Writing angry characters is challenging. Different personalities express anger in various ways. Few emotions reveal a character’s personality more thoroughly than how they handle anger. Great writers understand the many nuances of anger. We hope this post will help you gain a better understanding of how to write angry characters.

It is a common misconception that anger only manifests in loud, violent behavior. In reality, anger is a complex emotion that a character can express in many ways.

Here are seven different ways a character can express anger.

We have included examples.

In addition to the examples in this post, you can download 412 more phrases to help you write angry characters.

#1. Writing Angry Characters, Annoyance

Annoyance is the most common type of anger. Your character gets upset or frustrated with others. Sometimes it’s the little things in life that bother us the most. Therefore, consider writing anger because your character takes offense to another’s words or actions.

Small habits can be irritating. How your character handles their annoyance reveals much to your reader about your character’s personality. They can be kind, patient, and understanding. They can complain and use verbal abuse, sarcasm, or insults, in an attempt to end annoying behavior.

Whatever actions or dialog you choose will reveal much about your character’s personality.

Examples:

# 2. Writing Angry Characters, Violent

Violent anger often happens when one character attempts to intimidate, manipulate, or exercise dominion or control over another character.

Aggressive anger may seem powerful on the outside. However, it sometimes hides the character’s insecurity and may reveal a deep sense of inadequacy or even fear.

Chronic aggressive anger usually results in painful conflicts, ruined relationships, damaged reputations, and destructive outcomes.

Writing violent anger can be used as a character flaw in your main character—a weakness they must overcome. Aggressive anger can also be used in your antagonist as a catalyst for their downfall.

Effectively writing violent anger requires you to explain the source of the rage in backstories or flashbacks.

Examples:

# 3. Temper Tantrums

Tantrums are a form of aggressive anger characterized by disproportionate outbursts. These explosions usually happen when a character’s selfish wants or needs are not fulfilled. The character’s desires may be unreasonable or inappropriate. These violent eruptions are typically directed toward characters who do not deserve such emotional fury.

Temper tantrums are a sign of immaturity. Some adults continue to unleash their narcissistic rage to manipulate or coerce others. When writing anger that includes temper tantrums, you must include the reactions of your other characters. Do the other characters acquiesce, fight back, or repress their anger and resentment?

Examples:

For more phrases like these, download our list of angry phrases.

# 4. Writing Angry Characters, Justifiable Anger

Justifiable anger is a sense of moral outrage at the world’s injustices. Justifiable anger can be the theme of your story or an undercurrent for a particular character.

The possibilities for this type of anger are limitless.

• cruelty towards animals
• oppression of human rights
• destruction of the environment
• violence in the home
• criminal activity

Effectively writing anger that is justifiable requires an exploration of both sides of the conflict. That may seem counterintuitive. However, you should consider the background of the injustice. Where it started. Why does it continue? Don’t gloss over the subject. Let the reader understand the injustice’s significance and why it angers your character.

Examples:

# 5. Writing Angry Characters, Passive Aggressive

Passive-aggressive anger is expressed indirectly. It can be unintentional or a deliberate strategy to intimidate others. Generally, this is a disconnect between what your character says and what they do.

It is motivated by a desire to avoid direct communication or a fear of conflict. It involves your character being unclear or dishonest about their feelings or thoughts. They show their hostility with indirect behavior or dialog.

Passive-aggressive anger can be interesting to write about because both characters might use different passive-aggressive techniques to express their hostility.

The character may show their hostility through their behavior.

Example:

The character may show hostility in their dialog.

Example:

# 6. Writing Angry Characters, Repressed Hostility

A character who represses their hostility may fear if they directly express their anger, they might be rejected or even abandoned. Repressed anger is learned from life experience. The character may have been taught that anger is wrong or even immoral. They become afraid of their fury.

When their intense anger emerges, they experience inner conflict. They immediately attempt to squash their rage. Their inner voice belittles them for not being in control, just like their critical parents, bullies, or teachers once did.

The character will do anything to maintain peace and harmony. Their life experience has taught them not to be too dramatic, outspoken, or energetic. They are usually viewed as a mediator or peacemaker. They don’t want to bother anyone with their emotional needs. They often become the invisible ones.

They appease others to keep the peace rather than risk conflict. They may appear overly civilized, entirely in control, or tense.

Examples:

# 7. Self-Anger

This kind of anger has two causes. One source of self-anger is based on feelings of shame or humiliation from something in their past. The second source comes from perfectionism. Either way, the character has not lived up to their personal standards.

Self-anger is characterized by negative self-talk. The character may be highly critical of themselves, having unrealistic standards. They internalize this resentment. The character may lash out at those around them, attempting to mask their self-loathing.

Symptoms can include disordered eating, heavy drinking, substance abuse, social distancing, thoughts of suicide, and other self-sabotaging behavior.

This character may project their hostile feelings about themselves to others. Causing the character to become paranoid. They look at the world as a hostile place. This character may experience an irrational fear of others, causing them to retreat from the world.

They accumulate self-hate for not meeting their own standards. They often project their standards onto others and resent other characters for not living up to their self-imposed standards.

They tend to dedicate their lives to doing the right thing. They feel resentment when others don’t live moral lives and still find success.

Examples:

Conclusion About Writing Angry Characters

The best way to create angry characters is to let the anger build one layer at a time. This will take patience. The most believable anger should include the reactions of your other characters to your angry character. Writing anger will take more than one or two paragraphs.

Knowing how different characters handle anger can help you write more realistic characters. Our phrases will help you develop more dimensional characters.

Check out our post about Creating Arguments with 412 Phrases.

For more ideas about writing angry characters see: Angry Definition & Pictures

Happy Writing

John and Patty                                             @writingagreatbook.com 2023