Showing feeling

and the tools that help us do that

I was recently chatting with former podcast guest and micro-memoir author, Rumi Tsuchihashi about how we can show emotion in our writing, and how we can bring more depth and feeling into what we create.

She blew my mind when she introduced a book/tool called The Emotion Thesaurus. If you’ve never heard of it before, as I had not, you’re in for a creative treat!

I invited Rumi to come back to the podcast to share how an emotion thesaurus works, and how it might be massively impactful for songwriters.

Have a listen to the episode here:

One of the secrets of writing songs or anything you love is finding just the right words to express your inspirations. You know it when you’ve landed on it, and you definitely know it when you have not.

We get closer to nailing that exact feeling by expanding our language, and tools like the emotion thesaurus can really help with that. Here’s another example. The emotion wheel:

When I was given this for the first time from a counsellor, it helped me beyond measure. Being able to visualize disappointment as more complex shade of sadness, among all the other options, was eye opening. All of a sudden I had way more specific words to express myself, and that felt really good.

I now find it funny that I used to mostly think of songs as either happy or sad. I have met a lot of people that think of music that way too.

If stopping there feels good to you, there is nothing wrong with that, but if your writing hasn’t been feeling like it says what you want it to say, or doesn’t feel quite right, perhaps give the wheel or emotion thesaurus a go. It might open up a world of songs you love ❤️.