· A disheveled appearance as a result of giving yourself over to laughter
· Light-headedness
· Throwing your head back in a bray of laughter
· Grabbing at the ribs like you have a stitch in your side
· Weakness in the knees, muscles twitching
· Trying to keep a straight face but failing
· Covering the mouth with a hand to hide a smile or hold in a laugh
· Turning away in an attempt to regain control of one's features
· Cupping the cheeks with the hands and shaking with laughter
· Avoiding eye contact to maintain control over laughter
· Clearing one's throat, struggling to speak in full sentences
· Attempting to change the topic/discussion to avoid falling apart with laughter
· Making gestures in lieu of speaking because you’re unable to form words correctly
· Biting down on the lip, pressing lips together to keep laughter in
· Punching someone in the arm
· Bumping shoulders with someone, giving them a good natured shake or slap on the back
Good news! This sample has been expanded and streamlined into book form! The full list of physical, internal, and mental cues for this and 74 other emotions can be found in The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords. The PDF is also downloadable via the Paypal button in the sidebar.
13 comments:
I love this :-)
What fun! These emotion thesaurus entries are great!
That is hysterical. It reminds me of a time when I was working on my masters degree. We'd been sitting in "educational law" for way too long and were on information overload. I can't remember what a few of us started to laugh about, but I do remember we became inconsolable (if that's possible with laughter). Soon, the whole class was staring at us and we just couldn't stop laughing. The esteemed guest speaker decided to give the class a short break. A classmate came over and said we were so "immature." And what did we do, we laughed some more. The speaker came over and we managed to apologize, to which he said he understood, and stated that happens when there is too much learning and not enough breaks. Sheesh...that's for sure! ~Karen
I love these!!! What a great resource. Thanks for doing this. I'm going to link you to my blog!
Thanks everyone, and we appreciate the link, CR!
I know I've said that I love this before, but I just wanted to say I had a blank on describing an amused character and this really helped!
Thanku it was a great help...can I use them in my writings?
Absolutely, anon. But I recommend you tweak the ideas you see here to fit your character or situation. :) All the best with your writing!
Angela
What a terrific resource!! Thank you for providing a ready source for inspiration!
Thank you so much for this wonderful resource. I've placed a link to it on my blog.
I'm always happy to get a post from here, because it brings me back to the site. Love it Thanks.
all of these are wonderful but i've noticed the lists have gotten a lot shorter for each trait. is this n error on my computer or have they really been cut down? =(
Hi Anon,
With the release of our book The Emotion Thesaurus, we've reduced the blog content to a sample.
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