Describing your character’s emotions without beating the reader over the head with them is a tough task. Many writers accomplish this by writing in close POV for their protagonist, meaning they write as closely to their character’s thoughts and observations as possible. However, that creates another challenge: how to show what your non-POV characters are feeling, without coming right out and saying it.
In a post on Writers Helping Writers, Becca Puglisi suggests several methods for portraying the emotions of supporting characters.
- Physical manifestations, such as fidgeting, facial expressions, or vocal tics.
- Response of the POV character to the other person
- Dialogue and verbal cues, such as changes in pitch, tone, rate of speech
- The character’s avoidance of someone or something
- Fight, flight, or freeze reactions
- Changes to the character’s normal emotional range
