Bøker av Angela Ackerman

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 scenariosAn analysis of each scenario that maps out possible complications and catastrophes, internal struggles, and the stressful impacts on a character's basic human needsGuidance on using conflict to influence your protagonist's character arc through opportunities for failure and successMaster class instruction on internal conflict: what it is, why it's important, and how to incorporate it at the scene and story levelsInformation about the role conflict plays in generating high stakes that are personally significant to the character, upping the tension for readersA breakdown of the various adversaries your character might encounter along the wayDon'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.

Readers connect to characters with depth, ones who have experienced life''s ups and downs. To deliver key players that are both realistic and compelling, writers must know them intimately-not only who they are in the present story, but also what made them that way. Of all the formative experiences in a character''s past, none are more destructive than emotional wounds. The aftershocks of trauma can change who they are, alter what they believe, and sabotage their ability to achieve meaningful goals, all of which will affect the trajectory of your story.Identifying the backstory wound is crucial to understanding how it will shape your character''s behavior, and The Emotional Wound Thesaurus can help. Inside, you''ll find:A database of traumatic situations common to the human experienceAn in-depth study on a wound''s impact, including the fears, lies, personality shifts, and dysfunctional behaviors that can arise from different painful eventsAn extensive analysis of character arc and how the wound and any resulting unmet needs fit into itTechniques on how to show the past experience to readers in a way that is both engaging and revelatory while avoiding the pitfalls of info dumps and tellingA showcase of popular characters and how their traumatic experiences reshaped them, leading to very specific story goalsA Backstory Wound Profile tool that will enable you to document your characters'' negative past experiences and the aftereffects Root your characters in reality by giving them an authentic wound that causes difficulties and prompts them to strive for inner growth to overcome it. With its easy-to-read format and over 100 entries packed with information, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is a crash course in psychology for creating characters that feel incredibly real to readers.

A story where the character gets exactly what they want doesn't make for good reading. But add villainous clashes, lost advantages, power struggles, and menacing threats...well, now we have the makings of a page-turner. Conflict is the golden thread that binds plot to arc, providing the complications, setbacks, and derailments that make the character's inner and outer journeys dynamic. Inside Volume 2 of The Conflict Thesaurus, you'll find: A myriad of conflict options in the form of power struggles, ego-related stressors, dangers and threats, advantage and control losses, and other miscellaneous challengesInformation on how each scenario should hinder the character on the path to their goal so they'll learn valuable life lessons and gain insight into what's holding them back internallyInstruction about using the multiple levels of conflict to add pressure through immediate, scene-level challenges and looming problems that take time to solveGuidance on keeping a story's central conflict in the spotlight and utilizing subplots effectively so they work with-not against-the main plotlineAn exploration of the climax and how to make this pinnacle event highly satisfying for readersWays to use conflict to deepen your story, facilitate epic adversarial showdowns, give your characters agency, and infuse every scene with tensionMeaningful conflict can be so much more than a series of roadblocks. Challenge your characters inside and out with over 100 tension-inducing scenarios in this second volume of The Conflict Thesaurus. And for more instruction on how to use this element to enhance your story (and an additional 100+ conflict scenarios), check out The Conflict Thesaurus, Volume 1.

"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 challeng. 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 to "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."--Publisher's description.

Making readers care and feel like they're part of the story should be the number one goal for all writers. Ironically, many storytellers fail to maximize one of fiction's most powerful elements to achieve this: the setting. Not only can the right location become a conduit for emotion, it can also provide conflict, characterize the story's cast, reveal significant backstory, and trigger the reader's own emotional memories through sensory details and deep point of view. Inside The Urban Thesaurus, you'll find: A list of the sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds for over 120 urban settingsPossible sources of conflict for each location to help you brainstorm ways to naturally complicate matters for your charactersAdvice on how to make every piece of description count so you can maintain the right pace and keep readers engagedTips on utilizing the five senses to encourage readers to more fully experience each moment by triggering their own emotional memoriesInformation on how to use the setting to characterize a story's cast through personalization and emotional values while using emotional triggers to steer their decisionsA review of specific challenges that arise when writing urban locations, along with common descriptive pitfalls that should be avoidedDownloadable tools to help you plan each setting so you can choose the right one for a scene, providing the biggest storytelling punchThe Urban Setting Thesaurus helps you tailor each setting to your characters while creating a realistic, textured world readers will long to return to, even after the book closes.