One of the biggest problem areas for writers is conveying a character's emotions to the reader in a unique, compelling way. This book comes to the rescue by highlighting 75 emotions and listing the possible body language cues, thoughts, and visceral responses for each. Using its easy-to-navigate list format, readers can draw inspiration from character cues that range in intensity to match any emotional moment. The Emotion Thesaurus also tackles common emotion-related writing problems and provides methods to overcome them. This writing tool encourages writers to show, not tell emotion and is a creative brainstorming resource for any fiction project.
The Emotion Thesaurus
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Editorial Reviews
Review
One of the challenges a fiction writer faces, especially when prolific, is coming up with fresh ways to describe emotions. This handy compendium fills that need. It is both a reference and a brainstorming tool, and one of the resources I'll be turning to most often as I write my own books. - James Scott Bell, bestselling author of Deceived and Plot & Structure
About the Author
Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are the creators of the award winning online resource for writers, The Bookshelf Muse. Members of SCBWI, both authors write in the Middle Grade and Young Adult genres.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
92 of 94 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
We know by now the "Show, Don't Tell" idiom professed by almost every how-to book on writing fiction. Where we stumble is in the `showing' of emotions, especially showing the same emotion in varying degrees of intensity, and often end-up writing clichés. The Emotion Thesaurus breaks new ground by providing alternatives to body language cues, thoughts and visceral reactions. Unlike a word thesaurus that we open at a specific page to find alternatives for a word, this book can be read in its entirety not just to derive inspiration, but also to improve your storehouse of `emotion descriptions'. But if all this information is available free on the web, why buy the book? I bought it because I prefer to shut down my internet connection while I write and edit, to prevent distractions and the book comes in handy. Also for those times late in the night when I'd rather reach for this book than boot up the laptop and fire up the modem.
56 of 59 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The best 5 bucks a writer could spend. I could see the emotions in playing out in my head, but lacked the words. Just skimming the book, I can and will take my writing from "Good" to "Amazing" Now I finally understand Show don't Tell your reader. Even my daughter was impressed with the book. I would recommend this book to new writer like me and even the seasoned writers. I don't think you will be disappointed.
51 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
*Note (7/13/12): I located the linked navigation a while back, and it's actually very well done. Excellent. Forgot to update the review.
I'm rounding up because my only complaint is that I couldn't find a linked list/index to go from one entry to the next, back, or otherwise. I am going to search around the book to see if it does indeed exist and to see if it merely escaped me on my first pass. I'll knock off half a star for that, but I'm going to round up because this truly is a wonderful writing aid. (I'll amend my review if I locate it or if someone points it out.)
A wide variety of emotions are given in this book, each of the entries supplying information on the overall effects each emotional state has on people, from what others might notice or see to what a person might feel inside. Thus, it's a wonderful tool for examples in any point of view and wonderfully supports the modern, accepted style: third person limited. However, this tool could just as easily be used for any style or point of view.
In my opinion, this guide could be useful to both new and experienced writers of fiction. For the former, this is an amazing resource for learning how to write convincing characters and see how emotions translate into writing (then, hopefully, provoking sympathy, empathy, or whatever feeling you wish to evoke in the reader). For the latter, I would say that this can easily be a go-to reference for experienced writers to shake things up a bit and to avoid the long hours of research it would require to do the legwork already done in this guide. I've loaded this book onto my Kindle, and it's ready to go, along with my thesaurus, dictionary, and other reference material. This is one book that will be permanently loaded onto my device.
I'm rounding up because my only complaint is that I couldn't find a linked list/index to go from one entry to the next, back, or otherwise. I am going to search around the book to see if it does indeed exist and to see if it merely escaped me on my first pass. I'll knock off half a star for that, but I'm going to round up because this truly is a wonderful writing aid. (I'll amend my review if I locate it or if someone points it out.)
A wide variety of emotions are given in this book, each of the entries supplying information on the overall effects each emotional state has on people, from what others might notice or see to what a person might feel inside. Thus, it's a wonderful tool for examples in any point of view and wonderfully supports the modern, accepted style: third person limited. However, this tool could just as easily be used for any style or point of view.
In my opinion, this guide could be useful to both new and experienced writers of fiction. For the former, this is an amazing resource for learning how to write convincing characters and see how emotions translate into writing (then, hopefully, provoking sympathy, empathy, or whatever feeling you wish to evoke in the reader). For the latter, I would say that this can easily be a go-to reference for experienced writers to shake things up a bit and to avoid the long hours of research it would require to do the legwork already done in this guide. I've loaded this book onto my Kindle, and it's ready to go, along with my thesaurus, dictionary, and other reference material. This is one book that will be permanently loaded onto my device.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just what I needed
Very helpful. It's necessary to have this compared to using the Internet in search for the right word or description.
Published 1 day ago by Tylor
5.0 out of 5 stars
put it on your writer's reference bookshelf
Are you a writer and get stuck every once in a while in your own rut of character expression? Pick up this book, flip through it, and watch how your own powers of observation... Read more
Published 1 day ago by GG
5.0 out of 5 stars
Invaluable resource, put it next to Strunk & White
I've been using this book since it came out. Not because I don't know these things already, but because, like all writers, I tend to use the same phrases over and over. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Seeley James
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Read and helpful
I found this a good read to help me control and understand my emotions. It also helps me in building better characters in my novels and short stories. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Lisa Engelking
4.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful
Becca has constructed a helpful tool for the serious writer. While not exhaustive or encyclopedic, it serves the function of providing the critical spark occasionally needed by... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Evan Geller
5.0 out of 5 stars
Help. I'm a man
Loved it. My characters tend to freeze up after slugging some wine or some nut job or after dropping a gun. Now I know what to do. Give them a back story as a spastic. Joke. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Peter Prasad
5.0 out of 5 stars
buy if you're a writer...
This is an excellent reference book for your writing. It's concise, easy to flip through to find what you need, and it's not filled with a bunch of fluff simply to fill the pages... Read more
Published 6 days ago by J. C.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emotion thesaurus: (UK, USA) (noun) invaluable, original, great...
What a great concept this book is - I'm surprised no-one has thought of it before. This is such a handy tool for writers. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Robin Storey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great tool to glance at while writing
This book was not what i expected, but that ended up being for the better. It is an easy tool to refer to while writing.
Published 7 days ago by Ken
4.0 out of 5 stars
creativity booster
This is a great book for igniting my creative choices. Simply perusing the alpha list of phrases inspires with ideas.
Published 8 days ago by Madaline Walter
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