We’ve expanded this bestselling resource
by 55 emotions.
Ready to write stronger story moments by showcasing your character’s feelings through show, not tell? Below are all 130 emotions found in our second edition. Each entry has been enhanced with more ways to describe a character’s body language, thoughts, visceral sensations, dialogue, vocal cues, and action.
We’ve linked a few entries below to help you see how our lists will help you brainstorm stronger descriptions.
Never struggle with show-don’t-tell again!
Acceptance
Admiration
Adoration
Agitation
Amazement
Amusement
Anger
Anguish
Annoyance
Anticipation
Anxiety
Appalled
Apprehension
Awe
Betrayed
Bitterness
Certainty
Concern
Confidence
Conflicted
Confusion
Connectedness
Contempt
Curiosity
Defeat
Defensiveness
Defiant
Denial
Depressed
Desire
Despair
Desperation
Determination
Devastation
Disappointment
Disbelief
Discouraged
Disgust
Disillusionment
Dissatisfaction
Doubt
Dread
Eagerness
Elation
Emasculated
Embarrassment
Empathy
Envy
Euphoria (Click to view!)
Excitement
Fear
Fearlessness
Flustered
Frustration
Gratitude
Grief
Guilt
Happiness
Hatred
Homesick
Hopefulness
Horror
Humbled
Humiliation
Hurt
Hysteria
Impatience
Inadequate
Indifference
Insecurity
Inspired
Intimidated
Irritation
Jealousy
Loneliness
Longing
Love
Lust
Moody
Moved
Neglected
Nervousness
Nostalgia
Obsessed
Overwhelmed
Panic
Paranoia
Peacefulness
Pity
Pleased
Powerlessness
Pride
Rage
Regret
Relief
Reluctance
Remorse
Resentment
Resignation
Sadness
Sappy
Satisfaction
Schadenfreude (Click to view!)
Scorn
Self-Loathing
Self-Pity
Shame
Shock
Skepticism
Smugness
Somberness
Stunned
Surprise
Suspicion
Sympathy
Terror
Tormented
Unappreciated
Uncertainty
Unease
Validated
Valued
Vengeful
Vindicated (Click to view!)
Vulnerability
Wanderlust
Wariness
Wistful
Worry
Worthlessness
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For more information on this book, visit this link.
KP Pryce says
Hmmm… See those who aren’t in the US have to buy the second edition for full price. Not even a discounted price for those of us who purchased the first edition. Not cool, but so very American, nonetheless.
ANGELA ACKERMAN says
Hi KP,
Usually a second edition has minor modifications (if any beyond a new cover). In this case, it contains almost double the content (which on its own could be a full-sized book). We could have released a second volume but chose not to as we knew our readers would probably prefer to have everything together in one book. So no greed here, just trying to think about what our readers would find the most helpful, while valuing our own hard work that went into creating all that new content.
Wishing you all the best,
Angela
Jackie Layton says
Congratulations on the updated Emotion Thesaurus! Your books are so helpful!
ANGELA ACKERMAN says
Thank you so much, Jackie!
ANGELA ACKERMAN says
We hope you enjoy all the entries included in the second edition. If you don’t find the emotion you are looking for, feel free to ask us about it, or look into the companion booklet, Emotion Amplifiers, as Amplifiers are often mistaken for emotions.
Here’s the link for Emotion Amplifiers: https://writershelpingwriters.net/emotion-amplifiers/
Carolyn says
what about emotions related to sexuality: passionate, sexual, sexual glances or sexy body movements?
ANGELA ACKERMAN says
Hi Carolyn,
You mean like Desire, Love and Lust? All included in the book. If you mean attraction, this is a state of being, not an emotion, so that one is included in the Emotion Amplifiers ebooklet companion. 😉