The bestselling Emotion Thesaurus, often hailed as “the gold standard for writers” and credited with transforming how writers craft emotion, has now been expanded to include 55 new entries!

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.

If you need inspiration for creating characters’ emotional responses that are personalized and evocative, this ultimate show-don’t-tell guide for emotion can help. It includes:

• Body language cues, thoughts, and visceral responses for 130 emotions that cover a range of intensity from mild to severe, providing innumerable options for individualizing a character’s reactions
• A breakdown of the biggest emotion-related writing problems and how to overcome them
• Advice on what should be done beforedrafting to make sure your characters’ emotions will be realistic and consistent
• Instruction for how to show hidden feelings and emotional subtext through dialogue and nonverbal cues
• And much more!

The Emotion Thesaurus, in its easy-to-navigate list format, will inspire you to create stronger, fresher character expressions and engage readers from your first page to your last.

Every story starts with a character who is motivated by a need and has a goal that can resolve it. Whether their objective is to find a life partner, bring a killer to justice, overthrow a cruel regime, or something else, conflict transforms a story premise into something fresh. Physical obstacles, adversaries, moral dilemmas, deep-seated doubts and personal struggles…these not only block a character’s external progress, they become a gateway for internal growth. The right conflict will build tension and high stakes, challenge characters as they traverse their arcs, and most importantly, keep readers emotionally invested from beginning to end.

Inside Volume 1 of The Conflict Thesaurus, you’ll find:

• A myriad of conflict options in the form of relationship friction, failures and mistakes, moral dilemmas and temptations, pressure and ticking clocks, and no-win scenarios
• An analysis of each scenario that maps out possible complications and catastrophes, internal struggles, and the stressful impacts on a character’s basic human needs
• Guidance on using conflict to influence your protagonist's character arc through opportunities for failure and success
• Master class instruction on internal conflict: what it is, why it's important, and how to incorporate it at the scene and story levels
• Information about the role conflict plays in generating high stakes that are personally significant to the character, upping the tension for readers
• A breakdown of the various adversaries your character might encounter along the way

Don't give your character a break. Keep the hits coming with a variety of obstacles that will force them to work harder to get what they want. With over 100 entries arranged in a user-friendly format, The Conflict Thesaurus is the guide you need to write intense and satisfying fiction readers won’t forget.

What if there was a shortcut for helping readers get to know your characters? Would you take it? 

Characters are as complex as people and revealing their inner layers without chunky blocks of pace-stopping description is a challenge. The Occupation Thesaurus can help you unlock one of the best tools in your show-don’t-tell writing kit: a character’s job. 

Occupations are part of our everyday world, meaning they can be used to encourage readers to make associations between a type of work and the person doing it, shortening the “get to know the character” curve. Whether a person loves or hates what they do, a job can reveal many things, including their priorities, beliefs, desires, and needs. The Occupation Thesaurus will show you how a career choice can characterize, drive the plot, infuse scenes with conflict, and get readers on the character’s side through the relatable pressures, responsibilities, and stakes inherent with work.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX REGARDING CAREER OPTIONS

Select a job that packs a powerful punch. Inside The Occupation Thesaurus, you’ll find: 

• Informative profiles on popular and unusual jobs to help you write them with authority 
• Believable conflict scenarios for each occupation, giving you unlimited possibilities for adding tension at the story and scene level
• Advice for twisting the stereotypes often associated with these professions 
• Instruction on how to use jobs to characterize, support story structure, reinforce theme, and more 
• An in-depth study on how emotional wounds and basic human needs may influence a character’s choice of occupation 
• A brainstorming tool to organize the various aspects of your character’s personality so you can come up with the best careers for them 

Do more with your description and choose a profession for your character that showcases who they are, what they want, and what they believe in. With over 120 entries in a user-friendly format, The Occupation Thesaurus is an entire job fair for writers. 

Did you know there's a SECOND EDITION of The Emotion Thesaurus? Find it by clicking the author's names.

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.