Creating Character Emotions [Paperback]

Ann Hood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1998

Creating Character Emotions will help writer s find vivid ways to express emotion in their fiction. In 36 lessons, Ann Hood sheds new light on love, hate, fear, grie f, guilt, hope, jealousy and other emotional states. '

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Story Press; 1st edition (February 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884910335
• ISBN-13: 978-1884910333
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ann Hood is the author of the bestselling novels THE RED THREAD, THE KNITTING CIRCLE and SOMEWHERE OFF THE COAST OF MAINE. Her memoir, COMFORT: A JOURNEY THROUGH GRIEF, in which she shares her personal story of losing her 5 year old daughter Grace in 2002, was a New York Times Editor's Choice and named one of the top 10 non-fiction books of 2008. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Great. Not Horrible., January 5, 2001

By 

FictionAddiction.NET - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Character Emotions (Paperback)

Creating Character Emotions is broken up into different sections like Anger, Happiness and Love.

It's easy to flip to the section you want and read that particular chapter. Ann Hood offers a "GOOD" and "BAD" example of writing on that particular subject. There are even exercises at the end of each chapter so you can try your own hand at creating emotions.

However, the sections are short and don't offer a complete explanation to give you the writing edge. It really just touches base with the emotion and how to write about it without offering a deeper sense of "creating character emotions."

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like Nasty Cough Syrup, December 10, 2005

By 

B. Abernethy "Writer Wannabe" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating Character Emotions (Paperback)

The last few books I bought and read on writing from Amazon.com were excellent and I started this with high hopes. Unfortunately, I started skimming about three-fourths of the way through and ended up skipping the last couple chapters.

This book has a fault I have noticed with others. When they quote another work, it always falls flat. The quotes are taken out of context, we are missing all the author had to say about the character in the previous hundred pages or so. What this means, is the "good" examples she gives us seem, well, so so. Of course the bad examples stand on their own and are bad, something anyone would do with little thought.

Rather than so many chapters on each individual emotion, I would rather see more extensive general work. I would like to see many, many examples of good emotions written by the author herself, and not a quote from a book, but a paragraph written that stands on its own. Hood tries to set up the "good" examples, but it can only be done imperfectly.

Bad emotion writing are cliches (mad has a hatter, hungry as a horse, etc.) and miss identifying the emotion, anger instead of fear.

Good emotion writing accuratly and freshly describes the emotions the character feels.

In conclusion, like cough syrup, you have to take this, but could it just taste better? Worth reading, perhaps, but put it down in your priority list.

PS My short list of must reads:

The First Five Pages, Noah Lukeman
Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Mass
45 Master CHaracters, Victoria Lynn Schmidt
Dialogue, Gloria Kempton
Description & Setting, Ron Rozelle
Scene & Structure, Jack M. Bickham
You Can Write a Novel, James V. Smith Jr.

PPS My short list of stinkers that slipped through:

Creating Character Emotions, Ann Hood
Writing Dialogue, Tom Chiarella
Theme & Strategy, Ronald B. Tobias

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prevent your characters from turning into cliches, December 22, 1999

By 

Stephanie (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Character Emotions (Paperback)

I would recommend this book to anyone who writes characters and wants to portray them as real people with emotions and reactions others can relate to. It really opened my eyes to the kind of cliched emotions many of us are caught up in while writing characters and how that really stiffles a story or novel's effectiveness. This book teaches you how to make your characters feel, and not just label them as 'sad' or 'happy' - that doesn't involve the reader. You learn how to describe your characters in such a way that the reader knows how they feel without you having to label the emotion.