How do you describe someone's heart in writing? A comprehensive guide

September 24, 2025 •

5 min read

Literary scholars note the human heart has served as a central metaphor for emotion and morality across centuries of storytelling, offering a powerful tool for writers. This guide will explore how you can describe someone's heart in writing with depth and originality, moving beyond tired clichés to forge a deeper connection with your readers.

Quick Summary

Describe a character's heart by focusing on their physical reactions, emotional core, and symbolic language, and by revealing the internal effects of their experiences to move beyond clichés and create profound emotional depth.

Key Points

Show, Don't Tell: Use a character's physical reactions to emotion—like a pounding pulse or clenching chest—instead of just stating they are scared or sad.
Freshen Up Metaphors: Replace clichéd descriptions like 'heart of stone' with original imagery, such as a heart like petrified wood or a walled-in garden.
Connect to Motivation: Describe how a character's internal desires and fears, stemming from their metaphorical heart, drive their decisions and actions.
Embrace Imperfection: A broken heart can be more beautiful and complex for its damage, so describe it not as shattered but as cracked and resilient.
Use Sensory Details: Engage the reader's senses by describing the sound, touch, or even taste associated with intense emotional states, making the experience more visceral.
Utilize Internal Monologue: Give the reader direct access to a character's thoughts to reveal their unfiltered feelings, fears, and hopes.

The Heart as a Physical Manifestation of Emotion

While the heart is often used metaphorically, its physical reactions to psychological stress and joy provide a rich source of description. Instead of simply saying a character is scared, show the physical impact of their fear on their heart. A racing heart is a cliché, but a pulse thrumming in the neck, blood roaring in the ears, or a heart so loud it seems to threaten to burst through the ribcage are all more specific and evocative.

The Rhythm of the Heart: Pounding, Fluttering, Stillness

Fear: The heart can hammer against the ribs like a trapped bird, lurch or skip beats under sudden shock, or thrum a furious, insistent beat. Alternatively, in moments of intense terror, it might feel like it has turned to ice or stopped altogether for a terrifying moment.
Excitement: For moments of joy or anticipation, a heart can flutter like a butterfly, dance a light and quick rhythm, or soar with a feeling of weightlessness. This physical lightness reflects the character's emotional buoyancy.
Sorrow: A heavy heart is a cliché, but it's based on a physical truth. Describing a heart that feels heavy as a stone, hollow and aching, or as if it's being squeezed by a giant fist can convey profound sadness without resorting to tired phrases.

Beyond the Beat: Describing Other Physical Sensations

Don't limit yourself to just the sound and rhythm. Consider how emotion affects the entire body, with the heart at its center:

Coldness: A cold heart can be a metaphorical concept, but you can also describe the physical sensation of coldness radiating from the chest outwards, or a feeling of emptiness where warmth should be.
Weight: The weight of grief or responsibility can feel like a heavy, suffocating blanket pressed against the character's chest, a constant pressure that makes every breath a conscious effort.

The Heart as a Metaphorical and Symbolic Center

The heart's metaphorical potential is immense. Instead of relying on worn-out expressions like 'heart of gold' or 'heart of stone,' craft your own original comparisons that reveal a character's true nature.

Common Metaphors and How to Freshen Them Up

Hard vs. Soft: Rather than a 'heart of stone,' consider a heart like petrified wood, hard on the outside but still retaining the grain of its past life. A 'soft-hearted' person could have a heart woven from rose petals, beautiful but easily bruised.
Guarded vs. Open: Instead of a closed-off heart, describe a heart that's a vault with a rusted lock, or a walled-in garden with a single gatekeeper. An open heart could be a river flowing freely, or a hearth radiating warmth to those nearby.

The Symbolic Weight of the Heart

The heart can symbolize a character's entire moral compass. Does their heart sing when they do a good deed, or does it feel a moment of silent hesitation before they do something wrong? This internal reaction, tied to the symbolic heart, gives the reader insight into their true motivations.

Unpacking the Character's Emotional Core

The deepest way to describe a character's heart is to reveal its influence on their actions and decisions. The heart isn't just a physical organ or a pretty metaphor; it's the seat of a character's values, fears, and desires.

How the Heart Drives Motivation and Decisions

Show the reader what a character's heart truly wants, even if their actions contradict it. An ambitious character's heart might secretly yearn for a simpler life, a constant conflict that drives their story. A stoic character's heart might be a secret garden of tenderness, revealed only in private moments.

The Broken Heart vs. The Resilient Heart

Not all broken hearts shatter. For some, a broken heart can be like a delicate glass statue with cracks, still standing but now more fragile and beautiful for its history. A resilient heart could be an ancient, scarred oak tree, having weathered many storms but still deeply rooted.

Advanced Literary Techniques for Describing the Heart

Moving beyond simple adjectives requires engaging all of a reader's senses and leveraging the internal narrative.

Using Sensory Details to Ground Emotion

Sound: Does the heart's rhythm sound like a steady drum, the clatter of a falling box, or the whir of a hummingbird's wings? Use different sound analogies for different emotional states.
Touch: Describe the character's own awareness of their pulse, the icy cold of a sudden shock, or the flush of warmth spreading from their chest.
Taste/Smell: While less direct, intense emotion can affect the senses. A character with a pounding heart might taste a metallic tang of fear, or a sense of peace might carry the scent of a blooming garden.

The Power of Internal Monologue

Allowing the reader into a character's thoughts offers the most direct access to their heart. Use internal monologue to reveal their fears, hopes, and conflicting desires. This raw, unfiltered perspective makes a character feel real and deeply human.

Practical Applications: A Comparison of Techniques

Here is a table demonstrating how to describe different emotional states with originality.


Emotional State	Cliché Description	Original Description
Fear	Her heart pounded.	Her heart was a furious drummer against her ribs, a rhythm of pure panic.
Love	My heart skipped a beat.	His presence made her heart a delicate glass ornament, trembling on a high shelf.
Grief	His heart ached.	Grief hollowed out his chest, leaving behind a cold, echoing cavern where his heart used to be.
Anger	My heart raced.	A violent drumbeat took over his pulse, a drum meant for a war he couldn't win.
Joy	My heart was full.	Joy felt like a thousand tiny fireworks going off in his chest, a brilliant, beautiful noise.

Conclusion: Writing with Heart

Describing a character's heart goes far beyond using a handful of adjectives. It is about understanding the core of their being and translating that internal, often-hidden world into language that is both specific and deeply felt. By focusing on physical manifestations, crafting fresh metaphors, exploring the emotional core, and using a range of sensory and internal techniques, you can create characterizations that resonate powerfully with your audience. Remember that a character's heart is their truth, and it's your job as a writer to reveal that truth in the most vivid way possible.

For more great tips on avoiding clichés and writing with greater emotional depth, review the excellent resources found at The Writing Cooperative on Medium: How to write character emotions without clichés.

Frequently Asked Questions

Avoid overused phrases such as 'heart of gold,' 'heart of stone,' 'heart skipped a beat,' and 'my heart pounded.' While familiar, they lack originality and fail to create a powerful, unique impression of the character's emotions.

Describe the physical sensations, such as a feeling of emptiness, coldness spreading through the chest, or a constant dull ache. You could also use imagery, like a heart that feels like shattered glass or a deflated balloon, to convey the emotional state more creatively.

Yes, focus on the physiological responses. A character's heart might feel like a frantic, desperate bird trapped in their ribs. You could describe the pulse thrumming in their wrists or the blood rushing in their ears, providing a more immediate, physical sense of their emotional state.

The emotional state of a character's heart should evolve with their story. A hardened heart can slowly soften, or a naive heart might become guarded. This change can be shown through their changing reactions to events, reflecting their personal growth and journey.

Instead of 'pounded,' try verbs that suggest a more specific rhythm or intensity. Consider 'hammered,' 'drummed,' 'thrummed,' 'lurching,' 'fluttering,' or describing the sound it makes, like 'the frantic beat of a war drum.'

Use descriptions of the heartbeat to mirror the character's escalating anxiety. Start with a quickening pulse, then move to a forceful hammering, and finally to a deafening thrumming sound that blocks out all other noise, indicating a peak of tension or panic.

Instead of literally saying they have no heart, describe their emotional indifference. Show their lack of reaction in moments that should evoke strong emotion, or describe their chest as feeling hollow, empty, and cold, lacking the warmth of human connection.