I stumbled across your blog while looking for some writing tips. I was wondering, how do you portray emotions through actions without using the emotion itself? I mean something like, "she angrily shut the door" when I say that. Basically, how do you portray emotions subtly through actions?
Showing emotion through action.
That’s actually a great example sentence because you make one easy change to turn it from an expository adverb to a emotion portraying action like this:
she angrily shut the door -> she slammed the door
You can come up with actions like these in a variety of ways. One tried and true method is to take an adverb-verb pair and find a stronger verb. Examples:
angrily shut/placed/moved -> slammed
nervously moved -> fidgeted
grumpily walked -> trudged
Another great thing to do, especially as a writing exercise, is to simply consider things people commonly do what they feel certain emotions. Examples:
Sadness: People might draw into corners or under blankets, let down their hair, forget things like meals, gravitate toward pets, slump or curl up, set their head in their hands or on their knees, wipe their eyes, move more sluggishly, etc.
Happiness: People might move more energetically, dance or hum or whistle, twirl things around their fingers, make larger hand gestures or take up more room when they lounge, etc.
Nerves/fear: People might fidget, tap their fingers or chew their nails, fix their outfit even when there’s nothing wrong, pace, start doing something and then forget to finish, etc.
Remember that individual characters will have their own unique ways of dealing with emotion though! One character may slam a door, while another may focus so hard on closing it softly that their shoulders shake, while another may leave the door open specifically because they know the person they’re angry with will have to come close it afterward.
Because people (and characters) aren’t carbon copies, we usually have to use a variety of means to show emotion. Well chosen actions alone are great, but facial expressions, tone of voice, dialogue structure, and (for point of view characters) internal thoughts can go a long way in helping round out the emotion in a scene.
Ye Good Old Footnote: I wrote a book about a silly siren and a sillier pirate being idiots together and you can read it if you search for Our Bloody Pearl at your favorite book distributor!
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