saucywenchwritingblog

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Writing Description Notes: Facial Expressions

Updated 22nd August 2024 More description notes

Fear mounted his face.

She steeled her expression

A deep frown set into his muzzle.

He spoke softly, his brows drawn together in a sympathetic concern.

A look of relief washed over his features.

Her eyebrows inched upward, as she looked upon him in stunned silence.

He searched Jane’s expression, but found not the slightest tinge of anger, resentment, or hatred.

His brow wrinkled by a deep frown.

The adamant expression and carefree grin that followed took the edge off her reservations and she pried deeper.

A thinly veiled warning hid behind her perfect pout and she was sure to flash it at the hero menacingly.

Her brows knitted together.

A broken expression laced his features.

In his facial expression was a tiredness, a need for nurture and a chance to rest.

John’s brows drew together gently, his expression accenting his confusion, softly encouraging her to continue.

Only a hint of a hesitation gracing her features.

His brows cured upwards and golden eyes glittered with worry.

Jane adopted an innocent look.

There was a measure of anxiety scrawled all over his face and she tried to ease it by holding his hand.

A soft laugh caught her off guard and she met John’s cynical expression with one of defiance.

She tried to solve the puzzle of emotions on his face.

John’s face fractured with sympathy

A gentle pout formed on her lips

A softness came over her features, replacing the glowing joy for a meaningful affection for such a devoted friend.

Jane’s brows drew together gently, her expression accenting her confusion, softly encouraging him to continue.

He seemed to wear an expression of vague amusement, announcing his self-assurance.

All her facial muscles twitched in sync.

His expression was an open book of questions yet to be asked.

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[saucywenchwritingblog]

i think one thing that gets missed in discussions of like. “okay depiction of abuse/problematic dynamics” where the person is on the side of “it's fine to depict problematic things as long as the victim is clearly traumatized/not enjoying it” is that a part of the way in which abuse functions is by changing what intuitively feels good or bad to a person, that is to say, why people stay in abusive relationships is bc your brain can be wired, as a result of sustained trauma, to only feel comfortable or at-home in such situations, and to not recognise that anything is wrong in the first place. that is how conditioning and grooming work, it's how people stay in awful situations for years... and how do you depict that? an abusive relationship is still a relationship, real victims have loved and continue to love those who perpetrate intimate violence against them. you can, from a distance, see and say that the love is wrong and should not exist. but when you're narrating a story from close quarters, you can't effectively differentiate without context, an author depicting as romantic a manifestly abusive relationship and a victim and perpetrator whose inherent sense of themselves, of right and wrong, of boundaries, and acceptable forms of intimacy, has been warped through abuse.

[saucywenchwritingblog]

To note:

FR: concentrer /EN: focus

FR: écureuil /EN: squirrel

FR: pingouin /EN: penguin

FR: câlin /EN: hug

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Dionisio (@ThisIsDionisio)

[saucywenchwritingblog]

Can't be sincerely dark without being called edgy, can't be sincerely emotional without being called melodramatic, can't be sincerely silly without being called stupid. They're gonna hate every emotion you put in your art no matter what so make it anyway and be as sincere as you can be

[saucywenchwritingblog]

“Don't accommodate, write in blood or don't bother” – Sina Queyras

“I love only what a person hath written with his blood” – Nietzsche

[saucywenchwritingblog]

Prompt #1204

"What do you want?"

"I want you to stay."

[saucywenchwritingblog]

the question, you see, is not ‘is it too ooc for this character to cry’ but rather ‘what circumstances would push this character to cry’

this is the whump wisdom, go forth and make that character cry

[saucywenchwritingblog]

Angry Dialogues - Vol. 2

✧ “You don’t get to hurt me and then act confused when I don’t trust you anymore.”

✧ “Say it. Say it out loud. Say exactly what you did so you can hear how f*cked up it sounds.”

✧ “Stop acting like I’m the villain for reacting to the sh*t you did.”

✧ “You lied to my face, and you’re still looking at me like I’m the one who owes you something.”

✧ “I begged you not to break me. And you did it anyway.”

✧ “You keep saying you ‘did your best.’ Your best nearly destroyed me.”

✧ “I would’ve forgiven you. You didn’t even ask.”

✧ “Every time I think of you, it feels like rot in my throat.”

✧ “You want to talk? Fine. Let’s talk about how you abandoned me the second it got inconvenient.”

✧ “I’m not angry anymore. That would mean I still cared enough to be hurt. Now? I’m just done.”

✧ “You always show up when it’s too late and expect me to be the same person who waited."

✧ “You don’t get to miss me. You threw me away. You don’t miss trash.”

✧ “I kept waiting for the version of you who said you loved me to show back up. He never did.”

✧ “You broke my heart and then asked me to help you clean up the mess. That’s not love. That’s manipulation.”

✧ “I hope one day you feel exactly what I felt. And I hope no one comes to save you.”

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[saucywenchwritingblog]

People on goodreads need to learn the difference between a poorly written or problematic story and characters making (in-character) choices that have negative consequences and said reader feels uncomfortable by the tension and conflict--girlie the author did that on purpose because that's what a book is, they do not deserve a 1 star.

[saucywenchwritingblog]

i like the phrases "it's not for me," "it's not my thing," and "i'm not the target audience" because they're the most concise way to express "this thing that you enjoy has merits but idgaf about it" without being aggressive

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Is the decline of reading poisoning our politics?

Your brain isn’t what it used to be.

by Eric Levitz

If you aren’t feeling the itch yet, you will soon.

It could come by the end of this sentence or, on a good day, the fifth paragraph. But before long, a little voice in your head will whisper, “Click away for just a second” — just long enough to take a quick glance at your email or Instagram feed or group chat or 401(k) or chatbot’s answer to “how to tell if a mole is cancerous” or Amazon results for “joint-smoking garden gnomes.”

At least, this will happen if you’re anything like myself. And I am not alone.

Americans still consume plenty of text. Social media platforms teem with words — even video-based apps like TikTok are replete with captions and comments. And on average, we spend more than two hours scrolling through such platforms each day.

But not all reading is created equal. The mind can skim over the surface of a sentence and swiftly decode its literal meaning. But deep reading — sustained engagement with a longform text — is a distinct endeavor. 

READ MORE

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5 Tiny Writing Tips That Aren’t Talked About Enough (but work for me)

These are some lowkey underrated tips I’ve seen floating around writing communities — the kind that don’t get flashy attention but seriously changed how I write.

1. Put “he/she/they” at the start of the sentence less often.

Try switching up your sentence rhythm. Instead of

“She walked to the window,”

try

“The window creaked open under her touch.”

Keeps it fresh and stops the paragraph from sounding like a checklist.

2. Don’t describe everything — describe what matters.

Instead of listing every detail in a room, pick 2–3 objects that say something.

“A half-drunk mug of tea and a knife on the table”

sets a way stronger tone than

“There was a wooden table, two chairs, and a shelf.”

3. Use beats instead of dialogue tags sometimes.

Instead of:

"I'm fine," she said.

Try:

"I'm fine." She wiped her hands on her skirt.

It helps shows emotion, and movement.

4. Write your first draft like no one will ever read it.

No pressure. No perfection. Just vibes. The point of draft one is to exist. Let it be messy and weird — future you will thank you for at least something to edit.

5. When stuck, ask: “What’s the most fun thing that could happen next?”

Not logical. Not realistic. FUN. It doesn’t have to stay — but chasing excitement can blast through writer’s block and give you ideas you actually want to write.

What’s a tip that unexpectedly helped with your writing? Let me know!! 🍒

[saucywenchwritingblog]

writing isn’t hard it’s just emotionally devastating and time-consuming and requires full body possession by an idea

[saucywenchwritingblog]

I should be able to both read for 8hrs a night and sleep for 8hrs a night. That I cannot is very rude and, frankly, poor design.