Next-Gen Interactive Fiction GUIDE #4: How to Describe a Smile

We all want our characters to come across as realistic and relatable to our readers, and this often means that we want to make them as animated and full of emotions as possible. So we make them laugh when something is funny, we make them cry when we're sad, and we make them smile whenever the occasion calls for it too.

However, making your characters smile realistically in your writing is often a lot more difficult than simply smiling in real life. Our attempts can often come across as cheesy or forced and it’s one of the banes of being a writer. But have no fear, with this simple guide, we'll give you all the tips and tricks to know about how best to describe a smile and bring your characters to life!

The first thing you'll need to think about is why exactly your character is smiling. While this might seem like a strange question at first, bear with me! Yes, your character might be smiling after being complimented or having been told a joke, but smiles can often be a lot more complex than just that too.

Example #1
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That was the funny thing about smiles--if you flashed the right one, no one knew there was more going on inside.
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Maybe they won the battle and burst out into a smile of relief at the victory. Perhaps they have just released vicious beasts to decimate an entire innocent village and smile viciously in glee at their evil deed. And maybe, just maybe, they're smiling through bittersweet tears as they pass away, sad to be leaving the one they love behind, but happy they could save them in their last moments.

There is an endless stream of different forms of smiles with various meanings, and you need to be aware of this while writing. An evil smile probably won't come with giggles and dimples, and a shy, flirtatious smile likely wouldn't include someone baring and flashing their teeth.
As soon as you know what type of smile your characters will be experiencing and why, you are immediately given further clues about how best to describe it.

Example #2
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She tried to act as though it were nothing to go to the library alone. But her happiness betrayed her. Her smile could not be restrained, and it spread from her tightly pressed mouth, to her round cheeks, almost to the hair ribbons tied in perky bows over her ears.
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When you smile, are your lips the only thing that move? Does your face remain entirely still, your body stiff, with only your lips arching into a grin? Nope. So why write your characters that way? One of the main mistakes authors make when writing smiling characters is the belief that a flash of teeth and a wide grin is the only way to describe someone's smile. This can often come across as a bit cheesy and forced, and not at all believable.

Example #3
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I've been waiting for you all night and day,' she said. Froi shivered. He realised that the words came from Quintana the ice maiden. Realised, as he felt his face heating up, that the idea of this Quintana waiting for him with excitement spoke to parts of him he believed to be dormant. And then she winked. 'Did I do that right?' she asked. Her smile was lopsided and he saw a glimpse of the teeth. And Froi imagined that he would follow her to the ends of the earth.
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Unsure of how to write anything but your lips moving? Well then, head on over to the closest mirror and try a smile out for yourself. If your character is smiling from being complimented, pretend someone has just complimented you and smile straight into the mirror! Watch the way your face changes – do your eyebrows raise, do your dimples appear, do your lips become thinner or thicker, does your face crumple or smooth? You can easily notice a million different things about your face when you smile, so make a note of them and utilize them in your writing.

Try out all sorts of different smiles and notice the differences. And don't forget that when we smile, we often smile with our eyes just as much we do with our lips. Sometimes we can smile almost without our mouths moving at all, so keep this in mind and try writing this yourself.

Example #4
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Jem put the full force of himself into each smile, so that he seemed to be smiling with his eyes, his heart, his whole being.
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And what about the rest of your body? When you're gleefully smiling, is your body still and frozen? Of course not! Maybe your characters' hands would come up and try to hide their smile if they’re embarrassed, perhaps they’d brush some hair behind their ear, and maybe their legs would even go a little shaky. The more detail you can provide when your character is smiling that strays away from just their lips and teeth, the more realistic a scene you can write.

While it's natural for us all to want to write as realistically as possible, sometimes the best way to do this is to ignore the actual physical smile of the character in the first place. And here we can utilize a writer's best friend – metaphors! Often, a smile can hide a lot of context and emotion that can't always be made obvious in the physical description of the smile itself. So go ahead and allow your writerly instincts to take over and let your words do all the talking for you!

Example #5
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When he smiles it's as if you'd just told him the first joke on earth.
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Example #6
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Her smile, I'm sure, burnt Rome to the ground.
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