book review – Almost An Author

My Best Tool for Describing My Characters’ Emotions

Do you struggle to find the right words to describe your characters’ emotions? I certainly do. Description and portraying emotions are not my strong suit. Since I know this is a weakness, I’ve looked for tools that help me improve this skill.

My best writer’s tool for helping me over this hurdle is The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Expression by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi.

What is an emotion thesaurus, and why do you need one?

The blurb on the back cover reads:

One of the biggest problem areas for writers is conveying emotion to the reader in a unique, compelling way. When showing our characters’ feelings, we often grab onto the first idea that comes to mind, and out characters end up smiling, shrugging, nodding, and frowning far too much.

Guilty as charged!

My first drafts contain far too many instances where characters are shrugging, smiling, nodding and frowning. That is why the emotion thesaurus is so helpful.

What does The Emotional Thesaurus offer?

This extremely practical book provides an alphabetical listing of 75 emotions from Adoration to Worry. Each emotion provides a two-page spread listing the following information:

A definition of this emotion
Physical signals (bouncing a foot, fanning oneself, a scathing tone…)
Internal sensations (fatigue, heat rising behind the eyelids, grinding one’s teeth)
Mental responses (irrational reactions, self-loathing, a lack of concentration)
Cues that this emotion is acute or long-term (an inability to move on, failing grades)
Cues this emotion is being suppressed (sitting unnaturally still, smoothing one’s clothing)
A list of emotions this emotion might escalate to (For example, disgust could move to scorn, fear, or anger.)
A writer’s tip related to the emotion.

That’s a lot of very useful information packed into two pages!

How can The Emotion Thesaurus help you?

One of the basic writing mantras is “Show, Don’t Tell.” The Emotion Thesaurus helps us do exactly that, giving us words to show a person’s anger with actions like sharp gestures, cutting people off when they speak, or flaring nostrils.

In addition, the authors point out that majority of communication between people occurs with nonverbal signals. Therefore, dialogue alone can’t portray all a reader needs to know to experience a scene. It’s critical to include emotional details in our writing via descriptive language and action.

Learning to describe character emotions in specific and compelling ways will also help us avoid writing pitfalls such as reliance on cliches (mad as a hornet, steam coming out his ears, quivering knees that knock together).

And with 75 emotions to choose from, the book helps us select emotions of the proper intensity for the scene, thus avoiding melodrama (emotions that feel too intense) or monotony (where all emotions remain the same intensity instead of rising and falling like real life).

I hope I’ve convinced you how useful this book can be. Now, excuse me while I follow my own advice and replace some of the smiling, nodding, shrugging and frowning with more interesting and compelling descriptions.

But wait, there’s more!

The Emotion Thesaurus concept proved so popular that the authors have adapted it to cover other subjects, such as:

Positive and negative traits
Conflicts and wounds
Setting

You can find more about The Emotional Thesaurus and all the companion products at the authors’ website, Writers Helping Writers.

If you want to take your emotional descriptions to the next level, I suggest you get a copy of The Emotional Thesaurus today.

Lisa E. Betz is an engineer-turned-mystery-writer, entertaining speaker, and unconventional soul. She inspires others to become their best selves, living with authenticity, and purpose, and she infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her Livia Aemilia Mysteries, set in first-century Rome, have won several awards, including the Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021).

She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in her novels. Lisa directs church dramas, hikes the beautiful Pennsylvania woods, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit lisaebetz.com.

Double Cross by DiAnn Mills

Plot Summary:

FBI Agent Laurel Evertson’s investigation in to a scam targeting the elderly takes an unexpected twist when key evidence leads her to Morton Wilmington, a felon she arrested five years ago on her first undercover assignment. That case has haunted her since, and though she’s vowed to forget Wilmington–and what she sacrificed to put him away–he is now her best lead.

Houston Police Officer Daniel Hilton fears his grandparents may be the scammer’s next targets, and he’ll do anything to protect his family–even force interagency cooperation. But he’s quickly drawn to laurel’s empathy and zeal and agrees to follow her lead…even if it means teaming up with a felon.

As the unlikely trio uncovers evidence suggesting the scam is more extensive and deadly than they imagined, both Laurel and Daniel find themselves in the crosshairs of a killer. Together they must decide if they can trust Wilmington’s claims of redemption, or if he’s leading them straight into a double cross.

[bctt tweet=”As the unlikely trio uncovers evidence suggesting the scam is more extensive and deadly than they imagined, both Laurel and Daniel find themselves in the crosshairs of a killer. “]

Publisher Information:

Genre:

Romantic suspense

Characterization Critique:

Most of the characters are very believable. The major characters are Laurel, the FBI agent, Daniel Hilton, the Houston PD officer, Morton Wilmington, the reformed crook, who was sprung from prison early so he could help with the investigation, and Daniel’s grandparents, Abby and Earl Hilton.

Supporting cast includes Marsha Leonard, the director of Silver Hospitality, a senior center where the elder Hiltons spend their days. Two additional characters include FBI agents, Thatcher Graves, who will become the focus of the third book, and Liz Austin, an employee of Silver Hospitality who keeps coming on to Daniel.

The interaction between the three major characters, Daniel, Laurel, and Morton is interesting reading. Daniel, who is Christian, still suspects Morton’s faith is “jailhouse” faith, something to say to get him released from prison. Laurel, who has trouble believing in a God who would allow her parents to be murdered, never believes Morton was really converted. Morton is portrayed as much as possible, as a real Christian, who is not perfect, but who makes the effort. In the end, well, I won’t spoil it for you.

Plot Development:

It generally moved along well. DiAnn is usually noted for unusual twists, but in this case, she was a little too obvious about who the real culprit was, even though that character didn’t “seem” to be the guilty party. It wasn’t apparent at first, but as the characters voiced their suspicions, it was almost a letdown when the truth was revealed, because it had already been suspected.

Other than that, I thought there was enough excitement to sustain reading.

[bctt tweet=”The three major characters move from one problem to the next, trying to solve the mystery.”]

What I Liked:

I like that DiAnn creates stories and characters who seem real and who struggle with self-esteem issues, just like all of us do. She also tackled the issue of Alzheimer’s within the parameters of the plot and character development in the story. There are no easy answers, and the grandfather, Earl Hilton, has his good times and his wooly thinking times. A reader favorite (from posted reviews) is Abby, Daniel’s grandmother, who seems to take Earl’s condition in stride, never seemingly frustrated or angry herself that her husband slips by inches.

What I Didn’t Like:

There wasn’t much I didn’t like. Like I said in the plot development section, I wasn’t surprised at who the person behind the conspiracy was, because there had been much suspicion cast on this person already, whereas in Firewall, whew! Didn’t see that one coming at all.