By Sharla Rae, @SharlaWrites
If poets are to be believed, eyes are the windows to the soul.
Rather than using clichéd or common descriptions, why not use "explicit" eye descriptions to give your reader a real peek into a character’s psyche?
I’ll touch on eye color, movement, and appearance and, of course, I have some helpful lists to inspire ideas.
Eye color
It’s a given that writers mention eye color as a character feature. Color can be mentioned every so often to remind readers what the character looks like. But! Don’t hit them over the head with it.
Besides using eye color as a facial feature it can sometimes be used to identify who is speaking especially if the color distinctive.
Blue eyes widened and she threw up both hands. “Now hold on a minute.”
OR
Her amber cat eyes narrowed. “xxxx”
A character might have plain old blue or brown eyes and that’s fine. But why not use color terms that say something about the character or what they're thinking?
Here’s a great eye color list that will help you describe “who” your character is. This is one of the best I’ve seen to date and includes pictures.
Want to know the most common and rare eye colors in the world? The following are listed from most common to least.
Just for fun here’s a website that tells you the meaning of the color of your eyes.
Eye Appearance
Eye appearance/shape isn’t too difficult to write -- round, almond, bug-eyed, beady, sloe-eyed, hooded, upturned/cat, downturned etc. We might also include how the eyes are placed on the face: close-set, deep-set, monolid, protruding etc.
Certain eye conditions or disorders can affect eye appearance and are excellent descriptors. You may not want to use the scientific terms but the descriptions of the terms are also useful. See my list below.
Appearance also includes emotional expression and often involves the eyebrows.
Appearance frequently blurs lines with eye movement and more often than not demonstrates emotions and personality. You'll see examples of this in the lists below.
Eye Movement
Is it just me, or do eye movements mess you up too?
No doubt you’ve heard or read something like: her eyes traveled/fell down the stairs where he stood.
Really?
The eyeballs rolled down the steps? Believe it or not, this is a common mistake. And yes as a newbie writer my crit group had a good laugh on me with such a mistake. Words like “gaze,” “visage,” "glance," fixes the problem.
A tiresome descriptor for eye movement are the over-used look, looked and looking. If our eyes are open they are looking and it really doesn’t say much more than that. There’s nothing wrong with using look but never varying with more explicit substitutes is boring and causes echoes.
Try: gaze, glance, surveyed, glared, raked, searched, watched, scanned etc. You’ll find lots of these in the lists below. Notice, too, that some have very specific connotations.
As mentioned above, eyebrows are very much a part of eye movement and play an important part in expressing emotion. Blinking eyelashes show emotion too but at the risk of sounding silly, don’t overuse this one.
And now for my lists. These include eye movement, appearance/expression, disorders and conditions, eye parts and types of eyeglasses.
Eye Movement
Anchored her attention on
Angry gaze sliced
Assessing
Blinked owlishly
Blinking with feigned innocence
Brow furrowed as his mouth turned grim
Brows knitted in a frown
Bushy brows beetled
Cocked a brow in surprise
Dragged his hawkish gaze
Drilled her with
Eyed him demurely/boldly
Eyes caressed
Eyes crossed in exasperation
Eyes retraced their path to
Eyes rolled skyward
Eyes wandered
Flayed him with
Focused on her lips
Followed as the model passed
Gawking at girls
Gaze cruised her figure
Gaze dipped to her
Glance flickered
Glanced sideways
Glare traveled with unnerving thoroughness
Glared daggers [overused]
Inspected the cabin
Inventoried his surroundings
Lashes swept up and she blinked
Leveled a glowering look
Lingered over the script lines
Lowered her eyes/opened
Narrowed to crinkled slits
One heavy brow slanted in strong disapproval
Penetrating gaze probed
Perusing the sea of faces in hopes of
Plugged his eyes back into their sockets
Pried her eyes off the hunk
Probing visual caress
Raked with disdain
Searching the depths
Shifted her angry glare to
Shot him a disgusted glance
Sighted out the corner of her eye
Slammed her eyes shut and hummed the pain
Squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth
Squinted
Staring fixedly
Strange pale eyes darted
Studied with piercing scrutiny
Subtle wink
Swung her restless gaze
Tracking the other man’s gaze
Unglued her eyes from him
Unrelenting stare
Up went his brows
Violet eyes strayed to the
Watched until distance obscured
Wrenched his gaze
Eye Expression and Appearance
[Some of these cross over with Movement]
Moon-eyed
Sloe-eyed
Burned fanatically
Devoured her beauty
Eyes implored
A look designed to peel his hide
All-consuming
Almond shaped
Appraising glance
Astute gaze
Avid eyes attested to his quick wit
Beady rat eyes
Beseeching
Bewildered
Blazed like torches
Boomerang brows like Ayatollah Khomeini’s
Bright with age
Bug-eyed
Bulging with fright
Chaotic, helter-skelter eyebrow—like his mind, unsystematic and fickle
Cold/cool/chilly/icy/frigid
Commanding visage
Cross-eyed
Crudely insulting stare
Deep set beneath heavy black brows
Disapproval gleamed in her eyes
Dissatisfaction plowed his brow
Disturbing smoke-hued
Elliptical eyes with heavy lids
Eyebrows like checkmarks
Eyes all gooey with
Eyes like a shark
Feline eyes
Flashed with gaiety/anger etc
Flat black, dispassionate as bullets
Frankly assessing
Get a load of those blinkers
Gleam of deviltry
Glittering with
Green flinty rocks
Hallows of madness
Hard as nails
Heart-stopping eyes
Held hostage by his eyes
Intent and unwavering/riveted
Irritated visage
Liquid pools of
Luminous glow of happiness
Magnetic
Mellow as the sky at sunset
Narrowed to slits
Nebulous gaze / unreadable
New moon-shaped
Penetrating blue of his eyes
Possessed the power to make her
Rheumy old eyes
Sardonic/disdaining/skeptical/mocking
Sharp with intelligence
Slits for eyes
Sliver of emotion in those cool eyes
Sloped down at the corners like a sad pup
Small evil eyes
Sneaky close-set eyes
So tired his eyeballs seemed to sag out
Steeply arched brows
Sunken in the head
Sympathetic
Tears of remorse flooded
The dark mystery of his eyes
Triangular brows/always surprised
Twenty-twenty vision
Veiled expression of
Visionary eyes
Visual exploration of
Watery eyes
Where did you get those peepers
Wild and frightened
Wore spectacles/glasses/winkers
Eye Disorders and Conditions
[You might like this website]
Eye Parts
Eye Corrections
[A good overview of modern lenses]
Note: Although it’s not exactly known when eye glasses were first invented, they appear in a 1352 painting.
Now let's have some fun. What are some of the funniest mistakes you've made with eye descriptions or eye movement? What is your biggest pet peeve?
About Sharla
Sharla has published three historical romance novels: SONG OF THE WILLOW, LOVE AND FORTUNE, and SILVER CARESS. SONG OF THE WILLOW, her first solo effort, was nominated by “Romantic Times Magazine” for best first historical.
When she’s not writing and researching ways to bedevil her book characters, Sharla enjoys collecting authentically costumed dolls from all over the world, traveling (to seek more dolls!), and reading tons of books. You can find Sharla here at Writers In The Storm or on Twitter at @SharlaWrites.
eye photo credit: Brittany Greene via photopin cc
Copyright © 2025 Writers In The Storm - All Rights Reserved
That was great! Thanks for all the information!!!
Great, Sharla - This helps. I have to remind myself though, not to overuse 'eyes'. Better to intersperse other body movements to express emotion as well, or my scene gets boring....and I run out of terms! Hard to write fresh with 'eyes' - it's all been done!
STELLAR list, Sharla. This goes in my "keepers" email folder for when my brain goes AWOL on eye descriptors. Thanks!
Thanks Gloria. Glad you dropped by.
Great reminders. I am annoyed by the 'moving eyes' too.
Yes, it's easy to echo just the word eyes. I'm glad you brought that up!
Reblogged this on Daphodill's Garden and commented:
Great tips to expand on eye descriptors.
Thanks for the Reblog!
Perfect timing with this wonderful information! I'm deep into revisions and looking for fresh ways to show emotions, using both eyes and body language. One question. If eyes can't travel or fall, how do they caress? 😉
A character's eye expression can soften and the gaze can caress.
Brilliant advice, thanks for sharing 🙂
Great post, Sharla!
Another great post...bookmarking it! The "eyes" have it...best blog and writers ever!
Thanks. I almost used The Eyes Have It as a title. 🙂
Great minds, and all that, Sharla.
🙂 🙂
Awww...thanks a bunch! This comment is a great way to start my day. 🙂
Great post! Thank you. This will take our manuscripts from dull to delicious. =)
Thanks stopping by Sally!
Great collection of eye-related description. 🙂 As long as a person doesn't use the eyes too often to describe, this can be powerful. It's an easy area to overuse, especially with emotion.
True. Too much of a good thing is never good.
Terrific post! So many things to remember. I smiled at your dropping body parts. A writing instructor long ago made fun of those things--Like you, he pointed out eyes--and heads--that drop a lot. Thanks for the great lists. Tweeted/shared.
Thanks Barb. The body parts thing is always touchy. A time or two I've read where an author forgot that both arms were already occupied and wrote in a third arm accidentally.
Reblogged this on jbiggarblog.
Thanks for the reblog!
Great list Sharla Rae, sometimes I get stuck on watched, gazed, searched. Nice to see som many great options, 🙂 I reblogged so I could save this list
This is a keeper! Lord, I love lists!! Thanks for the great post.
I love lists to Barb. Glad you enjoyed these.
This was great Sharla! Lovely of you to take the time to write all this down for everyone. Very helpful. Goes on my blog keeper shelf. 🙂
Thanks Kathleen. I love lists for brainstorming ideas.
Bookmarking this! I have such a hard time describing eyes and eye movement. Thanks.
It's funny. Eyes and their movement sounds like it should be easy but really not, esp. when you want to show more than just the obvious. Thanks for Laurie for stopping by.
Thanks for sharing! This is most definitely going to come in handy when I have a brain-freeze.
I hate brain freeze's because most of the time I'm not even eating yummy ice cream when they happen. 🙂
Sharla, you never fail to provide us with amazing lists of alternatives to the ho-hum. Thanks, this is another keeper 🙂
Welcome. I'm knocking around for another list already.
This is such a great article. And the lists are fantastic. Thanks!
Thanks for stopping by Veronica.
You are so the queen of lists, Sharla. And all are awesome. I'm saving this with the others. Thanks so much for sharing. I'll do the same.
Really eye-opening post. Nicely done. Thanks.
Your welcome and do share! It's the best way we writers can help each other.
Fantastic post.
Great post. I'm saving this. Would you mind if I reblogged it on Everybody Needs A Little Romance next Friday?
Stephanie, I'd be honored if you reblogged it. Thanks!
Thanks for this informative post on eyes! It's a keeper!
Hands down (!) the most comprehensive discussion of this topic anywhere. I wrote an "eye moment" just last night. Now I'm inspired to go back and punch it up.
Thanks Eric. Sometimes I wonder about myself and my lists so this kind of comment makes it all worth while. 🙂
Great post. It's a keeper. Thank you!
What a wonderful resource. I've shared with my writer's group. LOVE it.
I would add, some other eye accessories, too, like:
Sunglasses
Cheaters
Shades
Sunnies
Glares
Specks
~ Tam Francis ~
http://www.girlinthejitterbugdress.com
This is a wonderful, unusual and very useful post. Thanks so much. My characters seem to glance and gaze a lot too much for my liking (they're far too nosy) so it's great to have your lists.
I really needed this. Thanks for posting it. I always run out of other ways to say "glance" and "look."