The Thesaurus Series (Writers Helping Writers – Ackerman & Puglisi)

One of the biggest struggles for writers is how to convey emotion to readers in a unique and compelling way. When showing our characters’ feelings, we often use the first idea that comes to mind, and they end up smiling, nodding, and frowning too much.

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When writing fictional characters, it’s hugely important to convey their emotions effectively so readers will be drawn in and become invested in those characters. The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression was written to help writers convey the quality and depth of their cha...

Is your setting description pulling its weight in the story, or is it just sort of…there? Do more with your settings, activating their power to characterize the story’s cast, deepen emotional moments, deliver backstory without info dumps, and more. This guide does all this and more, in addition to providing you with lists of sensory description for over 120 modern locations.

One of the most powerful storytelling elements is your setting…but are you using it as well as you should? This guide not only lists sensory details for over 100 natural and personal settings, it provides options for conflict in each location and shows you how to build mood, steer the plot, and apply symbolism for deeper, more meaningful scenes.

For characters to come across as authentic, they need a past, the same as you or me. And, like us, part of their history includes painful experiences known as emotional wounds which generate fears, insecurities, trust issues, and make it difficult for them to take risks when it matters most. This guide will lead you to specific types of trauma (and the dysfunctional behaviors tied to them) so you can choose what your character’s vulnerability is, what it will look like on the page, and develop a character arc where they overcome the past…or succumb to it.

Ready to explore your character’s dark side? Protagonist, antagonist, or someone in between—all characters have negative qualities that mess up their relationships, keep them from achievement, and stymie internal growth. This thesaurus digs into over 100 character flaws, how to show them through dysfunctional behavior and attitudes, and provides ideas on how they will cause problems in the story.

Every character has good qualities, even the bad guy. Attributes help your characters come alive on the page by revealing their identity, showing readers how they treat other people, and giving them a moral compass to live by. This guide does a deep dive on 100 positive traits to help you brainstorm unique combinations of strengths to help your characters bend the story to their will and win reader’s hearts.

When you choose a character’s job with care you gain a way to show-not-tell their personality, skills, interests, priorities, beliefs, and more. Plus, you can use it to generate conflict, provide a route to goals and dreams, and showcase key relationships. If you need a guide to finding and describing the perfect job for your character that will further the story, this is it!

Every story starts with a character motivated by a need and a goal that can resolve it. Physical obstacles, adversaries, moral dilemmas, deep-seated doubts and personal struggles…conflict keeps the plot fresh, challenges characters as they traverse their arc, builds tension and high stakes, and most importantly, keeps readers emotionally invested from beginning to end.

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Volume 2) explores more ways to activate story conflict and tension and serves up 115 more scenarios that lead to power struggles, lost advantages, dangers, threats, ego-related conflicts, and more. Use this guide to plot fresh challenges and story problems that will trip your characters up and force them to strive harder to win.