How to describe sadness in words

Grief. Heartbreak. Melancholy. Anguish.

How to express sadness in sentence

Sorrow. Sadness comes in many different forms. Your characters feel and express their sadness in a variety of different ways too.

But whatever your characters are experiencing, you’ll always make more impact with your writing if you show rather than tell.

Wondering how to show sadness in writing?

Then this is the post for you. Here we take a look at all the different ways authors can describe sadness – and take some inspiration from a few wonderful examples.

Why you should show sadness (instead of telling)

All writers, at some point in their careers are told:show, don’t tell.

It’s one of fiction writing’s golden rules.

How to describe sad eyes in writing

And for good reason.

When you show, rather than tell, you make a reader feel more connected to your characters. You help them to experience a story on an emotional and sensory level. And you give them the freedom to exercise their imagination and powers of deduction.

Showing instead of telling is particularly important when your character is experiencing

show sadness wsj crossword clue

sadness show not tell