edit)
Sometimes they’re hilarious
The key to avoiding autonomous body parts is to always have your character take action rather than letting one of your character’s appendages act on its own volition.
Various appendages
This is easier to explain with some examples. Maybe you’ll get a chuckle out of a few of these, and maybe you’ll recognize a few you’ve done yourself. If an absurd example makes me laugh, it helps embed that concept into my brain better. Then I’m able to recognize it as I write and edit.
My hand reached for the door handle. (All by itself? Addams Family, perhaps.)
My foot stepped out. (Then I fell down because I only had one foot remaining.)
When she asked if I wanted to get dinner, my head nodded. (But my head couldn’t go because my foot had stepped out.)
The teacher asked if anyone in the class knew the answer, and Fred’s a…
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