: Re: Facial expressions as part of dialogue - getting rid of a verbal tic I noticed a verbal tic in my writing: He looked surprised He looked confused He looked abashed Sometimes

@Phylliss352

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I remember some time ago I had a WIP in which characters sighed a lot. I noticed it because I read about another author overusing this verb, so I checked my own work in case it did the same. My solution was to consider what each sigh meant, and how characters could otherwise convey the same thing. I discovered about 30 instances, no two having quite the same meaning; and once I'd made my edits, no two sighs got the same updated description.

Your case is a little different, because you've cut straight to saying what the face means. If I were an alien pretending to be human, but I didn't know yet which faces meant what, and I were making up a lie about encountering someone and my knowing how they felt because of how they looked, I'd have to resort to saying what expressions meant instead of what they were. Since you're not an alien, try to do the latter.

He looked surprised, did he? How? How did his eyebrows move, with what implications for his brow lines; did his eyes or mouth change shape, and if so how; and did he walk (or sit down, or stand up), or use his hands, in a certain concomitant way? Lather rinse repeat with the other examples.

I like to visualise my characters, even if by using another fictional character my own narrative admits they don't look like. I don't know, use your favourite actor or whatever. But try to see how someone looks when they feel that way: describe that.

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