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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Emotion Thesaurus Entry: Loneliness

November 27, 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.

LONELINESS

  • People watching, craving contact (visiting a park to feed birds, sitting on the porch)
  • Wearing comfort clothes
  • Using books, the Internet, or TV to generate a feeling of interaction
  • An expression that crumples when people show affection for one another
  • A pain in the chest
  • A downcast gaze
  • Tears, sadness, depression
  • Giving an abnormal amount of love and attention to someone or something (daily visits to a neighbor, treating a pet like a baby)
  • Bingeing (overeating, hoarding, buying unnecessary items)
  • Frequently calling family or friends
  • A willingness to talk to strangers just to interact–at the grocery, in the library, etc.
  • A disinterest in one’s appearance or an abnormal interest in one’s appearance
  • Slumped shoulders, limp posture…

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. Angela says

    February 4, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    Glad it helps, Nat! And welcome, dumpedbyahallucination!

  2. dumpedbyahallucination says

    February 4, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    I’ve just been browsing around because I just found it, and this site is amazing! I know you get told it a lot but praise is praise, right? 🙂

    I felt so lonely myself reading this list. I’m just. Well. This site is excellent. That’s all.

    Suzy x

  3. Natalie Hatch says

    November 29, 2008 at 6:08 am

    Thanks for this one, my heroine is going through this right now and I couldn’t describe how she was physically coping… now I can!

  4. Angela says

    November 28, 2008 at 4:08 pm

    LOL Jill and PJ–this is my bad. I was just following my list in order, not really thinking about what day it came up on. Being Canadian, I had my Turkey day a month ago so I just didn’t clue in.

    Thanks for stopping in Laura!

  5. Laura says

    November 28, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    Great stuff here. Thanks!

  6. PJ Hoover says

    November 28, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Funny emotion for Thanksgiving! I hope there was little loneliness in the world yesterday!

  7. Jill Wheeler says

    November 27, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    I hope that you’re not feeling lonely today. :/

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

Trackbacks

  1. Resources For Describing Emotion says:
    February 26, 2018 at 11:20 am

    […] Conveying Loneliness […]

  2. Emotion Thesaurus Entry Collection (Samples) | WRITERS HELPING WRITERSWRITERS HELPING WRITERS says:
    December 4, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    […] Addendum: Loneliness […]

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