Review of The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Peglisi

The Emotion Thesaurus is the key to accurately portraying emotion and state of mind in a character's thoughts, sensations, and behavior.

There are 130 entries, each a different emotion. Entries include the following topics:

• Definition of the emotion
• Physical signs and behaviors
• Internal sensations
• Mental responses
• Acute or long-term responses
• Signs that this emotion is being suppressed
• May escalate to
• May de-escalate to
• Associated power verbs

Writing the depth of emotion is difficult and showing a character's emotional state at times feels impossible. This book helps express emotion not only in the point-of-view character but also surrounding characters that the main character is interacting with.

Emotion is expressed in subtle behaviors that many people recognize. Displaying this emotion is far better than stating what emotion the character is feeling. But it's difficult. This book eases that.

I have used both the first and second editions, and the second edition is far superior. It offers more information per entry and nearly twice as many entries. It is the version I purchased.

I've found The Emotion Thesaurus to be invaluable as I write. I recommend it to all writers.

Photo Credit Katherine Elizabeth

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