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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Emotion Thesaurus Entry: Amusement

June 26, 2008 by BECCA PUGLISI

When it comes to emotion, sometimes we need a brainstorming nudge. After all, each character will express their feelings differently depending on their personality, emotional range, and comfort zone. We hope this short, sample list of expressions will help you better imagine how your character might show this emotion!

If you need to go deeper, we have detailed lists of body language, visceral sensations, dialogue cues, and mental responses for 130 emotions in the 2019 expanded second edition of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression.

AMUSEMENT

· Holding a hand up as you laugh as if to ward off more jokes or to ask for someone to stop being so funny
· A disheveled appearance as a result of giving yourself over to laughter
· Light-headedness
· Throwing your head back in a bray of laughter
· Grabbing at the ribs like you have a stitch in your side
· Weakness in the knees, muscles twitching
· Trying to keep a straight face but failing
· Covering the mouth with a hand to hide a smile or hold in a laugh
· Turning away in an attempt to regain control of one’s features
· Cupping the cheeks with the hands and shaking with laughter
· Avoiding eye contact to maintain control over laughter
· Clearing one’s throat, struggling to speak in full sentences
· Attempting to change the topic/discussion to avoid falling apart with laughter
· Making gestures in lieu of speaking because you’re unable to form words correctly
· Biting down on the lip, pressing lips together to keep laughter in
· Punching someone in the arm
· Bumping shoulders with someone, giving them a good-natured shake or slap on the back

Win your readers’ hearts by tailoring your character’s emotional responses so they’re compelling, credible, and realistic.

If you struggle with writing emotions, you aren’t alone. The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression has helped writers all over the globe, and it can help you. To find out more about this bestselling book, please visit our bookstore.

Prefer the flexibility of instant online access and greater searchability?

The Emotion Thesaurus is also at our sister site, One Stop for Writers. Visit the Emotion Thesaurus Page to view our complete list of entries.

TIP: While you’re there, check out our hyper-intelligent Character Builder that helps you create deep, memorable characters in half the time!

 

BECCA PUGLISI
BECCA PUGLISI

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Safah Ahmed says

    May 27, 2013 at 9:19 am

    Wow, this is AMAZING! Really helps when it comes to trying to rid your writing of the old cliched words and descriptions. 🙂

  2. Angela Ackerman says

    May 18, 2012 at 12:58 am

    Hi Anon,

    With the release of our book The Emotion Thesaurus, we’ve reduced the blog content to a sample.

  3. Anonymous says

    May 13, 2012 at 11:00 am

    all of these are wonderful but i’ve noticed the lists have gotten a lot shorter for each trait. is this n error on my computer or have they really been cut down? =(

  4. Cher'ley says

    January 9, 2012 at 8:55 pm

    I’m always happy to get a post from here, because it brings me back to the site. Love it Thanks.

  5. Tamara Mousner says

    April 6, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    Thank you so much for this wonderful resource. I’ve placed a link to it on my blog.

  6. Barker says

    February 2, 2011 at 12:47 pm

    What a terrific resource!! Thank you for providing a ready source for inspiration!

  7. Angela Ackerman says

    September 1, 2010 at 12:33 am

    Absolutely, anon. But I recommend you tweak the ideas you see here to fit your character or situation. 🙂 All the best with your writing!

    Angela

  8. Anonymous says

    August 27, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    Thanku it was a great help…can I use them in my writings?

  9. lgkelso says

    May 7, 2010 at 7:14 pm

    I know I’ve said that I love this before, but I just wanted to say I had a blank on describing an amused character and this really helped!

  10. Angela says

    July 2, 2008 at 10:11 am

    Thanks everyone, and we appreciate the link, CR!

  11. C.R. Evers says

    July 1, 2008 at 8:53 pm

    I love these!!! What a great resource. Thanks for doing this. I’m going to link you to my blog!

  12. Karen L. Alaniz says

    June 27, 2008 at 11:05 am

    That is hysterical. It reminds me of a time when I was working on my masters degree. We’d been sitting in “educational law” for way too long and were on information overload. I can’t remember what a few of us started to laugh about, but I do remember we became inconsolable (if that’s possible with laughter). Soon, the whole class was staring at us and we just couldn’t stop laughing. The esteemed guest speaker decided to give the class a short break. A classmate came over and said we were so “immature.” And what did we do, we laughed some more. The speaker came over and we managed to apologize, to which he said he understood, and stated that happens when there is too much learning and not enough breaks. Sheesh…that’s for sure! ~Karen

  13. liss n kids says

    June 27, 2008 at 10:53 am

    What fun! These emotion thesaurus entries are great!

  14. colbymarshall says

    June 26, 2008 at 11:44 am

    I love this 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. Emotion Thesaurus Entry Collection (Samples) | Writers Helping Writers says:
    October 11, 2013 at 3:47 pm

    […] Amusement […]

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