Lupus's blue eyes burned with exasperation (Page 1 of 2)

for me, although I often use the eyes as the windows to the soul, burned isn't the right word here. If he is scowling, his eyes are probably 'chilled with exasperation', or 'exasperation bleached his blue eyes to flint', kind of thing.  Colder, you know?
I know in some circles the animation of body parts is frowned upon, I can't see much wrong unless you are writing highbrow lit fic.

The real problem is that you're mixing external description with internal emoting.

To be precise, his face expresses his emotion. He's exasperated. I'm simply using the eyes to represent what his face is showing.

Also burned is the right word here. He's in the middle of a heated argument with another character.

You can read feeling in the eyes, yes, but can you narrow it to exasperation?
And does exasperation constitute burning, or is that require a different species of frustration?

If you can't identify the emotion from the eyes alone, you need other description.

There's something else at play here--the exasperation. Depends on POV.

If the story is being told in deep third person from Lupus's POV, yes, you can say his eyes burned with exasperation.

If the story is being told in deep third person from another character's POV, he/she can't possibly read Lupus's mind to know he's exasperated. So you can't write it that way.

And if you're writing the story as the omnipotent third person, you just committed author intrusion. For shame!

Watch your language.  JP

This doesn't seem all that different from "he sighed with exasperation," and I know I've seen phrases like that quite a bit. Can you tell from just a sigh that someone is exasperated? I don't really want to stop in the middle of a heated argument for showing. (To qualify, it's the third person POV of the other character in the conversation.)

okay, so how would everyone express the burn of exasperation, if not through the eyes?

not you... you are burning... I was thinking more of how people who don't like body parts doing things body parts don't usually. How would they express exasperation?

Angela Ackerman has a series of interesting thesauruses, including one called the “Emotion Thesaurus”.  In it, she describes elements of every emotion imaginable.  She organizes them according to how they might evolve. For instance: Suppressed Aggravation, Annoyance, Anger.....

This is the entry under “ANNOYANCE”
DEFINITION: aggravation or mild irritation
PHYSICAL SIGNALS:
A pinched expression
**Sighing heavily or with exaggeration** (emphasis mine)
Statements suggesting impatience: Here, I’ll do it.
Narrowing eyes
Crossed arms
Tapping a foot, fidgeting
Swatting at the air
Tics and tells (a throbbing forehead vein, fingering a collar)
Lips pressing into a white slash
Clenching the jaw
Grimacing, sneering, frowning
Complaining
Folding the arms across the chest
Hands that briefly clench
Making pointed suggestions to alleviate the annoyance
Tugging at clothing (jerking down a cuff, forcing a zipper up)
Cocking one’s head and then shaking it
Raising one’s eyebrows and giving a glassy stare
A gaze that flicks upward
Minutely shaking the head
Changing one’s stance (shifting weight or position)
Propping the head up with a fist
Holding the head in the hands
Opening the mouth to criticize, then stopping short
Taking a deep breath and holding it in
Finger-tapping a tabletop
A smile that slips or appears forced
Snapping a pencil tip, using unnecessary force
Pacing
Light sarcasm
Asking a question that has a painfully obvious answer
A sharp tone
Speaking in short phrases
Visible tension in the neck, shoulders, and arms
Rigid posture, cords twanging in the neck
Rubbing the brow as if to ward off a headache
Avoiding the person or object of annoyance
Pressing a fist to the mouth
INTERNAL SENSATIONS:
A headache
Stiffness in the neck or jaw
Raised body temperature
Sensitivity to noise
MENTAL RESPONSES:
Berating thoughts
Straying attention
Thinking of an excuse to leave
Making unkind mental comparisons
Wishing to be somewhere else
CUES OF ACUTE OR LONG-TERM ANNOYANCE:
A reddening face
Rough handling of objects
Taking over someone else’s job or duties
Grinding one’s teeth
Throwing the hands up in a gesture of surrender
“Stalking off to get some air
Shutting down, not speaking or responding
Pulling someone else into the situation to divert attention and allow one to exit
MAY ESCALATE TO: FRUSTRATION, ANGER
CUES OF SUPPRESSED ANNOYANCE:
Nodding, but tightly, as if holding back from speaking an insult
Switching to another job to keep hands and thoughts busy
Attacking a task, diverting one’s energy
Forcing oneself to remain in the presence of the annoyance
Faking interest, barely holding impatience at bay
Carefully controlling one’s voice and tone
Focusing one’s gaze elsewhere in an attempt to ignore

WRITER’S TIP: Don’t get caught up on the eyes to convey emotion. While eyes are often the first thing we notice in real life, they provide very limited options for description possibilities. Instead, dig deeper, showing how the character behaves through their body movement, actions and dialogue.

Excerpt From
The Emotion Thesaurus:
Becca Puglisi & Angela Ackerman
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/emotio … 5492?mt=11
This material may be protected by copyright.

I am totally in agreement here, florid, purple prose turns me off from the first time I read it. I NEVER see it in published books. I have problems in my own writing because I pare it such a long way down that I have to beware too many simplistic emotional descriptions, rather than the latter.

Exasperation is not just irritation.  It's related to frustration, though it's causes are slightly different.  Frustration comes from one's purpose being thwarted, by purpose or accidend.  Exasperation is a lesser emotion and results from the failure of another to understand or conform.

“Exasperation is a lesser emotion and results from the failure of another to understand or conform.”

You won’t find any dictionary that supports this narrow definition....