I always use the word shrug. He shrugged. He is shrugging. He shrugs his shoulders. Anyone have any ideas for a like-minded word or a combination of words to replace "shrug"? For some reason the thesaurus isn't helping.
What's wrong with just using "shrug"? You don't want a character shrugging more than a couple times in the book, so it's not like the word will be too repetitive and you need alternative words. The only alternative I can think of is: "He gestured by hunching his shoulders"--but that sounds kind of lame.
He raised his sholders in confusion. I have the same problem with smile. I find its best to use a short phrase in place of the word. Her face curled from ear to ear.
"I don't know," he said more with his shoulders than anything else. He pulled his shoulders up by his ears while raising his eyebrows? << hmm, bleh. Maybe you can solve the problem with a dash of comedy? John shrugged, again. Geez, Bill had never met someone who shrugged so often. He must have shrugged three times in the last few hours. John was a damn shrugging machine. Bill felt like saying something but didn't. He slapped John on the shoulder. "Let's go."
I can understand needing another word for shrug, sometimes it's just not the right thing for a character to do, like if it's a really childish guy you could say He bobbed his shoulders, "I dunno! Let's just try it!" or if it was a really like, a old old man His shoulders gave a heavy hunch ," If I knew that...I wouldn't be here." or a graceful woman! She shifted her shoulders,"I could not really tell you much of what I saw." A shrug can totally define a person and who they are
Don't try so hard. If your character shrugs that often, another character can take note of ut, perhaps with a bit of sarcasm or humor. But if he shrugs, then a couple questions later shrugs again, just say so. You'll make yourself conspicuous if you jump through hoops for alternate words.
