How Does This Feel?

For any writer whose agonized over every action, every thought, every word in their manuscript, the frustration of finding these words scrawled on it, "How Does This Feel?" or "How did he feel," or "What did this feel like?" could make anyone want to rend your clothing (okay not literally) I know its an editor's or agent's way to get us to think, to show not tell, but you think to yourself I thought I did.

Recently I was introduced to a wonderful, amazing, fantastic, marvelous, simplistic (too much?) book. I love synonyms and antonyms and instantly fell in love with The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression. by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman

In their brief intro, (which I loved for its brevity becuase I wanted to get straight to the meat of the book) they go over the importance of balance, stressing not to rely too heavily on anyone method in your writing, less is more. Emotion, what a wondorous, commanding, sometimes awful sensation. But it is most powerful when both verbal and nonverbal communication is employed. And always consider your setting to create organic and unique emotional responses.

Becca and Angela caution to be wary of these things:

* Backstory = empathy - but don't include too much backstory, it could slow down the
action if not done right.
* Dialogue and thoughts - This as another great way to convey the way a character is
feeling.
* Melodrama - To avoid melodrama recognize emotions run along a contiuum of mild to
extreme and write accordingly
* Cliches - We all know them, find a different way to say "His grin stretched from
ear to ear" or "A single tear pooled in the corner of her eye and then
coursed down her cheek." They've been over used.
* Telling - And of course we've all heard, SHOW DON'T TELL. Which can be so very,
very hard sometimes.

With 75 different emotional descriptions, the authors do a good job of helping us out so we don't have to rely on over used phrases, reactions, and scenes. I highly recommend checking this book out. In my humble opinion, it will only help your writing improve. I know mine has.

Check out the Authors' blog here for more great writing tips or use the link on the side. http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/p/the-emotion-thesaurus.html