Feelings and Emotions in Writing

As we continued working on our personal narratives this week, we spent some time one day focusing on how great authors include feelings and emotions of characters in their writing. We tried going beyond simple use of synonyms for describing feelings to use of character response and behaviors to draw a reader in.  Students have only just begun typing up their own personal narratives and the goal will be to revise and add in descriptions of feeling through the revision process. We focused on five emotions and these are some of the descriptions they came up with.

Confused

*eyes wandering *dazed *weirdly gasping *sweat on brow *discombobulated*dizzy *inquisitively *don’t know what’s going on *unsure *flabbergasted*anxiously seeking *dumbfounded *baffled

Angry

*mad *clenching her fist *with a tornado at the top of his head *not happy/unhappy *stomping *his face burned with anger *eyes scrunched up with little stars*his hair going up everywhere *making his hands into fists *at the top of his voice*shaking fists *grumpy *thundercloud in brain

Sad

*with tears in his eyes *teary-eyed *glum *depressed *tears welled in her eyes*downcast *dejected *upset *melancholy *shivering

Happy

*excited *tears of joy *giggling *jumping up and down happily *jumpy*giggling *feeling like you could give anyone a big hug *ecstatic

Scared
*heart pounding *gasped in horror *throat was dry *eyes wide *unable to breathe