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The Fear Thesaurus

Emotion Thesaurus Addendum: Pain (Physical)

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If you want to add tension and complication, an Emotional Amplifier might be just the ticket. This companion to The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression is a body language tool for describing your character’s pain, stress, illness, hunger, dehydration, attraction, and other conditions that amplify an emotional reaction. 

We hope this short, sample list of expressions will help you better imagine how an amplifier makes your character more emotionally volatile…and prone to mistakes.

The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility contains lists of ways to show how this condition will affect your character’s mental and physical state.

PAIN (PHYSICAL)

  • Probing the pained area and wincing
  • Hobbling about, taking tentative steps
  • Breaths that shudder
  • Leaning back and grimacing
  • Expelling a grunt or pained hiss at exertion
  • Medicating
  • Trying to sleep it off
  • Short-temperedness
  • Fainting or blacking out
  • Trembling limbs
  • Pale, blotchy skin
  • Glassy eyes
  • Feeling cold or feverish
  • Biting the lip
  • Distracting gestures (flapping a hand, tapping a foot, nodding one’s head)…

Turn up the heat on your protagonist by adding conditions that will alter his mood and make him more emotionally reactive.

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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