Let’s Start With a Definition

confused: unable to think clearly; showing bewilderment

Are you confused about how to mitigate the overuse of confused in your writing?

Relax. That confusion means you recognize the problem.

As Tom Peters said, “If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.” (Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution)

Henna Inam’s perspective: “Confused? Confusion is good. It’s an excellent place to learn something new …” (Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead)

This post will help you turn confusion into clarity.

Emotion Beats and Physical Manifestations

Watch people as they try to cope with a problem or struggle to understand a politician’s double talk. They might exhibit many signs of confusion, including:

Visible beats
wrinkling their nose
unfocused gazes
grimacing
excessive swallowing
scratching their face, head, or shoulders
rubbing their chin, beard, nose, or neck
touching the base of their neck
pursing their lips
narrowing their eyes
tugging on an earlobe
chewing on their lips
blinking rapidly
squinting
shrugging
scrunching their head into their shoulders
massaging their eyebrows or forehead
cocking their head
touching their lips, nose, or face
making other repetitive hand-to-face gestures
pulling their brows together into a frown or a scowl
raising eyebrows while they wait for clarification or agreement

Invisible beats
tightness in the chest
an upset or fluttering stomach

For more confused beats, consult a body language dictionary. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Adjectives

Confused, an opinion adjective, can often be replaced with one of the following words or phrases.

A to C
addled, adrift, agitated, asea, astray, at a loss (for words), at sea, at sixes and sevens, baffled, bamboozled, befogged, befuddled, bemused, bewildered, confounded

D to M
dazed, discombobulated, discomfited, disconcerted, disoriented, distracted, dizzy, dopey, dumbfounded, dumbstruck, fazed, filled with or overcome with [a word from Nouns section], flummoxed, flustered, foxed, fuddled, fuzzy, lost, mazed, mixed-up, muddled, muzzy, mystified

N to W
nonplussed, not with it, off-balance, off-course, off-track, openmouthed, perplexed, puzzled, rattled, ruffled, shaken, speechless, staggered, stumped, stunned, stupefied, taken aback, thrown, tongue-tied, unfocused, unhinged, unsettled, wildered

Similes and Metaphors

Leverage the following phrases to create your own memorable expressions.

• a haze in one’s brain
• a muddled mask of [a word from the Nouns section]
• as befuddled as an old person trying to [learn, navigate] __________
• as uncertain as the weather in [location, month]
• like a bookworm trying to read a story filled with [bad spelling, comma splices]
• like a cat trying to catch a laser
• like a child trying to grab a rainbow
• like a delivery driver who has been given the address of a vacant lot for a package’s destination
• like a husband trying to figure out why his wife is giving him the silent treatment
• like a teacher trying to figure out which quadruplet is which on the first day of school
• more flustered than a voter trying to choose from a slate of mediocre candidates
• pea soup brainwaves struggling to understand
• the epitome of [a word from the Nouns section]

Colors

Confusion doesn’t have a color, but it might cause a character to be embarrassed. Try a shade of red that suits the level of embarrassment. Here are a few starter suggestions.

B to W
blush red, carrot red, communist red, demon red, fiery red, flame red, florid, flushed, ketchup red, licorice-twist red, lipstick red, lobster red, peach red, rouge red, tomato red, wanton red

See 1000+ Ways to Describe Colors for more options.

Scents

Analyze the reason for your character’s confusion. Is it a physical problem such as diabetic hypoglycemia, or perhaps a situation that causes heightened anxiety?

Diabetic hypoglycemia
breath that has a fruity or acetone-like smell

Heightened anxiety
perspiration odor
an upset stomach or heartburn, accompanied by sour-smelling breath

A sous chef trying to read a recipe in a foreign language might have hands that smell like onions when the recipe calls for apples. The chef would notice the mistake.

Someone confused by the functions of a fancy new stove might turn on the wrong burner and set fire to a pair of oven mitts. The person’s confusion would be evident to anyone who smells the resulting smoke.

Takeaway: Show the situation that causes a character’s confusion rather than describing the resulting mental state as confused.

Transitive Verbs and Phrasal Verbs to Replace Confuse

Transitive verb: a verb that takes one or more direct objects.

For example:

The maiden’s rejection befogged the knight. He rode away with slumped shoulders and an ache in his chest.

Stephanie’s reluctance to attend the sci-fi convention mystified Levar.

A to W
addle, baffle, bamboozle, beat, becloud [literary], befog, befuddle, bemuse, bewilder, buffalo, confound, confusticate, daze, discombobulate, disorient, distract, faze, flummox, fluster, fog, fox, fuddle, gravel [dated], mislead, mystify, nonplus, obfuscate, perplex, puzzle, stump, throw off balance, unhinge, unsettle, wilder [dated]

Nouns

Confusion could also be referred to as:

B to U
bewilderment, discomfiture, discomposure, indecision, misperception, perplexity, perturbation, puzzlement, turbulence, turmoil, uncertainty

Props

Perhaps you want to embrace confusion and leverage it to spark new twists or subplots. Does one of these suit your WIP?

• chess
• a computer program
• converting Fahrenheit to Celsius, pounds to kilograms, miles to kilometers, gallons to liters, etc.
• figuring out where to place one’s fingers on a piano keyboard
• folding fitted sheets
• a help desk technician with a foreign accent
• how-to instructions for assembling [a baby’s crib, a bedframe, a bookshelf, a child’s toy, living-room furniture, a propane barbecue, a spaceship’s _____, a tent, a trampoline, a water faucet]
• learning [ballroom dancing, a new guitar chord, how to crochet or knit]
• a math problem
• moodiness of [an adolescent, a dieter, an overworked _____]
• paper maps
• a professional person who uses too many technical terms
• salt in the sugar canister
• a spouse
• switching from a QWERTY to a Dvorak keyboard or vice versa
• traffic signs in a foreign country
• trying to make sense of all the conflicting advice about [childrearing, climate change, coronavirus, dating apps, dieting, gun control, writing]
• trying to remember one’s CPR training in an emergency
• a university lecture