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.

 DESPERATION

·Pleading, begging
·Anxious muttering to oneself
·Grabbing fistfuls of hair at the sides of the head
·Crying, sobbing, wailing
·Unable to make out words properly, incomprehensible to others
·A willingness to do anything to change the outcome, even committing acts that go against one’s moral code
·Stuttering, inarticulation
·Extreme risk-taking in order to survive or protect another
·Pleading to be exchanged for another: “Take me instead!” or “I’ll go, you stay.”
·Grabbing onto another person or shaking them in an effort to make yourself heard
·Internal anguish that leads to law-breaking or betrayal in order to save oneself or another
·Increased strength, fortitude, or whatever is needed to survive or save another
·Irrational thinking, poor judgement
·Refusing to see truth or be reasoned with
·Rubbing own upper arms for comfort
·Hugging shoulders, chin tight to the chest…