Book Title: The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression
Authors: Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi
Year of Publication: 2012
Genre: Writing, Publishing
The Book Itself. This book is exactly what the title states, a thesaurus for emotions. This, obviously, makes this book potentially a great resource for writers at all levels.
Favorite Bits. This is a quick reference book for authors who need ideas or to use as a method for learning how to break away from the emotional cliché, eg, he smiled from ear to ear. Either way, you’ll gain many ideas for expressing a character’s emotions. This book offers an important step for writers because mastering how to show expressions (as opposed to telling how characters feel), “allows the reader to experience the emotions themselves,” (this is a partial quote is from the Introduction).
The book includes seventy-five emotions and are listed alphabetically, from Adoration to Worry. Each one offers ideas on how to show that specific emotion in a nonverbal communication format. Noting these non-verbals include body language, visceral reactions, and thoughts.
Note: the newer edition (2019) has 130 emotions in the thesaurus.
To read or not to read… Yes! I highly recommend this book to new and seasoned writers. If you’re new, you need this book to learn from; and if you’re seasoned, well, it will free you from those moments when you’re stuck or when you need more ideas. Alternatively, you can simply sit down to peruse the book and get the creative juices flowing again.
Below is a link to the book on Amazon (dot) com. Note: I’m not affiliated and do not receive any money for this recommendation.
