Surprise comes from experiencing an unexpected situation. It can be either positive or negative emotion. I have given examples below, which describe surprise, but it's in your capabilities to decide to use the example that best fits your scene.
- Widely open their mouth/ with their mouth agape
- Putting hands over one’s cheeks
- Making a sudden noise (because something unexpected happens, like when someone comes up from behind and startles you)
- Soft or shaky voice
- Halting (bodily or verbally)
- Skin tingles
- Something tingled up the spine (this is generally used for fear, but it also works here)
- Felt like a cold wind went right through them/ chilling feeling (when you’re walking alone at night and feel like someone’s following you or watching you)
- You can feel the adrenaline rush coursing through your veins
- Release of adrenaline (fight-or-flight reaction; a sudden boost of energy)
- A positive or pleasant feeling rushed through his body
- Becoming aware of one’s own heartbeat
- Feel like his heart stopped beating
- Her heart skipped a beat
- His heart catches
- Using an exclamatory phrase (Good grief, good heavens, wow! What a surprise!, you must be joking/kidding!, what?, no! That can’t be true, are you serious?, I don’t believe it, etc.)
- Going mute for a moment or two or more
- Shaking the head (in disbelief or disagreement, or feeling pity)
- Jaws dropping
- Placing one’s hand over the mouth (either slowly or quickly, both of which give off a different meaning. The former one implies more negativity and deals more impact to the person, for example when hearing a piece of sad or shocking news that touches their heart)
- His mouth gaped open/ hung open (slowly or quickly)
- Time feels like it slowed down (others move in slow motion)
- You feel like you’re moving in slow motion
- Staring without blinking
- Spreading of fingers and placing the hand across the chest (hands tend to fly to the chest as expression exaggerates on one’s face like when saying ‘oh my goodness!’)
- Grabbing hold of someone(their hands, etc,) or pulling them (generally for comfort)
- Looking for something to fall back on (pillar, wall, chair, desk, etc, can be a person, too)
- Her eyebrows rose a notch
- Taking a step back or two (taken aback)
- Dropping/letting go of objects in your hands (mug or bottle or box or something)
This is just a preview of 30 examples.
The main document expounds the emotion extensively.
The full list of over 120 examples is available on Patreon.
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