The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression

This isn't a book you sit down and read, so I haven't actually read the whole thing. It's really a desk reference to the way people react to various emotions, including how they look to the outside, how the react internally and mentally, and the long term effect of these emotions. I bought it solely after it was recommended to me (I can't remember from where), and I didn't use for a good, long while. Frankly, I'm an observant and emotional person, so I didn't feel like I needed a lot more insight into emotions. I finally broke it open because I felt like my descriptions of my characters' emotions were getting stagnant. This book has helped me find new things to point out in my narrative. I wouldn't say that it taught me anything new about emotions themselves, but it serves as a quick way to pick up new things to describe, just like a regular thesaurus. I use a vocab thesaurus not because I don't know the synonyms for a word, but sometimes I just can't think of every one out there. This book serves that same purpose but for emotions. Now, I always keep it open when I'm writing. Is it infallible? No. Is it the end-all-be-all on emotions? No. But it is a real handy tool to help writers get a handle on various ways emotions play out and helps the descriptions from becoming one-dimensional. It gives great ideas of nuances to include that can give depth to the emotions of your characters and is really helpful in the whole show-don't-tell approach to writing. I just don't think I could say enough about how helpful this has been.

Writing, as those in this craft know, is about balance and story. Balance the right amount of beats, dialogue, pacing, IM, imagery, description, backstory, characterization, location, etc. Admittedly, I get lazy and fall back on the tried and true in telling...especially conveying emotions. Heck, sharing them to someone else is hard; writing them? Harder yet without sounding corny, overblown, overdone, hoaky. You know, back in the day of daytime soaps and "Jerry Springer" takes their place now, LOL. I found THE EMOTION THESAURUS: A WRITER'S GUIDE TO CHARACTER EXPRESSION quite by accident. Stuck on how my cast should convey their elation, joy, frustration or guilt at different moments in my near-polished first novel, this book puts the intangible emotions in your hands and in your writing in concise, shirtsleeve terms. The section of "Techniques for Nonverbal Cues" is a gem with tips and tricks to not let your writing creep into the melodramatic stage, which I freely admit I sometimes do. Ackerman and Puglisi do a stellar job in showing how to depict guilt ("joking to lighten a mood") we'd rely on; or disgust ("spitting or throwing up") in someone or something. It's about body language, really, and emotions are hard as heck to hide through a physical or verbal motion. This reference, akin to people watching for fascinating verbal and nonverbal cues in a venue like Union Square in NYC or Market Street in Philly, can really nail for your cast their visceral reactions why they react as they do--and letting you take your reader where you wanted them to go. Since having this purchase, I reference this book frequently to convey what the characters' intentions are...and sometimes my own to channel it for them. It's hard work writing this tight and with this level of imagery, but in the end, your job is to churn your readers' imaginations as this book will do yours. My two faults--one technical, maybe, the other content: as a Kindle version, the TOC tends to go capital letters if you go back to the beginning; when you're in the middle of the emotion list you searched for, it reverts to lowercase. I find the latter easier to read in this form, however. The second: numbness is an emotion. If you aren't feeling anything, you're feeling that nonfeeling. And having posted this in the wake of the horrific events in Newtown, CT, Aurora, CO, and the mall in Ore., this reference would've been perfect to find something to nail down for me how my soul felt to this harrowing news. Words can't convey this level of sadness to the point where your soul cries. Sensing a void so spawning within, time alone is its only competitor in length. We've all experienced this, and some have used this for their writing. I have, and will again. Or it could be this level of despair doesn't have words to name it as "Despair" does in this book. It comes close, but even this emotion in your soul needs to not be described, and left alone for time to heal. Excellent book. I highly recommend it, and it's listed for a great price.

*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.

This is a great resource for writer's. Here are the pros and cons. Pros: The print is a great, readable size. (Good to know for those with vision issues, and those who like a larger print). I purchased the second book in this series 'The Negative Emotion Thesaurus' and while it packs in more 'emotion' which is great, I was disappointed the print was much smaller. The emotions are listed in easy to find alphabetical order. The introduction section is very well thought out. Very helpful! There are awesome writer's tips' strewn throughout. Cons: Not much, really. The only thing I think they could have improved on is adding more emotions. Apathy, bewildered, daring, docile, rebellious, etc. I recommend it and would buy this book again.

I'm a very visual person. I love movies. I love bright colors. I love watching people (not as a creeper). So I looooooooove seeing emotion. One of the things I enjoy the most is watching people being human--experiencing emotion. So when I'm writing a scene, I always ask myself, "If I were an actor, how would I portray this?" It's funny how you'll get a pile of books that have similarities that bug you. This week, it's books where the author attempted to show the non-verbal indicators of emotion, but did so using major indicators. Frustration was shown by "flinging her body onto the bed and throwing her stuffed bear across the room with a wild screech". Oh yeah. I got that I was supposed to be frustrated, but I also felt like I was two years old. This particular heroine wasn't immature. She was supposed to be quiet, withdrawn, subdued. That's not subdued. My personal opinion is that these are authors trying to show and not tell, but who are still trying to figure out the best way to do that. I recommend The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglist. I'm not saying this because I'm making any money on the link. I'm not. This book was actually very helpful even to me. I say this with a note of surprise because I am so very visual and I have my own internal journal of visual emotion indicators. This book goes into the physical signs of someone you're watching. This is great for first person and third person limited because you can convey by watching. Let's go to frustration for example. If I had Synn (my mc in Fall of Sky City (A Steampunk Fantasy Sci-Fi Adventure Novel) (Devices of War) ) talking to Joshua who was frustrated with me, I could have Joshua do the following: -narrow eyes in Synn's direction and pinch the lips together -tap his fingers against the table staring at something that's pointedly not Synn -Give an impatient snort or sneer Now, if Joshua were really hot--because he does have a hot temper--he could do something more dramatic. -swear at Synn -get up and start pacing, gesturing wildly -claw the hands and then relax them These are all straight from the Emotion Thesaurus. Now, you can scoff, if you like, but if you're one of the authors who hasn't figured this out yet, I'm going to laugh maniacally at you as I review your book. Now, here it is, all put together. "Joshua raised his clawed hands, his lips pinched in frustration, before he turned away, his hands relaxed at his sides." The Emotion Thesaurus also goes into the internal sensations and the mental responses, and they go into signs of acute or long-term emotions. It's a really fantastic tool I wish more authors were using!

Actually I finished THE EMOTION THESAURUS earlier than admitted, but I hesitated on the review because it is not an easy work to define in its entirety. This reference work by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, however, is an excellent follow-up to SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS since both deal with the importance of showing instead of telling. Both works start the same, but the book by Renni Browne and Dave King, which I reviewed prior to this book, continues as a lecturing text giving extended advice to writers of novels and short stories. Ackerman and Puglisi, on the other hand, after a lengthy introduction where they emphasize the importance of nonverbal communication (body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc.) so that readers can connect with characters on an emotional level, offer a book of lists. As a reference tool, this work, like others, belongs within arm's reach of the writer's work station. It is unique in what it offers -- a compendium of emotions with attached subcategories to show how they might be used on the page in a believable manner. This must have been a grueling work to compile, drawing upon, as they mention, other writers in a critique circle. Two uniformly structured pages are devoted to one particular emotion shown in caps at the top of the left page. Each word is followed by a short definition. The first subcategory is "Physical signals" followed by examples of about 30 words or short phrases. The next subcategories are "Internal Sensations," "Mental Responses," "Cues of Acute or Long-term Determination," "May Escalate to (other emotions and page numbers)," and "Cues of Suppressed Determination." Writer's tips are provided at the bottom of each right page, supplying advice on how to present or utilize these emotions in a believable manner. This is not, as I mentioned at the outset, an easy work to read through because it does not flow with the continuity if a typical text. For me, it was a matter of highlighting certain examples of words and phrases which showed what characters could be feeling, selecting words that I might use in my current work of fiction in progress, particularly works that would apply to the immediacy of a situation rather than to those that were more extensive and required reaching beyond a particular scene. Anyway, use this book as it benefits you. It is certainly accessible.

I've already referred to "The Emotion Thesaurus" several times while working on my latest novel. My one complaint is that there are several emotions missing. This might be fixed in a future edition by using synonyms. (For instance, "bitterness" is not listed, but it is probably synonymous to one or more that are covered.) Still, it's a tool I keep open. Even if I don't use one of the book's descriptions, the "clues" help clarify the emotion I'm trying to convey. The organization within items shows forethought: Definition, Physical Signals, Internal Sensations, Mental Responses, Cues, May Escalate To..., Cues of Suppressed..., Writer's Tips. This organization allows for variety of detail, and provides an extra checklist for revision. (What aspect of the emotion do I want to focus on here? What one has been over or under emphasized?) "The Emotion Thesaurus" is flexible and can be used with any genre - film, graphic, drama, prose - even poetry and essays (though I have not used it for that). Like a word thesaurus, a dictionary, a grammar, and a plotting strategy, the Emotion Thesaurus is an important part of a writer's toolbox. It articulates and organizes what good writers have done instinctively.

I am so glad I ordered this book. It arrived fast. And is exactly what I needed for my writing.

What a find! Every author struggles with finding "the right" words sometimes, and this thesaurus, even in book-form, is a very easy-to-use and helpful support for more original writing or just to add more spice to a story. It gave me tons of ideas of how to approach a sentence differently and find new ways to express characters' feelings than just with the eyes...it totally improved my writing. Even just as a read-through it is useful to give thought-provoking impulses one can work with.

色々な表現が楽しめて、とても面白いです。単なる辞書とは、楽しみ方が違います。

Un must-have pour tous les écrivains! Excellent travail et les autres tomes de cette série sont tout aussi bien. Dommage qu'il n'existe pas de traduction

Another great addition to the series by Ackerman & Puglisi. I think I've got just about all of these in eBook format. I think it's time to get them in paperback as well. They've all been brilliant resources to help my writing.

Love, love, love this book! It helps me to express a way a character goes through without actually instead of having to tell the readers.