: Is there any resource available listing words for facial expressions? Describing the faces that people are making during a conversation can be difficult. He nodded, she pursed her lips -- those

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I've long since written the story I was asking this question for, so I'm not going to change what I've marked as the answer, but I had an editor recommend a book. It was completely unrelated to this question, but it was exactly what I was looking for.

Here's the link on Amazon. The book is called The Emotion Thesaurus.

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Okay, I have no talent at writing, so take the following advice while sucking on a large grain of salt...

Read more fanfiction. Especially terrible ones. Now, analyze why it is bad. I know, it will hurt, but it will do you good in the end. Did you just read five pages describing eyebrows cocking (always one eyebrow), eyes widening and such? Keep reading till the blood pours out of your eyes...

Good. Your rehab from excess facial expressions is now hopefully done. No-one gives a flying f-- about those anyway.

Make them breathe, snort, chuckle, sigh, flush, slump, sit bolt upright, fidget with their earrings, bolt out the door to fetch the [plot device] they're super excited about showing... In other words, make them do stuff. Use voice tones.

Character slaps fist in open palm and grins. "Damn right!"

Think stage play, how do glances move around, people standing up, skirting around/behind someone sitting on a chair, what happens in people's back, what they hear, what they don't see, etc.

Have other characters tell the reader, or have them do stuff that people would do when the character experiences the emotion you want.

Or you can go all out:

She poured the contents of her handbag over the coffee table, not even minding the lipsticks and tampons rolling away and falling onto her sidekicks' feet. It had to be there still! She sifted feverishly through faded receipts and [other crap that tells us about her character] and finally let out a victorious squeak as she picked up the plot device with trembling hands. It had been there all along! Yes, they were back on track.

Variant:
It had been there all along. They had walked and suffered all the way to Mordor and back with the quest item already in her bag.

"Hey, isn't that thingie Bill picked up back in the Shire?"

She knew it. As usual. "Bill, it's your fault again!"

In other words, make them do stuff, and bow to the power of the verb...

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