To describe precise and physical actions in a situation and how things move, is different from emotively describing why these actions took place. Let’s explore what emotive description is.
Table of Contents
Impactless vs Emotive Descriptions
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1 Impactless Description
Here is an impactless example of describing what you see:
Hands stretching forward to reach the sink.
Water engulfing their hands.“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..” she states
Turning the knob clockwise, stopping the flow.
Though descriptive, this passage is emotionless. writing to display emotion is what brings the movement to life. First we need to choose what emotion we want to depict, for example, worried is chosen. This is now the emotion I will be adding to the text.
Hands dive forward to reach the sink. In quick succession, they twist the tap on.Water engulfes their vigorous friction busy hands.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.. ” her voice trembles in a soft mumbling manner, as she tries to keep the right tempo.
Wiping the knob over with suds, continuing their frantic movements. The water starts to flow faster. Then she returns her hands under the water for a while- before turning the knob clockwise, stopping the flow.
2 For More Emotive Expressions, Add Thoughts
Hands dive forward to reach the sink. In quick succession, they twist the tap on.Water engulfes their vigorous friction busy hands.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.. ” her voice trembles in a soft mumbling manner, as she tries to keep the right tempo.
Do the 20 seconds do much? She questions herself. I should be doing more she reasons.
Wiping the knob over with suds, continuing their frantic movements. The water starts to flow faster. Then she returns her hands under the water for a while. Before turning the knob clockwise, stopping the flow.
Explaining why the action is occurring is much more interesting to read, than only stating physical actions.
This is also another way you can create a relatable character, by depicting small reasonings for big to small reactions
3 Emotions Explaining Actions
There are also moments when an action can or cannot be explained according to the storytelling. Yet you can still use the emotive description:
Let’s break this down:
- Cannot: when an action of a character may seem unreasonable, yet makes sense upon the emotional drive behind it- that we do not know.
For example:
She quickly grabs the last toilet paper off the shelf: victoriously.
- Can: when the character through thoughts and actions convey why they are doing so.
Not knowing when she will next be able to get ahold of the item, she quickly grabs the last toilet paper packet off the shelf: victoriously.
Both explain the action to some extent. however, more thoroughly depicting the action with the emotional drive behind the decision, can add interest.
Often actions that affect the story, which goes unexplained, makes the readers want to find out why the character is feeling or reacting in a certain way. if their reaction is not explained beforehand. Leading to them reading on to uncover the reasoning.
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4 No Emotive Description
It is near impossible to find a story that has no emotional descriptions, they are key to every storyline.
However, not all your scenes need to be emotionally driven, though it can make it more interesting to read. and relatable to sprinkle these additions throughout the story (not only when you want to create an impactful moment).
Stories purposely choose not to use emotive description to make the reader think for themselves why this is happening and coming back with an explanation at some point.
Which Of These Four Should I Use?
A compelling story has a mixture of all five aspects.
- Some emotive description
- Passive description
- Thoughts
- Action explained description
- Actions non-explained description
What type do you prefer to use in your stories? Or do you have a sprinkle of everything throughout your book? Let me know in the comments. Until then.
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I love emotive descriptions and always find they pull me in, more so than anything else.
I always use a mix. It engages people more so and allows the story to feel full of entertainment and compelling text.
I’m glad to hear you have diversity in your story and know how to interest your readers. Feel free to discuss your own book progress or experience here too 🙂
Using emotive words in writing really does bring a story to life and allows the reader to totally imagine and immerse themselves in the story. Such a handy post with some great tips! Sim x
Thank you for your comment. I’m pleased you feel the same way! Keep a lookout for more handy tips in the future.
This is really interesting, I’m definitely a writer in this sense, I would never have thought about how different words make sentences seem so different.
I’m pleased you have found this thought-provoking and enjoyable. If you’d like more like this please subscribe
This is so useful! I’ve been a ‘writer’ all my life but when it comes to stuff like this, I’m absolutely stumped. I just write what feels right to me! I’m bookmarking this for future reference
I’m delighted you this has helped you! Subscribe for updates like this or suggest topics you’d want to know more about.
I love writing, and I love playing around with words and trying out different things. I really worry I use the passive too much though.
Thats great you have such a passion for writing! One of our best tools as a writer is feedback in the writing process. I hope that will give you more confidence in your writing.
This is really helpful. I definitely find adding emotive words can really bring a paragraph or a whole story to life.
I’m glad you find this useful and actively use emotive words to add interest in your writing 🙂
I enjoy writing but to be honest have not had much time to do it. I am hoping that I will discover the joys of writing again with little tips like this about emotive words
That’s great you enjoy writing and this post. It’s funny you mention timing, I will be discussing scheduling next week. If you’d like to be updated when I post it please subscribe 😀
Very cool distinctions. Thank you.
Yesssss, this is exactly the kind of writing advice I can use. Thanks for sharing! For my next story, I shall try to sprinkle all for aspects. 🙂
I’m glad you have found this useful for in your upcoming story! Feel free to share your progress and subscribe for more 😀
Emotive description sounds and reads so well. I need to express my emotions more when writing but always feel it reads rubbish however I need to practice I guess. Thanks for this
I know how you feel, we are our harshest critics after all. Wishing you luck with your writing! Hopefully utilising this tip will help 😉
Working on my first book and this is so useful! Thank you for sharing these tips on how to add emotion into your text.
Your welcome! It’s great news you’ll be able to use this in your own writing 🙂
This such an interesting read and seeing your comparisons have made me realise and want to use much more emotive and descriptive language in my writing! I love how it pulls you in and creates more of a picture in your head for the reader!
Thank you! It’s lovely to know this has inspired you to use more emotive descriptions in your storytelling 🙂
An interesting approach to writing. It depends on the content that you are writing. Sometimes you have to include more emotions and your thoughts. But not just for the word counts or so that you just include some emotions. In my experience the best way is that you use a mixture of all aspects.
Thank you for your valuable input 🙂 I agree it depends on what is being written and I’m glad you use a mixture.