The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression (Second Edition) (Writers Helping Writers Series)

I bought this as a gift for a budding author in the family after doing some research on helpful tools for writers — and it did not disappoint. I flipped through it before wrapping it up, and honestly, I was tempted to buy a copy for myself! It’s incredibly well-organized and helps writers find just the right way to express emotions through actions and descriptions, rather than falling back on repetitive words. The person I gave it to was ecstatic — it was exactly the kind of resource he didn’t know he needed. The quality and content make it feel like a meaningful and useful gift, not just a novelty. Highly giftable, super practical, and perfect for any aspiring (or experienced) writer looking to level up their character work.

If you're a writer, this book is a must-read. In fact, it's an essential reference for my own work. Beautifully designed, this book delivers an abundance of ideas and insights for any writing project. I'd give it ten stars if I could.

In addition to adding 55 new emotion entries, the authors expanded the introductory material to include a much more detailed discussion of writing scenes that draw a reader in through the emotional cues, verbal and non-verbal, and using in-depth knowledge of our characters to write scenes in which their reactions are believable and compelling. Knowing our characters includes knowing what their baseline reactions are - are they loud or quiet, outgoing or shy, mouthy or polite - knowing the baseline allows us to present a range of reactions to different situations. In addition to these valuable additions, one of the ways this edition differs from the original is that in the original, there was a list of ways an emotion could escalate, and now, that list has been updated and there is also a new list of ways an emotion can de-escalate. There is also a list of power verbs associated with each entry that will prove extremely helpful in writing emotion. The writer's tips have also been updated for each entry, and I'm happy I have both editions so that I can compare the two when I'm stuck and find nuggets of wisdom in each. With all the new entries, updated entries, and in-depth writing advice in the introductory material, this edition is well-worth keeping on your writing shelf. I can also see it being a help for counseling professionals and others who deal with emotion in real life. The authors have likely put hundreds of hours into researching the emotions listed, and it shows.

I have a friend who is a writer. I am all about emotion and deep thinking. She stated once she has a problem with emotion in her writing. I got her this book and she LOVED it. It explains the emotion, and some examples of how it would look in writing, both emotionally, expression wise and physically.

Love this thesaurus for showing emotions without actually writing them. It gives bunch of examples of ways to express them. The book came a bent unfortunately. Still usable but if I’m spending money I would like a perfect book. It’s a shame it came that way. Better packaging can prevent this outcome.

This book is a very good resource. I struggle with conveying emotion in my writing and this book has helped me improve significantly in that area! I recommend it to any prose writer!

Someone in my writing group recommended this to help me “show, don’t tell” and wow, this is soooo good at giving me ideas. Lots of suggestions, most of them good, a few of them that miss the mark, but if you’re stuck, look at the emotion you want and you will give you plenty of ideas.

Great resource when you want to find just the right way to describe an emotion. I love that this book gives you all kinds of options, what you see, what the character feels, and more! I'm glad I bought a hard copy rather than electronic so it's at my fingertips while I'm writing on my computer.

Amazing book...

Ottimo

Fantastic resource to use during the editing phase.

It has everything a writer would want to be able to show a characters emotions perfectly. I love it! Thank you ☺️❤️

Emotion is really important in writing fiction; it powers characters and scenes, is at the heart of every story that matters, and is key to getting your readers to feel and to care about your characters. So writing emotion well is really important, and THE EMOTION THESAURUS can help you with that. I loved THE EMOTION THESAURUS, first edition – but the second edition is even better. It has so many more emotions and so many more valuable tips on technique – 130 expanded entries in total. The first edition covered 75 emotion entries; this new edition covers 130 emotions (and the body language cues, thoughts, and physical responses), as well as connections between the emotions. If you’re a writer, this is a book you will want to have on your bookshelf or next to you while you edit. For instance, in a new manuscript I’m working on I was in a scene where my character is panicking. I know how I feel when I panic, but I wanted to make sure that some of it not only matched, but also write the panic slightly differently for this character than another in the same book. Panic isn’t addressed in the first edition, so I was happy to see it was in the second edition. And I was even more happy to see that the body language I’d written for my panicking character not only fit, but also moved into terror, which I’d written intuitively. On each spread for an emotion, Ackerman and Puglisi not only list the body language someone might show for that emotion, but also the internal sensations, mental responses, acute or long-term responses that might happen if you keep experiencing that emotion at that level, signs the emotion is being suppressed, and–one of the most useful sections–what that emotion may escalate to (panic to hysteria, paranoia, or terror) and the corresponding pages, or deescalate to (panic to anxiety, dread, fear, sadness, unease, and worry). The thesaurus works to make you think about the ways you react when you feel something, how your character might respond (some people suppress emotion, others express it easily), and add to what is there in the thesaurus, making it your own. On every emotion spread there are short, helpful writer’s tips; for Panic, it was: “To dig deeper into a character, think about shame. What makes them feel this painful emotion? Drill down to important backstory to understand what happened, and then make them face their shame on the page.” Want to delve more into the writing technique of using emotion? THE EMOTION THESAURUS has that, too. There are some great articles in the beginning of the book, including on how to use dialogue to write emotion; using subtext; additional ideas for brainstorming emotion; and of course how to use THE EMOTION THESAURUS. THE EMOTION THESAURUS, 2nd edition, is a truly useful tool for writers, prompting us to think and write more deeply about emotion, and keep our readers reading. I already had the first edition, but I bought the second edition as soon as it came out. I think I write emotions well, but I always want to make my writing better, and be encouraged to think more about how to make my writing MINE. Highly recommended!