Describing a Feeling

***There’s a small Bonus list of LOVE words at the end of this article for anyone who writes romance or even just adds a little mild romance in their work***

Feelings or more accurately emotions, how do you describe them in your writing? Well in light of Valentine’s Day, let’s talk about those feelings. More importantly how your characters translate their feelings through your writing.

Describing any emotion means that as the writer you should be in fact feeling what that character is feeling. For those of you (and on the rare occurrence, me) who write poems that emotion may come naturally to you in that moment. However, there are times when trying to put it into words in a story can be quite the task. Figuring out what the right descriptors are to translate that emotion to paper, and not taking it too far.

That’s right us writers can put too much emotion on a page just as easily as we can put too little. The overuse of words like…

1. Angry
2. Sad
3. Happy
4. Jealous
5. Excitedly
6. Stupid
7. Sick
8. Shy
9. Nervous

Just to Name a few…

Can make a reader get tired of the overly dramatic approach, For example…

Jessica was so angry and sad that she stupidly succumbed to her jealously by confiding in her now suspicious boyfriend.

For the record that’s just an example…but its a little much right? I mean once you take out some of the emotionally descriptive words it sounds better…

Jessica was so angry that she stupidly confided in her now suspicious boyfriend.

Then even better if you use some not so commonly used descriptive words…

Jessica was so irate that she foolishly confided in her now suspicious boyfriend.

Again just an example of what to be careful of. Using too many emotionally descriptive words, using just too many common ones, or you can always use too little, making it a dull sentence…

Jessica was mad so she talked to her boyfriend.

I always try to feel what I would feel in that situation. Then I take that thought of how to describe that emotion and try to improve it with some different words, if I can, not too many, just to add ‘character’ to each sentence. Words that a reader wouldn’t necessarily hear on a constant basis like…

1. Apprehensive
2. Agreeable
3. Bereaved (A sorrow like no other)
4. Complacent
5. Euphoric (Perfect to replace a happy or joyous emotion)
6. Exuberant
7. Fulfilled
8. Inquisitive
9. Lackluster (I like this one a lot to describe something dull or uninspiring. I should use it more in my writing lol)
10. Petulant
11. Rejuvenated (A really good one to describe feeling refreshed or full of energy)
12. Tender (for those of you writing about love)
13. Vexed

Obviously you don’t want to overload your novel and make your readers feel like they are getting a vocabulary lesson either. But you do want them to feel like they can understand the intense emotion (whatever that may be), that you are trying to portray. You also want them to feel like you trust that they are smart enough to use the words that you can, to best describe the scene so they see it through your eyes.

As an added bonus for all you romance writers out there, whether its just for a small portion of your book or the entirety, here’s a list of LOVE words to inspire your creativity (Happy Valentine’s Day!!)…

1. Adoration
2. Amour
3. Cherish
4. Endearment
5. Lust
6. Passion
7. Tenderness
8. Trust
9. Enchant
10. Rapture
11. Yearning
12. Devotion
13. Longing
14. Bliss
15. Love (Of course a list of LOVE words would have love in it lol)

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